Spring Means Scholarships!
Spring is approaching, which means so are scholarship deadlines! According to thescholarshipsystem.com, “the next major scholarship season is spring, which is generally considered to include January through May based on school schedules. However, March plays an unusually large role this time of year when it comes to scholarship deadlines.” If you are a high school or college student, scholarships can be extremely helpful in securing financial aid. Over my experiences with scholarship applications, I’ve picked up several methods for applying to scholarships and maximizing your chances of receiving a scholarship.
1.Start looking early!
If you are looking to apply for scholarships, start looking early! While scholarships are offered year-round, it is always good to have a window in which you will be applying for scholarships. In my experience, I’ve noticed that many scholarship applications tend to be due at the beginning, middle, or end of the month. With this in mind, I’ll set aside a week or even two solely dedicated to looking for scholarships and then focus on applying near the beginning or middle of the month, close to the application date. While I am naturally a procrastinator, so I tend to apply closer to the deadline, I strongly encourage targeting scholarships months before the due date and working on the application over the course of a few weeks or months. I’ve managed to learn from the procrastination, and while it can be a difficult cycle to break, it will serve you immensely in the future if you dedicate extensive time to applications.
2. Maintain (and update) an organizational system
The sheer number of scholarship deadlines and opportunities can feel overwhelming to grapple with, and many tend to slip through the cracks in pursuit of other opportunities. Personally, I can’t count the number of obsolete scholarship spreadsheets residing on my laptop. I tend to compile a list of scholarships, but then I forget about the spreadsheet during a busy week, which happens frequently. This leads to my next suggestion: create an organizational system. However, don’t just make any system! As shown by my spreadsheet example, a list on a spreadsheet might be a good place to start recording scholarships, but there is no incentive for me to return to that list in the future. It depends what works for you, but I’ve decided to maintain a new system that will actually give me an incentive to continue the scholarship search. For me, this looks like trying out new software which allows me to list out scholarship information that is more eye-catching and permanent than a plain spreadsheet. Secondly, update your organizational system! Back to my first point, if it isn’t engaging to you, you will not return to the method later. In addition to updating your list with new scholarship opportunities, it can be helpful to track your progress on scholarships that you are currently working on and add helpful links to scholarship websites and academic resources onto your list as well. Overall, having a concrete, frequently updated, and most importantly, engaging, organizational system or list will allow the plethora of scholarship opportunities to stay on your mind.
3. Utilize available resources
When I entered college, I thought that my opportunities to receive scholarship guidance would be more limited since I wasn’t regularly meeting with a high school counselor or receiving college advice. However, I have since learned that many colleges have departments and/or resources to help with many aspects of scholarship applications. For example, if your school has a career center or writing center, they will likely be able to point you toward specific scholarships and help improve any scholarship essays or materials. Even if your school doesn’t have many established resources on campus, the school’s website can give you resources to succeed. Not to mention, many schools have alumni scholarships or other scholarships for students in a specific program or school. Many of the services I have encountered are provided at no additional cost to students. Having an academic advisor or other mentor within your school community can also provide with motivation that you may not have otherwise. These resources aren’t always advertised widely, so you may need to do some research or talking with others to find out the correct information. You aren’t in this alone!
4. Be specific in your search
While it is good to cast a wide net when searching for scholarships, this should only lead to narrowing down your search to fit your specifics. For example: searching “engineering scholarships” will be much less helpful than searching “engineering academic scholarships for college juniors”. Oftentimes, scholarships will have several criteria that applicants must meet, so think about your experience or traits and use that to nail down scholarships that you will have a better chance of winning. Whether you are looking for merit or need-based scholarships (or both), you can not only save yourself time but also spare yourself rejection by being specific about what you are looking for.
Scholarship application season can be extremely tedious on top of other commitments, and it may be discouraging since the chances of receiving many scholarships are slim, but using the tips above, you can slowly progress toward finding what works best for you!
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Written by Paige Gerling
