If you’re still applying for scholarships with absolute dedication and a find yourself running nowhere fast, I have 6 more tips for you, courtesy of Lynn from CBS Money Watch:
1. Search Twitter.
Using the hashtags #scholarships, #meritscholarships, #financialaid, and #privatescholarships, you can find people that are posting all kinds of valuable scholarship information. If you find one, follow that person, and also check to see who they are following. You can really begin to narrow your choices down from there, following only the ones that are the most helpful.
2. Focus on ones that require an essay.
Since most scholarships are awarded based on a lottery system, your chances are better in applying for scholarships that require an essay. Your chances aren’t better only because it requires skill over luck, but because nobody likes to write essays. This means that there will be fewer applicants, increasing your chances even further.
3. Write GOOD essays.
This piggybacks on the previous tip. If you want any chance of winning a scholarship, you need to know how to write an essay, and write it well. Think about all the boring essays those judges normally have to read. They’re practically dying for a creative, entertaining essay to come their way.
4. Avoid large scholarships
As I’ve said before, the bigger the award, the smaller the chances are that you’ll win it. A well-known example is the Coca-Cola Scholars award, which is said to be 25 times more difficult to win that it is to get admitted into Stanford.
5. Know the limitations of scholarship search engines.
Scholarship search engines are notorious for flinging ads at you. And there’s always the occasion mismatch, directing you to scholarships that have absolutely nothing to do with your search. There are ways of getting around these minor annoyances though, such as learning to discern the difference between a scholarship and a bothersome ad, and refining your search terms to get better results.
6. Try applying for institutional scholarships.
Also known as merit scholarships, institutional scholarships are special scholarships that come from colleges and universities. They’re usually bigger than your standard private scholarship. Cappex.com, LLC created a search engine called MeritAid.com, specially designed to allow students to search for such scholarships with ease.
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