The cost of a university degree has never been higher than it is right now. The thought of paying a student loan for decades puts getting a degree out of reach for many people. Working your way through school is not really an option either as it could interfere with your grades and make it harder to get a good job when you graduate.
This is the reason that getting a scholarship, or more than one scholarship, is essential to being able to afford college. Even just a portion of the tuition being taken care of would make a huge difference. It’s important to know how to have success in getting scholarships ahead of time.
In this article, we will give you some tips to get the most you can in scholarships for college.
Start early
The better you do at school from junior high school on is going to give you a huge advantage when it comes to getting a scholarship.
Make sure to be taking advanced placement classes starting from freshman year of high school and getting good grades. Also, being active in extracurricular activities will put you on the radar of many scholarship programs.
There is a bonus from excelling at school from early on. You can also get into better schools in addition to qualifying for more scholarships. Think about how hard is it to get into Cornell University and put the work in to achieve it.
Even if you don’t end up getting into an Ivy League school, you will be qualified for a lot of scholarships that could pay your entire tuition for another school.
Research what it takes to get certain scholarships as soon as you can so you can then think about what course to take to qualify. It also helps to practice applying even though you shouldn’t send the applications.
This will give you writing practice as it is important to have a well-crafted application.
Apply to the right college
Most colleges have scholarship programs that help prospective students pay for tuition. Look for the schools that offer the most and see if their program fits into your plans. If they offer the degree you are interested in then target these schools so you can have a good shot at getting a scholarship.
Financial aid is different than scholarships as it is tied to your parent’s income and ability to pay. But scholarships are usually merit-based so it is likely that your perseverance and good grades will get you some money.
Keep applying
Even after you’ve been accepted and actually started classes you should still be applying for scholarships. You can get accepted and apply it to the next years of your schooling and save a lot of money still.
There are new scholarships being added all the time so keep researching and you may find new ones to apply for while you are already studying.
