Scholarship Tips
5 TIPS WHEN APPLYING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS:
There is money out there! Focus most of your attention on local scholarships and scholarships offered by the institution you plan to attend. Your odds of receiving one of these is much higher than some of the national awards.
Some things you should be doing IMMEDIATELY:
1. COMPLETE THE FAFSA or CASFA:
Use your parent’s tax info. https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa or https://cdhe.colorado.gov/students/preparing-for-college/colorado-application-for-state-financial-aid
Need help? Check with your high school and college you will be attending for free workshops and help.
2. WRITE AT LEAST TWO ESSAYS OF ABOUT 500 WORDS EACH:
You will tweak these to meet the requirements for the scholarship or college application, but should get these done now. These are pretty generic and should give you a good start. Here are some prompts for the Common Application https://www.commonapp.org/apply/essay-prompts
3. COMPLETE YOUR RESUME NOW:
Hand it to 3 different adults to write letters of recommendation for you. You should use 2 academic teachers – (math, science, English, social studies, world language), and one from an adult who would know you outside the classroom – athletic coach, church sponsor, boss at work.
4. PLAN FOR HOW YOU ARE GOING TO TACKLE SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS:
One night a week? every Sunday afternoon? You need a designated time where you spend a couple of hours and knock out 2 or 3 each time. ASK ONE OF YOUR PARENTS IF THEY WILL WORK ALONGSIDE OF YOU. You are more than likely very busy with school and activities. You will need to take the lead on this and say, “Sunday from 1-3 we are working on these 2 scholarships”. You write the essays and have your parent upload the essay and type in the name, address, phone #, class rank, etc. to the scholarship application.
5. CREATE A LIST OF SCHOLARSHIPS BY DEADLINE THAT YOU WILL WORK ON IN THE COMING WEEKS:
Search in these 4 places – Naviance which each of you have an account for, your home high school (and Warren Tech’s) website, and through each college you have applied to by accessing their scholarship page. Also check if your school has a scholarship drawer as some scholarships are only available in paper form.
Scholarship Tips Written By: Rich Straub