Tips on Winning a Scholarship

A couple of weeks ago, at the 2012 NACAC Annual Conference, I attended a session by Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of Finaid.org and Fastweb.com.  His presentation focused on Winning a Scholarship and covered many items from this quick reference guide.  For me, I found the following information helpful for students looking to win a scholarship.

1. Search and apply to scholarships as soon as possible
2. Answer all optional questions on scholarship search sites
3. Apply to every scholarship for which you are eligible
   • Scholarships for less than $1,000 often have fewer applicants
4. Persistence pays, skill and luck are involved
5. Meet deadlines
6. Tailor your application to sponsor’s goals
7. Clean up your online profile
   • Perform a Google search on your name
   • Review public profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, & YouTube
8. Print, read and speak your essay to correct spelling and grammar mistakes
9. Use multiple FREE scholarship search sites
   • Fastweb
   • Bigfuture
   • Scholarships.com
   • My College Dollars (Facebook App)
10. If you have to pay to get money, it’s probably a scam

Comments

[Claudia Dell]

I read this post carefully and like it so much. I appreciate your efforts and material provided on this site.

[Kyle Leon]

There are many good students sending in scholarship essays. If you want to stand out, you need to convince the readers that you are more than just your grades.