Scholarships Grants

Finding a scholarship that suits your requirements and for which you are eligible can be a time-consuming and difficult process. Unfortunately, many students spend hours and hours finding a scholarship yet fail to put an equal amount of effort into their application. The application is by far the most important part of your scholarship search; make sure you spend as much time on it as is necessary to get it right.

When you apply for scholarships, it is important to be clear on the scholarship requirements. After all, you want to be sure you are eligible before you apply for scholarships. If you are not, you are wasting your time, as well as the time of the business or individual offering the scholarship.

Scholarship Requirements

Different scholarships have different requirements and use different criteria to select scholarship recipients.

Consider the following as you start your scholarship investigation:

• You may be required to write an essay, pass a written exam, or complete a project demonstrating your potential.

• Programs may specify how scholarship funds must be used, set time restrictions for disbursing the funds, or set a ceiling on qualifying family income.

• Scholarship funds may be paid directly to the college.

• Failure to meet certain requirements could jeopardize your ability to keep the scholarship.

Make sure you get as much information about the scholarship as possible. Write, call or e-mail the provider of the scholarship to ensure you have full details of application procedures and what will be expected of the successful applicant. If the scholarship entails a particular project, find out the full objectives and intended methodology of the project. If the scholarship is being funded by a private enterprise, gather as much information as you can about the company, its philosophy and its goals. You can never have too much information.

In addition to making sure you are eligible before you apply for scholarships, understanding the requirements also helps guide you through the application process. Failure to follow the application requirements correctly when you apply for scholarships will almost certainly result in denial of the scholarship. This can include failure to include a specific form or even filling out the forms with the wrong ink color. Therefore, you absolutely must read all of the requirements and guidelines when you apply for scholarships. If you do not, all of the work you put into the scholarships will be wasted because your application will not even be considered.

If you have heard about a particular scholarship and you are not sure of the requirements, it is perfectly acceptable to write to the company or individual to request an application packet. Even if you do have application guidelines, be sure they are the most current versions before you apply for scholarships. Scholarship guidelines routinely change from year to year.

If a particular post-secondary institution has already accepted you as a student, you might also apply for scholarships offered through the college or university. To learn about possible scholarship opportunities, contact the financial aid office of the institution. Once again, be certain to follow the guidelines exactly as they are described in the scholarship packet and personally check up on the scholarship application if possible.

Every student wants a scholarship to fund their college study, but not all students manage to secure one. Although you can apply for all scholarships that are opened for application, but you may not qualify for all and applying for scholarships which you are not qualified for will waste your time and efforts. You should only apply the scholarships that you are qualified for. Here are 3 important steps to secure a scholarship:

1. Get Your GPA As High As Possible

Most scholarships are reserved for students with best academic results. Hence, the first thing you must do is get your GPA as high as possible so that you can qualify for more scholarships. Some scholarship application requirements required you to maintain a certain GPA through out your academic years while other might need you to achieve a certain GPA to qualify for application. Hence, your GPA is an important factor that will determine your opportunity to secure a scholarship.

2. Search & Apply For Scholarships

The second thing you must do is searching for the scholarships which you are qualified for and apply for them. Be sure to read the requirements and prepare all the necessary documents to be attached with the application form. You can choose to search individual scholarship online or your school might have certain recommended scholarships for their students.

You can also use the online free scholarship search services to help you match the scholarships with your qualification. The two most popular free scholarship searches are FastWeb and Scholarship Experts. They will send the details information about the proposed scholarships to your email address; what you need to do is review these scholarships and apply the scholarships you are interested in. These free scholarship search services are a great service to help you identify the scholarships that match your qualification so that you have the best chance to secure at least one.

The only thing you should beware is the scholarship scams which try to cheat your money; they are around especially on internet, so you must double confirm about the scholarships offers before you make any payment if there is a processing fee involved.

3. Be Persistent To Follow Up On Your Application

Today, most communications are through email, if you submit your scholarship application and put your email address in the contact column. Be sure to check your email periodically. There are students who submit their scholarship application but never check their email regularly; when they found out there is a scholarship offer which ask them to confirm their acceptance before the due date, but at the time they read their mail, it already past the due date. Don’t miss any scholarship offer due to your laziness of checking your email. Don’t give up and keep applying for scholarships until you secure one. You will have success if you keep persistently in applying the scholarships which you are qualified for.

Summary

The basic 3 steps to secure a scholarship to fund you college study. These steps are: maintaining your academic result with as high GPA as possible, do the search for scholarships that match your qualification, apply them and persistently check for the status.

Are there mistakes that can disqualify a college

scholarship application? You bet. Generally speaking, most local scholarship committees may find a few minor mistakes acceptable, but the higher the level of competition, the less tolerance there is for a faux pas. And when you go for the gold at the national level of competition, no mistake is permissible. Even at the local level, if the competition is heavy, one error can result in the loss of money.

Even small spelling mistakes can cause an application to be thrown out. A judge reviewed a submission from a girl who was second in her class. She had a 3.95 GPA. The problem? She misspelled salutatorian. Believe it! How does that

happen? Surely, it should have been noticed. Was it a keyboarding error? Maybe.

Another application from a boy on the baseball team noted that he won the league batting title with a .259 average. Know anything about baseball? Most likely, the number 2 should have been a 3, 4, 5, or even 6.

Yet, another listed the applicant’s age as “88.” Do you suppose she was the oldest high school student in the country…in the world? But wait, she listed her birth date as eighteen years earlier. Those are the kinds of silly little miscues that can disqualify good candidates. Use the computer spell check and have someone read for context and spelling problems. Most people cannot do a good job of proof-reading themselves. Why take a chance?

Another blunder is leaving blank spaces. This is not a good thing. The committee may think that you are trying to hide something. If the question or statement is not applicable to you, write DNA on the line, which is the standard abbreviation or acronym for Does Not Apply.

Use a computer and keyboard whenever possible. Investigate the many inexpensive and free form-filling computer programs. No long hand here. Never write in pencil. And, NEVER, NEVER. EVER, EVER use whiteout.

Follow directions exactly. It is not unusual to see lists where paragraphs are required and vice versa. Sometimes a signature is needed with the name printed. A simple YES or NO may be necessary, Instead, an opinion is given.

Here’s a tricky one that trips many juniors and seniors with honor roll credentials. After ten years in school, they still have problems using to, too, two, and they’re, their,there.

Oops! I saw a sure regional and possible national winner disqualified, because her application missed the deadline date…by one day. Always beat the deadline. Mail early.

How could this happen? An app arrived without the parent permission slip signature.

Check, Check, Check.

This bears repeating: most mistakes can be eliminated when others proof the application. Then read it aloud while someone else listens.

What can you do, if the mistake cannot be corrected? Be sure to make a copy before you start. If it says “copies are not permitted,” go back for one or two more originals.

Planning produces positive outcomes when the scholarship effort is truly a family affair.

To learn more about planning to win scholarships, visit:

http://ScholarshipDoctor.com

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