The Ultimate Scholarship Cheat Sheet on Searching for College Scholarships!

This awesome cheat sheet will make the process of searching and finding the best scholarships significantly easier.

Paying for college is one of the biggest struggles both parents and students face.

As a parent, you may have:

struggled to find scholarships to pay for college…
or had to take out student loans to pay for your university…
and then steadily put money aside for your child in a 529 plan,
…only to find out you still do not have enough money to afford the dream school.

With rising college tuition costs, scholarships are one of the best ways to make the college dream a reality. Nowadays the internet has made finding all of the opportunities available significantly easier, but the process can still be extremely confusing.

Create a winning plan to find the scholarships you need with the tips in this article.

1. Make it a team effort.

Finding the right scholarships can be overwhelming, especially if you go at it alone. Get the right people on your team and you’ll have much more success.

Who should you pick for your team?

Parents
Grandparents
A high school guidance counselor
The recruiters from your prospective college or university
Leaders of the organizations that you are involved

2. Use social media and collaborative websites to assist you in your search.

Once you have identified the people around you who can help you, get everyone on board with the latest technology.

Websites to keep in your toolbox are:

Trello – You can use Trello to remind yourself to get your applications in on time and track what you have left to do. Plus, you can share your Trello boards with anyone on your team.

Slack – Using Slack will make it a breeze to ask your relatives for help with editing your essays or advice on your resume. Use it to easily share links to scholarships websites, discuss ideas, or brainstorm ideas.

Evernote – Evernote will make it incredibly easy to share and save leads for your scholarship search. Use Evernote to screenshot websites, make notes on your online searches and much more.

Google Sheets – Google Sheets will help you easily keep lists of contacts, names of scholarships, deadlines and much more. Plus, you can give access to your findings to everyone on your team.

Google Docs – Google Docs is the perfect place to save your scholarship essays and other files.

3. Make sure your employer knows you are searching for scholarships.

Not only will your employer possibly be the one giving you a scholarship, but you will likely need to ask them for letters of recommendation for a few of your scholarships.

Note: it’s always important to give people a heads up before you need your recommendation letters. Following rules of etiquette is important during the scholarship process as you will likely have to ask your boss to write one or more letters for you, and this is not in his or her job description. Springing this at the last minute is considered rude.

Make sure you have the deadline dates on your calendar and let your employer know how many letters you will need.

4. Utilize Crowdfunding Sites.

You can take a shot at creating your own scholarship by utilizing crowdfunding sites. Do a simple google search for “crowdfunding your college education” and you will see how easy it can be to use this new form of fundraising to put a serious dent in your tuition costs.

5. Get Professional Help.

Enlist the help of your English professors to take a look at your scholarship essays. Most professors will be willing to help you edit your essays. Do not be afraid to reach out to any professional writers you know; they will likely be happy to help you on your way to success.

6. Use Google Calendar to keep track of all dates and deadlines.

Google Calendars can be shared with anyone you choose or even made public. So, you can easily make plans to meet with your guidance counselor. Remember to get your letters of recommendation from your boss and set aside time to search the web for scholarships.

It may seem like searching for and finding scholarships is impossible; but, successfully garnering scholarship funding could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your lifetime.

Make sure to share this article with your family, friends and all the members of your ideal scholarship hunting team. Remember, “teamwork makes the dream work!”

Image Credit: Pixabay

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