Scholarships for non-scholars: Paying for college when you're not an all-star athlete or a super-student

Marketwatch reports:

It often seems that the star athlete, musical prodigy or class valedictorian has a lock on lucrative college scholarships. Yet there are ways to get financial assistance for higher education even if a student isn't team captain or doesn't make the grade on academic merit.

Many universities and private sponsors make scholarship money available to students who don't particularly excel on the field or in the classroom. In fact, less than 1% of students receive athletic scholarships, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of college financial-information Web sites FinAid.com and FastWeb.com.