Outside Scholarships

CAUTION: Reading this post may ignite an irrational personal desire to tame a wild beast. No, seriously. Searching for outside scholarships is a long and tedious process that, if done correctly, will cause you to pull your hair out in agony and consider giving up college to join a tribal hunting society.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue outside aid anyway. It is the single most lucrative form of financial help. Lets start at the beginning...

1. Register yourself for these sites.

• www.zinch.com. This site is awesome because of it's "Mooching" feature. Every time a friend you win an award that you found on Zinch, the site will match the amount dollar-for-dollar. So, say you win a 3,000 scholarship; Zinch will give you an additional 3,000. They will also give YOU the same amount for every friend you "invite". So, say your friend that you invited to Zinch wins 3,000 -- you, in turn, win 3,000 as well.
• http://www.zinch.com/Anonymous/StudentRegister.aspx?affid=1213844 -- my personal "invite" link. Register with that and we'd instantly become best friends, promise.
• www.fastweb.com. The most widely-known scholarship search engine.
• www.schoolsoup.com Boasts the "largest database on the Web". I'm not really sure how true that is, but it still has some good awards.
• www.cappex.com Yet another scholarship site. Has the least amount of awards, but an absolute treasury of college information. My favorite tool on this site is the admissions match up, where you can see your chances of getting in to a specific school.
  
• Search in Google for awards specifically engineered for you -- ie "Scholarships for Houston-area Seniors" or "Scholarships for female seniors" etc.
• Talk to your high school counselor about local scholarship opportunities. Counselors have a wealth of information about applications and where to get them.

2. Get organized. My scholarship search started out as a few paperclipped materials, then became a folder, and finally transformed into the 4 1/2-inch monstrosity of a binder that it is today. In it, I have all of my applications, as well as transcripts, letters of recommendation, and photographs. Invest in manila envelopes as well -- you'll be keeping Office Max in business this year.
3. Get a flash drive. I cannot tell you how much my flash drive helped me out during my year of scholarship searching. It served as the very lifeblood of my scholarship search. Many, many scholarships ask questions like "Why do you want this scholarship?" and "Explain any special circumstances." If you already have these essays typed up, you can simply tweak them to fit the scholarship instead of writing thousands of identical essays.
3. Stay on top of your sent applications. I had a bad habit of forgetting the scholarships I had already sent in. Keep track of the date of the winner's announcement and number of scholarships you applied to. By April of my senior year, I had applied to over 100.

You are more than a GPA: "I'm not valedictorian, a world-class athlete, or Mother Theresa. Why should I try?"

Believe me, I hear you on this one. It's easy to get discouraged during application; after all, scholarships are really just one giant cutthroat competition.

But please, don't give up hope! In high school, I wasn't what you would call a "stellar" student. My grades were only slightly above average (I graduated in the top 23 percent of my class). I wasn't even granted automatic admission to many of the schools I applied to, how could I expect to earn scholarships?

The truth many students don't understand: Scholarship applications are about so much more than being "perfect" in one aspect of high school (case in point: GPA). Don't misunderstand; yes, grades are important...but a student who has nothing more to boast than a 4.0 is not going to impress a committee amidst thousands of other applicants with the same GPA. Scholarship applications are looking for mature, well-rounded students ... so demonstrate the full breadth of your accomplishments. It IS possible to earn aid without a perfect GPA ... don't give up hope!
In conclusion:
Tailor your scholarship search to fit your lifestyle. I had to sacrifice a lot of activities my senior year to devote so much time to my search. Know that your commitment to this search will take a large amount of time and plan accordingly.