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There are thousands of scholarship opportunities available for college students. Weeding through the lists and filling out applications is a time-consuming process. It’s worth it if your college-bound high school senior picks up a free ride with just a few hours of legwork. On the other hand, it’s also entirely possible to fill out tons of applications for college scholarships and come away with nothing of note. Unfortunately, there is no magic recipe to know which college scholarship opportunities will pan out and which ones won’t.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of all is weeding through the options to find the shortest route to the money. The long lists of available awards can be daunting to go through. Not everyone is eligible for all scholarships, so it doesn’t make sense to apply for some of them. Even if the interest and desire were there, there probably wouldn’t be enough time in the day or days in the year for your teenager to do them all. So how do you slim down the choices to increase your chances of getting enough college scholarships to make their education affordable?
Letters of Recommendation
You know how great your kid is. There are probably lots of other people in the community who do too. Have your rising college student ask a handful of teachers, coaches and supervisors for letters of recommendation to include with college scholarship applications. This can be an intimidating task for teens who are shy or aren’t used to asking for help. It is, however, something that can help to set them apart from other applicants and earn an award.
Niches Work
Encourage your rising college student to emphasize their special interests and abilities. There are athletic scholarships and academics awards for a reason. Students with a strong background in a specific area, like sports or a narrow academic area, can be very competitive within their niches. These are the strongest possibilities for free money for college. Look into field of major and future career scholarships. Help your teen put together a resume of accomplishments and competition awards. Any relevant voluntary or paid work in a potential career field should be highlighted on the scholarship application.
Be Honest
While it may be tempting for applicants to embellish things to make themselves look better, it’s more important to be honest. The truth will eventually come out, and honesty will score more points.
Follow the Guidelines
Contrary to popular belief, rules aren’t made to be broken. Applying for scholarships that don’t fit the mold is a waste of time. This includes everything from missed deadlines to absent pre-requisites to shortfalls on academic requirements.
Work to Strengths
One of the easiest ways to improve the chances for winning a scholarship is to choose an application or project that works toward the student’s strengths and assets. For example, if your son or daughter is great at writing essays, encourage them to focus on the ones with an essay writing contest or that include an essay as part of the application. If writing isn’t their strong-suit, work towards the options that are. A community service project, an athletic competition or accomplishments in the arts are all possibilities.
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Nicole is an independent writer for CollegeAnswer.com. College Answer offers information on saving, planning and paying for college.
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