Keep Applying for Scholarships

Many times students and parents will ask the best ways to win scholarships. While there are obvious ways to improve your chances of winning scholarships like earning high grades, being involved on campus, and submitting excellent applications, see the post about scholarship application advice there are several things your child needs to remember while applying.

1. No scholarship is too small. Some students simply don’t apply for small scholarships of $100.00 to $500.00 because they only see the difference between $100.00 and their $9,000.00 tuition and fees bill. But, instead of just looking at the difference, look at what $100.00 is worth. When I see $100.00, I see some textbooks, a couple of tanks of gas, a few weeks of groceries, and some extra cash for an emergency. 
2. Always do the math. If your child is working part time to help finance college, how many hours would it take him to earn $100.00 to $500.00 after taxes? Most college students earn minimum wage or pretty close to it, so after taxes they clear about $6.00 per hour. It would take the average student about 83 hours to bring home $500.00. That’s a month of working 20+ hours per week! Even if your child spends only two hours per week during the academic year completing and submitting scholarship applications and only wins $500.00, he still comes out ahead.
3. Scholarships are free money, but don’t treat them that way. Some students win big scholarships and think they can promptly quit their part time job, or spend the money on non-educational expenses. These are bad ideas for a few reasons:

• Scholarships are intended to help students afford college so the funds should always go either directly to the college or to pay for college related expenses.

• Unless the student is in his senior year and expects to graduate on time and not pursue graduate education, the money should be saved in a separate account for college related expenses. Otherwise, the student may run through his scholarship money before he finishes college.
• Scholarships are extra, unexpected funds and therefore should not be relied upon as a steady stream of financial support. Many students have lost scholarships in their junior or senior year due to low grades, missed deadlines, or changing their major to one not supported by the scholarship fund.