10 Tips to Help You Apply for Scholarships

Scholarships offer students an opportunity to attend college. They can advance their education at the top universities in the world. But to earn a scholarship, a student has to put a lot of effort. There are 4 key ingredients when applying for a scholarship. There is need for organization, initiative,  smart strategy and the right mindset. To achieve this take the 10 tips below.

1.Keep a list of all the scholarships you ever apply to.

Make an excel sheet that will include all the information for the scholarship that you want to apply for.

2.  Gather the resources before starting the applications.

Keep a folder containing the documents that you will require including photocopies.

3. Ask for a letter of recommendation before you need them.

Ask your teachers or school administration for letters of recommendation.

4. Identify and “categorize” the scholarships.

As you do your scholarship search, you’ll notice that most scholarships fall under a “category”: merit-based, need-based, unique stories, career/major-specific, or college/region-specific.

On Google Drive, make a folder for each category and keep all your scholarship information, applications, and documents in the folders.

5. Revamp and reutilize essays.

Scholarship applications tend to have similar or generic questions and qualifications. Write a general essay answering the requirements, and use it as a template. You can then tailor edit the template for individual scholarships when you need to.

6. Save every single essay you’ve ever written and date them.

Make sure that you save every essay to accompany your scholarship application. Edit in Word form but send as a PDF file.

7. Target less popular scholarships.

To increase your chances of getting a scholarship, try applying for smaller and more local scholarships.

8. Put in the work

Don’t just leave your scholarship application to chance. Treat every application as if your life depended on it and put in work. Write each application to perfection and give it your all.

9. Have a positive attitude

Keep applying even if you don’t get any replies. There are so many applications and what you can do is for the ones whose requirements you are likely to meet.

10. Don’t feel entitled.

If you receive the scholarship be grateful but if you don’t, you should still be grateful.