Are you ready for the BIG GAME?  I’m not talking about the Super Bowl, I’m talking about the college admissions process.  Just like the Super Bowl, the college admissions process can be both exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  One aspect of this event that makes families most anxious is the search for scholarships.  Here are four tips that will help you score the most college cash:

1. Most students benefit best from local scholarships – The first place that students should look for scholarships is their school.  In some schools there are individuals who are dedicated to helping students with the college scholarship search.  Even if this person doesn’t exist in your school environment, make contact with your counselor to learn about scholarship opportunities.  In fact, this leads nicely to point #2.
2. You help yourself when you get to know your counselor – There were numerous times when I was called on to nominate a student for a possible college award.  The students who were most often mentioned were those who I had the chance to get to know and who took the time to let me know who they were.
3. A lot of scholarships go unclaimed and other scholarships have little to no competition – I’ve written before about scholarships that had a shockingly low number of applicants and I have just been made aware of another $10,000 award that had 6 students vying for it.
4. Following the instructions on the scholarship application will often give you an easy advantage  – As a scholarship committee member in the past, I have been amazed by the way that some students seemingly totally disregarded the instructions given.  If there is a tight competition and the readers need some type of distinguishing factor, the award will likely go to the applicant who followed the directions.

If you follow the tips above, you will be poised to be a scholarship winner.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download