Am I wasting my time searching for third-party scholarships for MPP programs?

[mppdanny]

I'm applying to MPP programs this fall. I've started trying to look for any non-loan funding options that I could apply for to help me pay for school and haven't really found anything yet. Am I wasting my time searching for other scholarships or am I just not looking in the right place?

[GradSchoolGrad]

This is a loaded question. Very very broadly speaking, if you are strong candidate, the schools should throw scholarships at you. However, if you seek to go in a niche area or have a niche background, there might be non-school related scholarships that are worth your time. I for example applied to and did not receive a Soros scholarship (for immigrants). A lot of these non school scholarships like to hear certain themes (you can see the themes from past winners), that are not necessarily performance related