From $50-$50,000 there are thousands upon thousands of scholarships available. These scholarships can either involve heavy paperwork like recommendation letters, official transcripts, and multiple essays, or require no paperwork at all. The beauty of scholarship searching is you can tailor your searches to match your interests. Another glorious aspect of scholarship hunting is that you may find one website that hosts hundreds of scholarships on its page, saving you time from looking for them individually. Here are some tips and tricks to scholarship hunting I've discovered on my own, as well as some basic information you should keep in mind:
1. Gathering Materials
This is essentially for the more heavy-duty scholarships that require paperwork. Before I plunge right into the details, I want to encourage participation in this type of scholarships. It's a natural response to cringe at a scholarship that requires a lot out of you, and it scares away a good number of applicants. This, however, works out in your favor because you have less competition for the scholarship, and these tend to be the higher-paying ones.
a. Recommendation Letters
I've found it time efficient to have teachers write one recommendation letter that is vague on who it is addressing "Bibi would be a great candidate for your scholarship". Notice how it does not specify who is hosting this scholarship? Because of this, I can continuously use a recommendation letter rather than ask the same teacher for multiple letters throughout the year for various scholarships.
To save even more time, I request that my teachers hand me a paper-version of the recommendation letter and ask them to place their signature. I will then scan the paper so that in the electronic version, a signature will be present on the letter. When asking for a letter, be sure to ask beforehand if your teacher has the school letterhead because that makes a recommendation look both official and professional.
b. Transcripts
Make sure you know who is in charge of printing and sending transcripts at your school for scholarships. This will be essential information when it comes to handing items in promptly. Since I'm on good terms with the person in charge of it at my school, she will give me multiple copies of transcripts which I can keep at home and send directly to a scholarship office when it is necessary.
Be sure to pay close attention for when a scholarship asks for an unofficial or official transcript. What makes a transcript official is when it remains in a sealed envelope that has yet to be open. This envelope will normally have a stamp/sticker stating the school's name and a phrase like "official if unopened".
c. Essays
Many scholarships will require essays that have the same topic as ones you've done previously. In this case, there is no need to write the same essay two or more times (unless of course you thrive off of essay writing). Generic topics that I've seen on a continual basis are "Why do you deserve this scholarship, and how will it help you with your education?" "How will you give back to the community with this scholarship?" as well as personal statement essays (essays regarding yourself such as goals of yours) and unusual circumstance prompts (any obstacle you've dealt/are dealing with that may have an effect on your education).
It's typical for these essays to have a word limit, because no one wants to spend a month reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of writing, no matter how great it may be. For scholarships that ask for a generic essay that I have already written, but do not meet the word limit, I will copy and paste the essay in the same word document and either add/delete sentences to meet requirements. I will then save both versions of the essay in the same document in the chance I may come across one with the same word limits.
d. Tax Return/ FAFSA
These materials are almost mandatory for scholarships for financial need. For this reason it is imperative that your parents file their tax returns as soon as time permits, so you don't miss out on any scholarships that require an EFC (estimated financial contribution)number.
Other scholarships may require that you demonstrate your financial need, with these you can submit the EFC number, or if you haven't done your FAFSA yet, make multiple copies of the W2 tax form and send them to the appropriate scholarship office.
On the topic of FAFSA, many people become anxious at the thought on the online application. However, there is no need to fear. I've done the application myself, and for any single textbox where it requires information, a pop-up box will pop up at the right telling you exactly what you need to put. This makes it an easy step-by-step process that requires little thought. I figured this out when I hovered over the box where you type your name, and the pop-up box explained to me what a name is, gave me an example, and explained why they needed it. It seriously does not get much easier than that, folks.
2. Time Management
A common misplaced thought I've seen with many of my senior classmates is the idea that you can't really apply for scholarships until January and then on. And this very mindset led to them missing out on a vast number of scholarships that have deadlines in early fall and winter.
It is also essential that you keep track of all the scholarships you may be interested in applying for or will definitely apply for. What I do myself, is during free time at school I will google phrases like "high school senior scholarships" "scholarships due April" "scholarship essay" and I will screenshot ones I am interested in. When I find a suitable amount of time, I will re-search these scholarships and put the deadlines into the Calendar app on my phone. I will then edit the "event" so it will alert me one week before the scholarship deadline so I can make sure I have all the materials done promptly.
a. Mailing
When scholarships require something to be turned in through mail rather than electronically, it becomes even more essential to keep track of time. I will make it my goal to send in the scholarship at a minimum of two weeks prior to the deadline, should there be any errors in sending.
You should also be mindful of when a scholarships phrases "all materials must be mailed in by this date" or "all materials must be POSTMARKED by this date". When they say postmarked, it allows for the materials to be a little late it the date it was sent is shown on the envelope meets the deadline of the scholarship. However, you never want to let yourself be that late when turning in a scholarship in risk that they may not accept it, making your work turning it in ultimately useless.
And for those of you who are rusty on how physical mail is supposed to be formatted (my position before senior year, here is an example below):
Be sure to have stamps and different-sized envelopes available at home so you do not need to continuously go out and buy them for individual scholarships. Stamp packages are in most cases cheaper than buying individual stamps on a continuous basis.
I also recommend that you invest in some large Manila envelopes. These are extremely beneficial for heavy-duty scholarships where you will have to place multiple recommendation letters, the actual recommendation form, and chunky official transcript envelopes.
3. The Scholarship Hunt
a. Look For What You Are Great At
When you are searching for scholarships, try to find scholarships that you know you will have a shot at being accepted for. I will specifically look for scholarships that require essays, because that is where I can make myself stand out.
If you've done hundreds of hours of community service, look for scholarships that award students for helping out in their communities. If this fits you, be sure to have recommendation letters from people who supervise the volunteering events, which will be evidence of your participation.
b. Institutional Scholarships
These are scholarships that are provided by the school itself. These can be divided into merit scholarships and financial scholarships. Financial scholarships will be based upon your FAFSA (you type the colleges/universities you want your FAFSA to be sent to in the application). And this money will have been provided by the federal/state government. Be sure to note though, that the FAFSA is only used for PUBLIC universities/colleges. If you have applied for any private universities/colleges you will have to fill out a CSS (a sort of FAFSA for private schools).
Merit scholarships in institutions can normally be found on the financial aid tabs/sections of a college's website. Also, you are always welcome to email or call a financial aid representative and ask if you qualify for any merit scholarships. A personal experience of mine is that I emailed a financial aid rep. asking this exact question, and rather than replying to my email, I get a new email from the school informing me that they looked at my transcript/SAT scores and awarded me two scholarships. So keep in mind: it NEVER hurts to ask. The worst that can happen is you get a "no".
c. Scholarship Matching
There are several, popular scholarship search engines that will match a profile you fill out for a website to scholarships. However, these websites are also very notorious for spamming your email so make sure that you have their mail address sent to your spam box.
I will let the emails get into my Spam file and just go on the websites directly rather than through mail to find the matches they have set aside for me. Examples of such websites are "fastweb" "Zinch" "Cappex" and "Scholarship Points".
I hope you've all learned at least one or even several bits of information you might not have already known regarding scholarships. Good luck and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
