Getting an education is very expensive; especially when you start college or university, it increases drastically. But if you get a scholarship, or even two, you can decrease your educational expenses. However, with several various scholarships out there, it can be overwhelming while applying to so many.
To ensure that you reform your time and are well organized while applying for a scholarship, here are some tips on How to Organize Your Scholarship Search and make sure you find your scholarship application on time.
Make a List of Scholarship:
When any friend or family member tells you to apply for a scholarship, it is not easy as it sounds. There are thousands of scholarships out there for different reasons and qualifications. The best way to organize your scholarship search is to gather information for all of the scholarship offers you are eligible to apply for.
When you apply for any scholarship, remember one thing that does not spend your precious time applying for which your GPA, major, community involvement requirement, or any other criteria doesn't match the standard. There are likely thousands of awards for which you specifically qualify, so focus your attention on those. Review your list again and remove all awards that you are not eligible for.
Prioritize Scholarships:
There are a thousand types of scholarships out there. That means they all have different values. When applying for scholarships, you will need to prioritize which ones you are most eligible for and offer the most money. Of course, this will increase your chances of obtaining as much money as possible.
Depending on what works for you, it is essential to organize your spreadsheet by prioritizing each scholarship or by their due date. If you decide to organize it by the due date, then you should also make a spreadsheet with the top five scholarships you select to apply to.
Paper Method with Folders or Binder:
You can also print out the scholarship searches and create a folder or binder with everything in them. Of course, this also welcomes the same challenge of no reminders before deadlines. But this is also very less time taking and you can easily manage it. Furthermore, you can also find your scholarship search on time.
Make a Spreadsheet:
It is one of the best ways to organize your scholarship searches. It would help if you had columns for the scholarship name, how to apply, the application deadline, and it is status.
It will make it very easy to view just how many scholarships you have found, how many you have applied to, and how many you are working on applying to at the moment. It will be a lifesaver when you apply to several that you forget about certain ones to follow up on.
Set Time Aside:
The very important thing to remember when organizing your scholarship search is to put the time to one side to apply for scholarships. If you work to search for scholarships and organize them, it becomes a waste if you don't take the time to submit your application. Similarly, like with sports or doing homework, you make a schedule of time where you completely focus only on applying to scholarships.
Even if you spend 2 or 3 hours a week working on this, it will set you upfront of other students who are not as organized.
Make a Deadline Calendar:
Now that you have found the scholarships you are eligible for and decide to apply to, it is time to mark the deadlines on your calendar. While marking the deadlines in your spreadsheet is helpful, it is still very easy to forget them in all that mix-up of information.
The best way to make sure that you do not miss the most important deadline is to put reminders on your calendar or phone.
It would help if you first put down a reminder for a week before the due date of the application. This lets you get started if you have not already. The next reminder should be two days before the due date because there are bound to be sluggard out there. The last reminder you set should be the day that your scholarship application is due.
Sticky Notes:
Using sticky notes to keep track of your scholarships is also a great way. Each scholarship search had one note, with the due date, requirements, and total award amount.
Spent far too much time organizing what seemed like hundreds of sticky notes on your dorm room wall as you attempted to sort scholarships by deadlines, award amounts, and essay topics.
Final Words:
No reason stops you not to apply for a scholarship. It is free money! However, it is very important to stay organized while doing so because you may miss important due dates or completely forget about a scholarship. Once you have found scholarships you are eligible for, enter them in a spreadsheet so you can see them all at a glance. Start setting reminders on your calendar for when your application is due for each one. At last, ensure to prioritize which scholarships you want to apply to the most. These could be the ones that you are most eligible for or that provide the most money.
