Preparing a well-written scholarship application is often a difficult process. This post includes ten essential tips for perfecting your scholarship application. The tips included here will help you meet the deadlines, please the scholarship sponsor, perfect your essay and more!
- Identify and Meet the sponsor’s goals. Who wins scholarships? The student who best meets the sponsor’s formal and informal requirements. Therefore, to win a scholarship, you need to meet a sponsor’s goals. As simple as this may seem, many students simply meet the sponsors bare requirements and hope for the best. Do not do this! Read through all the scholarship information watching for details and clues about what the sponsor’s formal and informal requirements. By meeting the sponsor’s goals you increase you chance of winning exponentially!
- Participate in extracurricular activities. Surprisingly, most scholarship committees do not simply choose the student with the highest grade point average (GPA) or SAT score. Instead, most scholarships are equally interested in a students extracurricular activities. Is he involved in his community? Does he have an after-school job? Did he start his own business? What hobbies does he have? The scholarship coordinators are interested in giving the award to the person they consider the most well-rounded student. Grades are important, but they are only half the story. Therefore, it is to your advantage to participate in extracurricular activites. Join 4-H. Volunteer at your local library. Start a business. Find a hobby. All these activities will help make you stand out to scholarship sponsors.
- Watch the deadline like a hawk. We will never know how much scholarship money is lost simply because the applicant missed the deadline. When students are applying to many scholarships at once it is easy to confuse the deadlines and send the applications on the wrong date. To avoid this danger, students should keep a calendar either on paper or online. On you calendar, write the name of each scholarship in red on its deadline, and in black one week before the deadline. Try to get scholarship applications in before the black (early) deadline but make sure that you get it in before the red (final) deadline.
- Proofread your application one more time. How can you increase your chance of winning in under 5 minutes? By proofreading your application. Most scholarship committees do not even consider scholarship applications that have major blunders. Did you get your address right? Did you get the scholarship name right? What about the coordinator’s name? Once you have verified the information on the application, read through you essay once more. Are their any major spelling errors? What about grammar errors? Is the header of the essay formatted correctly? Simply spending a little more time can vastly increase your chance of winning.
- Search, Search, SEARCH! Persistence is the key to getting a scholarship. Finding good scholarships is often a difficult job. I know for myself, when I have spent two hours looking through scholarships without finding one for me, I feel like giving up. Don’t. You can stop for the day if you get too tired, but keep on looking the next day. Think of it this way. The harder a time you have finding a scholarship; the less competition you will have! So, keep on looking and eventually you should get a scholarship.
- Organize your surroundings and your time. Keeping organized is one of the most important habits all college students should develop. It helps with study time. It helps with scholarships. When your surroundings are organized, is easy to concentrate on your application. On the other hand, when your surroundings are disordered, it is easy to get distracted or loose important papers. Organizing your time is equally important. When your time is well-scheduled, you can reduce “dead time” and meet your deadlines. However, when your time is not ordered, it is easy to miss important deadlines or schedule two things for the same time. Keep organized!
- Watch for scholarship scams. Sadly, there are many scam artists who try to make money off gullible students. College scholars loose millions of dollars every year to these scholarship scams! That is the bad news. Now, here is the good news – most scholarship scams are easily recognizable … if you know the signs. The cardinal rule of scholarship scams is: “If it takes money to get money, it is probably a scam.” After all, aren’t scholarship sponsors supposed to be giving you money? Strictly following this rule will help you escape most scams, but some scams are not so easily caught. Certain scholarship scams do not ask for money. Instead, they request personal information, so they can commit identity theft or other crimes! For more information on avoiding scholarship scams read my post on the “23 Warning Signs of Scholarship Scams“.
- Write an Accomplishments Resume. Often when writing scholarships, it is difficult to remember some important piece of information. The date that you started work at a certain job. Or what your boss said about your work. Looking for this information can break your concentration, lower your writing quality, and decrease your chance of winning the scholarship. Before you start applying for scholarships, write an accomplishment resume. On this resume include all the important information such as dates, a summary of your work, and recommendations. I have written my accomplishments resume online using LinkedIn. Because of the way LinkedIn works, it is easy to organize all the information and gather recommendations. By the way, if you do join LinkedIn, you are welcome to connect with me
. - Use concrete examples in essays. If the scholarship requires that you write an essay (and most do), don’t simply use abstract information – use concrete examples. For example, instead of writing an abstract essay about volunteering in college, write about your experiences while volunteering. This is an excellent time to use your accomplishments resume. Scholarship sponsors want to hear about you and your experiences, not about some abstract topic.
