Each year on October 1st, the FAFSA website opens for applications for the following school year. Those letters stand for
Federal Application for Student Aid.
So, if you currently have a senior in high school, you should be filing out this application right now!
I will say a heartfelt Ughhhh… to this lengthy and confusing
application. But, after a pot of strong coffee, at least two hours of your time, and a nearly continuous round of
sighing, you emerge with a pretty good idea of how much of a PELL Grant your
student can expect to receive for their next year of college. PELL
grants are government grants for higher education, which do not need to
be repaid. They are based on your income and savings, and your
student's income and savings. Your student's savings are more heavily
weighted than yours.
While,
it's great to get money from the government to help with college, I
gotta be honest and tell you that this money isn't going to pay all the
bills associated with higher education.
College Without Debt
Living under the median is scary when it comes to wanting our children to achieve at least a four year post-high school degree. Let's face it, we all want our children to do better than we did. We don't want to see them struggle, like we are. Often, just putting food on the table, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their back are life's top priorities. College seems like a pipe-dream, reserved for the wealthy. The only alternative appears to be burdening ourselves or our students with massive amounts of student loans.
I am here today to tell you that college without debt IS a possibility for your children and your family! My oldest son has won over $40,000 in scholarships and is on track to graduate with no student debt. We will have contributed just $1000 a year to his higher education. Today, I'd like to share with you ten things that he did to apply for and win scholarships.
1. ACT or SAT
Top scores on the ACT or SAT are important. Just 1 or 2 points
can make a difference of several thousand dollars of scholarships. My son took the ACT twice in order to get the
score that he wanted. It is not a terribly expensive test to re-take.
Check with the colleges that your student is interested in attending. Many scholarships from universities are tied to ACT or SAT scores. Each school should have a list of amounts and the minimum ACT or SAT score needed to be considered for each scholarship.
ACT/SAT Prep Classes: If your
local high school or college offers an SAT/ACT prep class, take it! They give
you tips on how to take the test and sample exams. This class will cost you
under $100 at a local community college.
2. A Well-Rounded Student
Scholarship committees are looking for more than good
grades. They want well-rounded students, who have perhaps balanced a part-time
job with academics and been involved in community activities.
3. Show your student’s passion
Show the
committee your child's passions in tangible ways. My son has always loved
history and cares about preserving artifacts for future generations. But,
straight A's in history mean more when you put your time into it! My son sought
out and was offered a 1 year internship with our local historical society when he was
15. They trained him on cataloguing artifacts and using their on-line data
base. He was also a re-enactor for local historical events. Both of
these activities told the scholarship committee something about his character
and love of history.
4. Community Positions
Involvement in leadership positions. Do they lead a Bible
study for young people, volunteer for Girl Scouts or 4H? List anything that shows
your teen has sought out opportunities to impact the lives of others in a
positive direction. Scholarship committees also like to see students who have invested their efforts over a period of time.
The "why" is sometimes as important as the "what". So, if your student tutored low-income students for four years because he or she saw the impact of poverty on how those students performed in school and desperately wanted to make a difference in their lives, THAT'S what you want the scholarship committee to know!
Before you ever begin filling out scholarship applications, have your student practice summing up their involvement in as few words as possible, without leaving out any details. Dialogue with them about adjectives and "feeling" words, which will convey their heart and their motivations, without taking up extra space. Believe me, most applications give you very little word count to tell the committee who you are. You have to come up with ways to make your student stand out from the pack - using a few insightful and impactful words!
5. Finding Scholarship opportunities.
Talk to friends, neighbors, work associates, and fellow parishioners. Sometimes great scholarships are found by word-of-mouth.
6. Even Small Amounts Add Up
7. Exceptional Writing Skills
8. Read Applications Carefully
Before they submit their scholarship application, they
need to CAREFULLY check to be certain they have included every single item that
is requested. If answers are even one word more than the allowable limit, they
will be denied entry into the competition. If even one item is missing from the
scholarship packet, same thing. Watch those deadlines! If your student's application arrives even one day late, they are going to put that entry into the circular file and it will not be considered!
9. Get recommendations!
A lot of scholarships ask for 2 or 3
recommendations. Have your student think about friends, mentors, and
instructors who would be willing to give them a personal
recommendation. Most of the time that person will need to log onto a
server and submit that recommendation themselves. But, sometimes the
student can simply include the recommendations with his or her
application. Have three people write and sign an undated recommendation
and then e-mail it to your student as a PDF attachment . Your student
can make a copy of these recommendations and include them with
scholarship applications. My son always sent a text or e-mail to these
friends and colleagues whenever he used them for a new scholarship
application. That way, if the scholarship committee contacted them,
they would not be surprised or taken off guard.
10. Keep it organized!
Have your
student keep a spreadsheet of scholarships they are interested in applying for
with columns for deadline, name of scholarship, items to include in the
application, and a column to check off when they are finished with each
element.
Keep a hard-copy! Print off the spreadsheet, all applications, transcripts, and professional and personal recommendations. You can make notations in red pen on the hard copy to keep track of any additional thoughts. If your computer crashes, you don't want all your hard work to be lost!
BONUS TIP: Community College
Consider starting out at community college. They are a quarter
of the cost of a traditional 4 year college and, just like their counterparts,
offer fantastic scholarships.
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