Colleges.com

Scholarships

Most scholarships, whether private or college-based, will have deadlines between November and March of your Senior year. You should have all your resources gathered by November (or sooner if you have an earlier deadline), and plan to have most of your applications completed before you return from Christmas Break, at the latest. Applications filled out at the last minute usually look like they were, so plan ahead. If there is a problem with an application that arrives early, there is time for you to fix it. If you are waiting on test scores to arrive in the mail, you should probably go ahead and send the application in, ensuring its arrival before the deadline, then contact the organization or college when your scores arrive. Given the choice between a late application with test scores included and an application received on time, but lacking a test score that arrives a little later, I’d meet the deadline.

Additional Suggestions

• START A RESUME IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE!
• Always send thank you notes to organizations and individuals involved in awarding you scholarships.
  
• Your counselor is your best resource and friend in this process. Do not take them for granted and do not take advantage of them. Ask how you should go about keeping up with the latest information, without driving them nuts.
  
• Type your applications. It sounds silly, but it makes a difference. Type all scholarship applications, check spelling, sign and date them, and fill out all applicable spaces. Incomplete applications may miss deadlines or even be eliminated from consideration.
  
• Accepting a scholarship from a college is in no way, shape or form a commitment to attend that school. Only when you show up for the first day of class are you truly committed (what are they going to do, come to your house and drag you to their school?). If a deadline to accept a scholarship is upon you, and you still haven’t decided if you will attend their school, but you are genuinely interested, accept the scholarship. You earned it, and you should be able to take whatever time you need to decide. Besides, the college will be able to find someone to take it, should you later decide to decline it. If you do decide to decline it, do it promptly.
  

Here are some more awesome links to scholarships and financial aid searches.
http://www.colleges.com/financialaid
http://www.fastaid.com
http://wwwcollegeispossible.org
http://www.freschinfo.com
http://www.collegenet.com/mach25/
http://www.finaid.org
http://www.collegequest.com
http://www.salliemae.org
http://www.aasa.org/discover.htm

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