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Step 1: Log on and fill out personal profiles on these three websites -
www.fastweb.com
www.findtuition.com
www.scholarships.com
Step 2: Create a free email account - something like "yourname"scholarships@yahoo.com
These websites send lots of emails so you want a separate scholarship email address when filling out the profile.
Step 3: (This will take some time) Narrow down your list of potential scholarships to about 50 that you are most eligible for. Most people will find around 200-300 scholarships they are eligible for, but not all of those are realistically good fits for you. Focus on gathering the applications for the scholarships that fit you the best.
Step 4: Make a list of all of those scholarships to look like this:
Scholarship Name Contact Info Due Date Requirements (essay topic, letters of rec, transcripts, etc)
" " " "
" " " "
" " " "
Step 5: Group together scholarship applications based on scholarship essay topics. Match all the scholarship applications together that have similar essay topics (this will make life much easier). This way, you only write one essay for a group of scholarships. You'll work much more efficiently this way and you won't spend so much time writing in the future.
Step 6: Buy yourself a calendar and write down when your scholarship "groups" are due. You should use the earliest due date from your group of scholarship applications and plan to submit the entire group two weeks before that first due date. This way, you don't miss any opportunities. I advise you to make your due date two weeks prior so that if you run into any problems, you still have time to find solutions.
Step 7: You should now have a plan to be submitting 75 scholarship applications, but don't stop there. Your ultimate goal should be to apply for at least 1 scholarship a week from September 1st to May 1st. If you can do this, it will greatly increase your chances of being financially prepared for college.
This plan will help you organize your efforts. The goal is to spend time preparing for scholarship applications over the summer before your senior year, so you can be effective throughout the year. We don't want you to miss an opportunity!!
