How to Win College Scholarships: 10 Tips for Success

Obtaining a scholarship can be a significant milestone in achieving your educational dreams. However, with so many options available, it can be overwhelming to navigate the scholarship landscape. That’s where a well-thought-out scholarship strategy plan comes in. These tips are the exact ones I followed to win 11 scholarships amassing over $200,000 in scholarship wins. It’s never too early to start your scholarship journey. There are scholarships available for each grade level even as early as freshman year of high school. In this blog , we will guide you through the ten essential steps to create an effective scholarship strategy that will increase your chances of securing the financial aid you need.

Step 1: Identify Your Scholarship Goal

Every great plan starts with a goal. In this case, your goal is the total amount of scholarships you want to earn.

You can start with evaluating your total cost of attendance (COA) for each year of college.

Cost of attendance varies at each school and many colleges and universities have their cost of attendance calculator on their financial aid website.

Financial aid packages vary across schools so it’s important to review the award letter in detail to determine what your true cost is.

To estimate your scholarship goal start with your cost of attendance and reduce that amount by your total financial aid awards. What’s left over is what you’ll need roughly to earn in scholarships to cover your tuition, books and supplies. This is your scholarship goal!

Once you have this scholarship goal, break it down into smaller, manageable target. For example, a scholarship goal of $20,000 should be broken down into a goal of earning $5,000 per year over 4 years. This approach will help you stay motivated and focused on achieving each milestone.

Step 2: Create a List of Your Characteristics

There are different types of scholarships available for many different life experiences. To ensure you don’t miss out on the perfect opportunity for you, it’s important to take some time to evaluate your unique qualities, experiences, and achievements. Consider your personal characteristics outside of just your academic strengths, extracurricular involvement etc. Include non-academic attributes like your hobbies, life circumstances and more to create a truly comprehensive list.

Step 3: Create a Keyword Search Guide

There are many scholarship opportunities that go unnoticed by the major scholarship search engines. That’s why a piece of your scholarship strategy plan needs to include doing scholarship keyword search on Google, Bing, or any other search engine of your choice. Utilize the list of characteristics you created in the previous step to develop a keyword search guide testing phrasing that uses those characteristics as phrases. A few examples:

  • Scholarships for “athletes”
  • Scholarships for “engineering majors”

The use of the quotations around those key phrases ensures you only get search results that include that phrases, which saves hours of sifting through pages that are not relevant to you. This will help you streamline your scholarship search process outside of the scholarship databases and search engines.

Step 4: Choose 3-4 Scholarship Search Engines

Many scholarship search engines have matching tools to tailor your scholarship opportunities directly to your profile. To maximize your scholarship opportunities, sign up for at least 3 reputable scholarship search engines and check them on a bi-weekly basis for new opportunities. These are my recommendations and why they’re my favorite!

Bold.org – Has an extensive amount of scholarship opportunities and is easy to navigate.

Scholarships360 – Has the best filtering options to find the best opportunities for you, and can be used without having to make a profile.

JLV College Counseling – This scholarship search tool is not as user-friendly as my other recommendations, but you don’t have to make an account to use it, and it’s updated very regularly (including for extended deadlines!).

U.S. Department of Labor’s free scholarship search tool – This search tool comes directly from the U.S. government and catalogs thousands of scholarships, fellowship, grants, and other financial aid award opportunities.

Step 5: Create a Brag Sheet

What is a brag sheet?

A brag sheet is a document that lists your academic or extracurricular achievements, accomplishments, life experiences and more. It is much different from a resume since resumes have limited space and are meant to be formatted in a certain way. Your brag sheet is everything you’ve ever done in one big list to serve as an easy place to pull all your experiences. Aside from your GPA, it’s important to find a way to stand out from the crowd on your applications. This comprehensive inventory will serve as a valuable resource when you need to provide evidence of your qualifications in scholarship applications. Include academic honors, leadership roles, volunteer work, and any other significant accomplishments.

Step 6: Build Your Scholarship List

Before building your list, consider the cadence and intensity of your application process. An intense pace is applying to more than 15 scholarships per month. Knowing this will help you determine how big of a scholarship list to build. Using the keyword search guide and the scholarship search engines from Steps 3 and 4, start building your scholarship list.

Include as many scholarship opportunities that you are eligible for as possible. It’s recommended to do this at the beginning of each month to get yourself on track. After the initial list, you should be searching bi-weekly – at least – for any new opportunities that may be a better fit than your current list. This is important because scholarships can open and close within just a few weeks, so it’s important to consistently search.

Step 7: Analyze Your Scholarship List

Now that you have a list of potential scholarships, take the time to analyze each one. This is the most important part of the process since the scholarships you choose to apply for have the most impact on your chances of winning them. Consider the eligibility criteria, deadlines, and requirements. These are the questions you should be asking yourself before taking the energy to apply for a scholarship:

  • How many awards are available?
  • How well do I fit the requirements (and how many other people do too)?
  • Is there anything that I have a unique advantage at for eligibility?

Choose the scholarships that align closely with your goals and characteristics. Evaluating this before taking energy to apply is generally the best approach to choosing the right scholarships for you.

Step 8: Organize Your Requirements

Keep track of each scholarship’s requirements by creating a google spreadsheet or using an organizational tool like Notion. Include deadlines, required documents, and any additional information you need to submit. Having a clear overview will help you stay on top of your applications so maintain this list weekly.

Step 9: Educate Yourself on Crafting Winning Applications

Given the highly competitive nature of scholarships, educating yourself on crafting winning scholarship applications is a must., It’s crucial to present a compelling narrative that showcases your qualifications and experiences. When writing your essays, draw from a range of experiences that demonstrate your leadership, community involvement, academic achievements, and professional aspirations. To stay organized, request letters of recommendation in advance, pay attention to details, follow application instructions carefully, and proofread your materials before submission.

Step 10: Execute Your Scholarship Strategy Plan

Finally, it’s time to execute your scholarship strategy plan. First, it’s crucial to schedule dedicated scholarship application time in your calendar, treating it as a recurring commitment. This ensures consistent progress and prevents last-minute scrambles.

Reusing and adapting content from previous essays can help overcome writer’s block and speed up the writing process. A ‘cheat sheet’ with commonly required information for online applications can also expedite the process.

Incorporate time management strategies such as the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in focused bursts followed by short breaks, to maintain high levels of productivity. Learning to say “no” to non-essential tasks can free up valuable time for your scholarship applications. Prioritize your tasks, focusing on the most important ones first, and use time blocking to allocate specific periods for research, writing, and other application-related work.

A Scholarship Strategy Plan Can Help You Win Free Money for College

Creating a scholarship strategy plan is a proactive approach to securing the financial aid you need for your education. By following these ten steps, you can effectively navigate the scholarship landscape and increase your chances of success. Remember, with determination and a well-executed plan, you can turn your dreams into reality.

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