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Scholarships
Applying for scholarships is the most time consuming part of applying to college - by far! And I'm granting an exception to my "no outside help" rule on this one. It's okay to ask for and receive some help when it comes to applying for scholarships - you should, however, still do most of it yourself.To give yourself enough time to adequately prepare and submit all the scholarship applications you will likely fill out, you will need to plan ahead. If possible, start during your JUNIOR YEAR. Although the information may change some by your senior year, you'll have the deadline, a copy of the application, and a person to contact to get more information. This will give you a good idea what to expect next year from that scholarship, and you'll be able to request information early in your senior year. If you already know what you want to go in to, try searching online for scholarships that are specific to your degree. For example, if you want to go into business you can search for terms like Marketing or Management that will target the degree you need. You can also see if they offer any type of scholarship of financial aid
One strategy I suggest you try is to locate someone in the class above you who will be applying for numerous scholarships (the more like you they are, the better - major, college choices, GPA, ACT/SAT, etc.), and offer to help them find scholarships. In return, after they're done with everything, they agree to pass it along to you. There are also a bunch of other articles I've written on money for college here from my other web site, College Answer Guy. You can work together or independently, but you will both search in magazines aimed at teens, check with local organizations that might award scholarships, contact professional organizations related to your major, scour the Internet for information, check out scholarship books from the library, obviously check your colleges' web sites, and most importantly, stay in touch with your high school counselor. Also check with your church (if applicable) at the local, regional and national level. Your counselor will be your best friend in this process. Much of the information on local scholarships will come through your counselor, but you'll also need recommendation letters, will want to have them read over your essays and responses, and they may want to know what you've done in this area. If you're smart (and nice), you'll offer to help your counselor with anything to do with scholarships and/or college admission for all of his/her students. You could offer to type their newsletter, update the counseling web page, make announcements, distribute applications to your classmates, etc. That way you'll be among the first to know about everything new. Some other helpful hints include:
Below are a few links to organizations and/or scholarships I'm aware of. I'll add some occasionally, but there's no point trying to compete with Fastweb... Fastweb - should be one of your first stops on the Internet for information about and a connection to scholarships, their requirements, deadlines, and the application procedures. Scholarships.com - Here you find scholarships and the colleges find you. CollegeBoard - The home of the folks who bring you the SAT, PSAT, AP, CLEP, and many other good things, including an area of their site dedicated to Scholarships and grants. The CrazyGames.com Game Development Scholarship - this $1,500 scholarship is provided by GrazyGames.com for those majoring or planning on majoring in Computer Science or a computer-related major and hoping to go into the Gaming industry. Women Techmakers Scholars Program - Google hopes to encourage women to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders in the field. Applicants must satisfy all of the following criteria to be eligible:
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