Scholarships

In additon to need-based financial aid programs there are merit based financial awards and grants. These are commonly refered to as Scholarships. Scholarships, from the word scholar, are often based upon academic or scholarly achievement.They may also be based upon athletic ability or abilities in the arts. Basically if the money is awarded to a student for reasons other than financial need.& Though this rule of thumb doesn't hold 100% of the time because there are a few scholarships that take into account both merit and need as factors in awarding the aid.

many different scholarship programs

There are many different scholarships out there but they are few compared to the overall number of college students.This makes them difficult to get. Due to the demand far outstripping  the supply, they are usually very competitive. One thing to be aware of is that there are some scam organizations that will try to trick you into giving them money to help you get awarded a scholarship.  Don't fall for it.   They see you as an easy mark because you are so desparate to find financing for your education. If they are asking you to give them money,  politely decline and search elsewhere.

application process

You need to begin searching for scholarships for your freshma In fact, don't even wait till the second semester of your senior year. First you are going to want to make a list of your top three or four choices of which University you might want to attend.   If you already know what you want to major in, that will be helpful, though not absolutely required.Many freshmen have not yet decided on a major. If you do know your major, there are many scholarship programs targeted to various career fields.

One reason to start so early is because of the sheer number of different scholarships you may want to apply for. You don't actually have to start sending out your applications to the universities and/or other awarding organizations just yet. But if you end up with a list of 40 scholarships to apply for, how are you going to get all that done if you wait till March or April and then the deadline is right on top of you. Sometimes you may be asked to write an essay in the scholarship application and how well you do affects the decision if you get the scholarship or not. You cannot do as effective of a job on these essay applications if you have a whole pile of them to try and accomplish in a very short time. Start early with making your list of universities you may want to attend. Make a list of a few career fields you might be interested in. Make a list of areas you may have merit based advantage over other students.Are you an athlete? Gifted in some arts? Maybe you have a knack for writing. If you are good at writing you should do well on scholarship applications that require an essay.

organize yourself for the scholarship ap process

After you have these three lists of information on paper in front of you, now you have cleared out your mind so you can start sifting through the lists of scholarships that exist and may be a match for you. When you are first going through these lists of scholarships, don't get bogged down initially looking in detail at each one.Just keep a running list of those that sound like they may be a match and a note on where to find the detailed information when you come back later. This initial research is just to get a good list of as many as forty or fifty different scholarships you might be eligible for. Then you will come back later and start looking at them in detail individually and narrowing down which ones to get the applications for. You want to have all this done by Christmas break of your senior year of high school.  Have all of your applications in your in-box, or maybe some of them will be in your hardcopy snail-mailbox. Then you will be filling out your applications for the next two or three months to make sure they are all done and sent in before their deadlines.

There are a handful of useful databases on the internet that can be searched. Expect to start with so many different scholarship candidates that it will seem overwhelming at first. Don't be surprised.Initially you will want to spend just a minute or so on each scholarship and weed out all the ones that have a requirment that you cannot meet.Then keep your list of the ones you do not eliminate like this. Then your list are the ones you will go back to and spend as much time as it takes to thoroughly understand what you need to do to get that scholarship and then to obtain the scholarship application.