Scholarship Application Follow-through

  One question I get asked very frequently is how do I apply for scholarships? Parents and students seem to understand that scholarships can be a windfall for those who are willing to do the work to find and complete applications, but I find that follow-through is often a problem. 

As I’ve said before, supposing that you can pay for college entirely with scholarships isn’t practical. That might be slightly more logical than relying on winning the lottery to provide income. Families should anticipate some sacrifice as they plan to send their children to college. However, scholarships are easy to find. Almost every community in the country has some organization (or many organizations) offering a scholarship to students. Secondary institutions all offer their own scholarships, and the state and federal government offer grants and scholarships. If you play your cards right, you can make a significant dent in college costs. That’s the problem though. You do have to take some action to be considered for scholarships and I am astonished by how few people are willing to take that action. 

I beat my head against the wall trying to convince students to complete scholarship applications. I counsel in a fairly affluent community so we have a lot of local scholarships available. Our senior classes usually have around 200 students and our students are often competing with a neighboring high school and a smattering of homeschool and private school students. 

I would guess most of our local scholarships have about a dozen applicants. I can tell you that low number is not from a lack of promotion of these scholarships at my school. Most of these are for $500 or $1000 awards–sometimes a little less, often more. The applications themselves usually aren’t complicated. They usually just require some brief academic numbers like GPA and test scores and a brief written statement or response to a question. I think most scholarship applications can be completed in less than a half hour. So, I tell my students this; “You probably have a job where you work an hour for, like, $12, right? If you told me I could consistently work a half hour for a one-in-ten or one-in-twelve shot at $1000, I would quit my job as your counselor right now and just do that. As a senior, this is probably your only chance in life to have that sort of opportunity. Put the effort into these scholarship applications!”

It’s important to note too that you don’t have to be the valedictorian or the senior class president to win a scholarship. In fact, I think local scholarship committees in particular often hope to find some under-the-radar students to award their funds to. So, the answer to the question, “how do I apply for scholarships?” is a lot about follow-through. Stop reading this blog. Put your phone down and go do an application right now.