How to Apply for the Walmart Scholarship Fund

Last year, the Walmart Foundation awarded more than $8 million in scholarships to 2,695 lucky recipients. If you’re interested in applying for one of these scholarships, here’s what you need to know.

Walmart offers several different scholarships to help you pay for college. The Sam Walton Community Scholarship is open to graduating high school seniors with at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA, who can demonstrate financial need. To be eligible for a one-off grant of $3,000, you must be a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident and about to enroll in a two- or four-year college. Scholarship applications for the 2010 academic year will be available in November.

Walmart employees and their children are not eligible for the Sam Walton Community Scholarship. If you or a parent works at a Walmart store, you should apply for the Walmart Associate Scholarship, instead. The academic qualifications are the same as above. In addition to this, you or your parent must be actively employed at Walmart for at least six consecutive months.

Dependents of Walmart employees can also apply for the Walton Family Foundation Scholarship. To qualify, you must get at least a 22 Composite ACT or 1030 SAT score. The maximum amount awarded through this scholarship is $13,000.

For those who’ve been out of school for at least a year but would like to go to college, Walmart offers the Higher Reach Scholarship. To qualify, you must have graduated high school or received a GED before August 1, 2008. This scholarship is designed to help Walmart associates who are not traditional students.

In addition to these general scholarships, Walmart supports Hispanic students via the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. The scholarship is open to four-year undergraduate and graduate students of Hispanic heritage who have a minimum of 3.0 cumulative GPA. The maximum award available is $2,500. To apply, you must be enrolled in college full time as a sophomore, junior, senior, 1st or 2nd year Masters student. You must also be studying business, marketing, finance or engineering. To apply go to www.HSF.net/Scholarships.