Student Feature
College Prep and Career Development
Student Success
Scholarship season is upon us! Keep reading for our Top 10 Scholarship Tips to keep in mind throughout the application process!
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Recently, I interviewed Coastline student and Associated Student Government (ASG) president, Jessica Lopez, who was awarded the Obama-Chesky scholarship. She shared that now, because she is a low-income and first-generation student, she doesn’t have to worry about student loans when she goes to ASU because everything will be covered by the scholarship.
Scholarships are a great form of financial aid for students because they're essentially free money that doesn’t need to be repaid, and offer students the chance to pursue their passions, education, and career goals with a few or all of their monetary hurdles taken care of.
While this is great, the weight of knowing how much the financial aid would help can be a ton of pressure. You may not know where to start or want to give up before you’ve even started. Trust me, I get it, but you’re not alone! Before you jump into your search, check out these 10 scholarship tips to help you out this scholarship season!
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1. Start Planning Now
If you’ve been thinking about raising your grades or joining a club, the time to do it is now! Colleges look at several things like GPA, extracurriculars, internships—things you’ve done to further your education or career journey. Talk with an academic counselor about your options, reach out to professors on how to raise your grades, and don’t be scared to join a club or get involved in your community! Have fun with it!
Academic Counseling Services @ Coastline
2. Do Your Research
There are various scholarships available to students, and it’s important to research them extensively to ensure they’re the right fit for you and that you aren’t wasting valuable time applying to scholarships that don’t match your needs or qualifications. You can find scholarships locally through your and your parents’ employers, libraries, clubs, local businesses, and more! For example, if you’re a Coastline student, there’s a general scholarship available for students, where you fill out one application, and the scholarship committee will match you to scholarships based on your eligibility. General Scholarship applications are open from October 1st to December 31st.
For national and international scholarships, reach out to your current college’s study abroad program to find international scholarships or the financial aid office to help you find scholarships that you are eligible for within the region. Whether you’re an athlete, a minority student, or demonstrate financial need, there are thousands of scholarships available to help you in your education journey.
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3. Use a Scholarship Search Engine
The search for scholarships can be extremely stressful, but luckily, you don’t have to tackle it alone! Scholarship Search Engines help students in their scholarship search by matching them with scholarships they qualify for based on personal information like GPA, interests, background, location, and more.
These search engines require students to create accounts to save their personalized results and search progress:
These search engines don’t require an account or sign-in:
Additionally, Coastline’s iGrad tool, a financial literacy program, features a scholarship search course that teaches students how to identify scholarships they qualify for, how to apply, tips for earning scholarships, and more!
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4. The Limit Does Not Exist!
There’s no limit on how many scholarships you can apply to, so apply to as many as you can! While being sure that you apply to the ones you qualify for, or pertain to your career path or interests, you can vary your applications by applying to scholarships with big award amounts, small award amounts, local scholarships, etc., to ensure that you’re covering all your bases.
Explore Scholarships Available @ Coastline
5. Keep Track of Deadlines
The search and application process can cause applications to pile up quickly, and before you know it, you have deadlines back-to-back with no idea where to start first. As soon as you find scholarships you want to apply for, check the admission deadlines and mark them on your calendar to ensure you don’t miss important dates.
Consider categorizing scholarships by the month they’re due and the type of scholarship (athletic, general, merit, etc.) so they are easy to find. You can also look over each scholarship’s requirements and qualifications and see if any have similarities so you can use the same essay format and aren’t rushing through each application and making errors or mistakes.
Unigo recommends creating a digital or physical scholarship tracker to track the scholarship applications and stay up to date with your progress, and they also have a free scholarship tracker available for you to download.
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6. Apply Early
Sometimes we find out about great scholarships close to the deadline and have no choice but to write our essays last minute, but if you can give yourself time to work on applications, write your essays, and submit your scholarships early, do it!
This gives you the flexibility to make sure you have all the qualifications you need to make you an eligible candidate, make your essays the best they can be if they are required, and get the recommendation letters you need.
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7. Market Yourself
Marketing yourself may not be instinctual to most of us, but it’s imperative to the scholarship process. You don’t need to inflate your achievements or experiences, but the entire point of submitting your resumé and completing their prompts and personal essays is to get to know you! Act as your own publicist, show an understanding and interest in the scholarship foundation’s mission, and don’t be shy about what makes you the ideal candidate for their scholarship!
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8. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread…and then Proofread Again
I can’t count how many times I’ve submitted something and then have woken up in a cold sweat from remembering that I didn’t fix a typo somewhere in an essay. DON’T BE LIKE ME!
Go over your resumé, essays, and prompt answers to make sure they’re clear, descriptive, and concise. Sometimes it's best to shut down your laptop for the night and return to it later the next day or even a few days later. The distance from your work, especially if you’ve been hard at it for a couple of days, can give you a fresh perspective and open your eyes to any errors you may not have seen before.
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9. Have Others Look Over Your Work
I think it’s important to reiterate that you don’t have to go through the scholarship process alone, in fact, it’s recommended that you reach out to whoever you can for help! We can proofread all we want but sometimes there are things that we just don’t catch. If scholarships ask for personal essays, reach out to professors, mentors, or academic counselors to review them and provide advice or revisions to make the essay the best it can be.
Additionally, many scholarships ask for recommendation letters, but it's hard for someone to write a recommendation letter if they don’t know you. Amy Tuong, who was awarded the Council of Supply Chain Management scholarship (CSCMP) this year, recommended that students be in good contact with professors in their colleges, and be attentive students in their subjects.
Be intentional about forming meaningful connections with those who have witnessed your hard work and achievements to get a detailed recommendation letter, and make sure you provide ample time for these to be written before the deadline.
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10. Beware of Scams
Unfortunately, wherever there is money involved, a scam usually follows. It’s extremely common for scammers to trick students into thinking they need to provide money to apply for a scholarship, but this isn’t true. There are many tactics scholarship scams use, but if a scholarship is asking for banking and personal information or asks for an application fee, it’s safe to cross them off your list. Student Aid and FinAid both offer great tips to avoid scams, including language and tactics scammers typically use. Stay vigilant and protect yourself and your wallet throughout your scholarship search!
One Last Thing…
And the most important thing for all students to remember? Don’t stress and don’t give up, you got this! This can be an overwhelming process but hopefully, with these tips, this scholarship season is a bit easier to navigate.