- Double check the eligibility requirements. Does the scholarship require demonstrated need? What about full-time enrollment? Or a minimum GPA? Double checking the eligibility requirements will save you time spent in writing unnecessary scholarship applications.
Armed with these ten must-have tips, you should be able to make your scholarship application and essay more noticeable to the scholarship evaluation committee. What are your favorite for scholarship applications tips?
Image credit: wobblyturkey
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Excellent post! I’ve talked about many of these ideas on my blog too.
I work as a newspaper reporter and my job includes getting the local scholarship notices in the paper. That means I see lists of almost every scholarship that students in my area actually win. I also happen to see the requirements as the civic clubs announce for this or that scholarship.
Now, where does one find those scholarships? Absolutely the first resource is your high school counselor’s office and the college financial aid office. Find out when, in your area, those local scholarship awards get posted. The high school and college people know first-hand which of their students are winning which awards, and why.
And if your newspaper does print those notices, find out what time of year or what day of the week those announcements are most likely to be posted.
Here is another tip: Accomplishments or service hours that you can record in the six months to two years before scholarship application season starts will be critical in impressing the committee who looks over the applications.
In my area of Monroe, Mich., the scholarship season application season is at its peak in January and February of high school senior year. In other words – after the college applications are due, but before students have seen the financial aid offers from the colleges.
Therefore it was in my daughter’s best interest to finish the work for her Girl Scout Gold Award in fall of senior year. Even though she did not get the pin and have her award ceremony until about two weeks before high school graduation, she was able to list the achievement on college and scholarship applications that were due much earlier.
I agree, working for newspapers is a great opportunity for scholarship searches. Right now I am reading a book that recommends volunteering in your high school’s financial aid office in order to have better access to scholarships…interesting ideas.
Thanks,
Nate
This is an excellent post with excellent advice! Every point is important.
Two thoughts –
Point #2 about extracurricular activities: Yes, being involved is important, but make sure that the involvement is sincere. Don’t just join a bunch of clubs or do activities just to add to your resume. Most scholarship organizations (and college admissions offices) can see through that. They’d often rather see a few quality activities, with real involvement, than just a long list. And if you’ve been limited in your involvement because you’ve needed to spend time working, say so – and tell what you’ve learned from your work experience. They understand.
Point #3 about deadlines: Yes, yes and yes! Deadlines matter. Deadlines can make all of the difference. Be on time! However, with that said, if you’ve missed the deadline, but you have everything ready, send it anyway. Something may happen. Maybe the pool of applicants is thin this year. Don’t count on anything happening, but give it a try.
Thanks for this excellent post. I hope many students take it to heart.
Vicki
@ Vicki
I agree with you on both points!
Extracurricular activities: If you participate in too much, it will look like you are not spending enough time on other parts of life (i.e. school work). Quality before quantity.
Deadlines: I had never thought of still turning in scholarship applications even if they are late. I do agree, even though you have a very small chance of winning at least it is a chance.
Thanks,
Nate
I would add another point. I think many scholarships look for real world experience. Solid internships and/or unusual life experiences should be highlighted in the scholarship application wherever possible.
Good tips. As far as #4, in addition to reading it yourself one more time it’s usually a good idea to have fresh eyes look it over as well. A parent, sibling, or friend will notice things that you do not.
@ Bill
I agree. I explained the importance of concrete examples in point # 9
@ HazardousPaste
Great point! I have often made the mistake of not having someone else read over my writing before I submit it.
Firstly, I just found this website and LOVE it! 8D
About searching for scholarships, I am going to start my Junior year of HS this fall and have a specific out of state school that I’d like to attend because of its programs.
How much time do you suggest looking for scholarships every day/week/month? Obviously Junior year is going to be very busy with SAT and AP classes. But I just think its silly to go to college and then leave drowning in debt.
@ Heather
Thank you for you kind comments.
You asked how much time a student should spend looking for scholarships during high school.
The answer really depends on the person. If you complete one scholarship every two weeks, you will be doing better than the vast majority of students. However, you must remember to keep quality before quantity. Submitting one quality scholarship will win you much more money than submitting 20 average scholarships. If you do not have time to write a quality scholarship submission every two weeks, extend the time limit – just remember to only submit high-quality scholarships.
Hope this helps!