Transitioning from high school to college brings a lot of stress. Figuring out how to pay for college accounts for a significant amount that stress. I am a freshman this year at UMD. Receiving scholarships, such as Catch a Break!, reduced the pressure of worrying about how I was going to pay for everything. Between a mixture of renewable scholarships and smaller one time $500 scholarships, I earned enough scholarships my senior year to pay for my bachelor’s degree. Although filling out scholarship applications and writing essays added a lot to my already busy senior year schedule, I do not regret those well spent hours. And neither will you.
To get started on your scholarship search, get organized. I kept a notebook where I could write down scholarship deadlines and passwords. I also included scholarships I found that I would not be eligible for until later years. A calendar would also be a good alternative for keeping track of dates. The next step is finding scholarships. I tried various approaches. A simple way to start is just Google scholarships for your major or interests. A second resource is your school guidance counselor- or even other local schools’ websites. These will show you local scholarships that may be smaller in value but be less competitive. I even looked at the graduation program at my high school from the previous year. Every graduate’s scholarships they earned were listed in it. Another place to check is your potential colleges. A lot have merit scholarships, that you will not need to fill out an additional application for. However, a lot also have scholarships you must individually apply for. The last main place I searched was the scholarship search engines. I created accounts and looked through websites including Niche, Scholarship.com, Unigo, and Scholarship America. As I found scholarships, I would bookmark them in my Scholarship folder on my computer and write down their deadline in my notebook.
As you are filling out applications, it is worth your time to save a copy of everything in case you can reuse it for other scholarships. I found it crucial to create a list of my high school activities. This is good to have started since 9th grade so you do not forget activities you participated in or awards you won. You can then modify the list to showcase certain qualities depending on what each scholarship is looking for. I have heard that, often, scholarships are not looking for a jack of all trades, but a person with a pronounced passion. Do not be afraid to highlight your interests. Since I recycled bits of about half of the essays I typed, I found it very important to title essays not just for the scholarship, but also what the topic was so I could easily find the essay I wanted to edit.
Although always having “Scholarships” as a task on my planner every weekend for a year got on my nerves, I am happy I spent every minute working to check that task off. You will not get every scholarship you apply for, but you never know when you might. Even if you find a scholarship the day before it is due, just copy and paste one of your prewritten essays, modify it a little, and send it on its way. Find a teacher or two that are willing to write you letters of recommendation and make sure you give them time to write one before the deadline. You can get a lot more money typing an essay for two hours than any job you could ever work. Best of luck on your college and scholarship search!