Here are some tips on getting a scholarship to pay for college
Want to continue your education but not sure you can afford it? Here are some tips on getting a scholarship to pay for college.
It’s that time to decide where you want to go to college and what you want to do with your life. You’ve narrowed down your top choices of colleges and are researching the college admissions process for each of them. Now comes the most important question to ask, though.
How are you going to pay for college?
There are a lot of options from taking out student loans, having your parents pay or even going to an online college for a couple of years to save money and work while you study.
One thing that sometimes gets overlooked is applying for scholarships and going to school for free or at least at a big discount. You’ll need to understand the process, however, so here are some tips to help you get that scholarship to pay for college.
Start applications early
Once you are a senior in high school, you should already have a list of scholarships that you should be able to qualify for. It’s never too early to start doing the research so before you even get to your senior year you should be looking at the possibilities.
As soon as you get into your senior year then you should start sending out the applications. Hopefully, you already have good grades going into your final year of high school because if you are sending applications early then they’ll be looking at your previous years’ grades.
Start building a resume
Look at your years in high school as a career. And to move up in your career you need to build a resume that will impress the hiring manager at your dream job. The same mentality works for getting the scholarship that offers the best shot at going to school for free.
You should be doing your best to make sure you have school activities under your belt that will look good to those that are looking to accept scholarship applicants. Not only that, but you should be getting awards that you can boast about.
If you have done any volunteer work and gotten civic awards for it then this looks great on your application. Also, when you do some type of internship or work study programs in the summer then those will show that you are a go-getter and deserve to get the scholarship.
Think local
There are many small businesses that love to send a local student to college. There are so many around that you should be looking at how to apply to those local businesses.
You may need to look at your high school’s website or talk to your guidance counselor to find some of these local scholarships. Looking online may not result in any hits for your search.
The lack of information about these scholarships can work in your favor. That makes for less competition as many people are not aware of their existence. You may need to apply to a few of them to cover your entire tuition as they tend to be a smaller scholarship than the more famous ones.
