Process
Life Space Step 1: Make a plan
What you are doing right now will have a big impact on your eligibility for scholarships. How are your grades? Have you been taking challenging classes? Are you involved in extra-curricular or volunteer activities? Are you building good relationships with your counselors and teachers to ensure quality letters of recommendation?
Whether you are an incoming senior or just a freshman you need to have an action plan. Actually the sooner you start the better. Review the guides at the websites below. They are specific to your grade level. Then create your customized plan using the Timeline application at ReadWriteThing.org or type one in your word processing software. You will want to include your plan in your student portfolio.
CollegeBoard.com- Plan for College - Starting Points
LearnMoreIndiana Countdown to College Key Deadlines page.
KnowHow2Go.org - This site has guides per grade level and a virtual tour of KnowHow2Go University.
Peterson's Planner - College Planning Timelines
Indiana Youth Institute's Trip to College site proves that it is never to early to start planning for college. Their timeline starts with kindergarten!
Testing, (PSAT, SAT and ACT) will be included on your timeline. Practice for the tests for free using the database Inspire at the Harrison County Public Library site. Click on the Online Databases link on the opening page. You need to contact the library to get a user name and password by calling 812-738-4110 or e-mailing database at hcpl.lib.in.us. (The quest software will not allow me to link to the e-mail address.) When in the Inspire database select the Testing & Education Reference Center. You can choose the college preparation link to access the PSAT, SAT and ACT practice tests.
Feel free to copy the planning timelines from the internet to add to your portfolio if you think it will help you stay on track. The deadlines are important and it cannot hurt to have plenty of reminders.
Life Space Step 2: Explore College Costs.
In "The Game of Life" you borrow $40,000 from the bank for tuition, but how much is the real life version going to cost? Visit the websites below and use the resources you find there to investigate how much you can expect to spend.
FinAid.org.- College Cost Projector - Calculator Page http://www.finaid.org/calculators/
Students.gov - Calculate College Costs page
CollegeBoard.com has many resources exploring college costs, financial aid and loans at the Pay for College Page - http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/index.html and the Financial Aid Easy Planner page - http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/ep/wizard-home.jsp
Once you have some ideas about costs it would be good to sit down with your parents and create a budget showing savings, income and projected expenses. You can explore the budgeting resources at About.com: Financial Planning article Money and the College the Student . There are several budget worksheet links at this page you could use to create a budget or you could use Excel or Googledocs spreadsheets.
Career Spaces Step 3: Explore Careers and Interests
Financial Aid is often distributed based on need, race, academic and athletic ability. But there is also money to be had if you make the best duck tape prom dress or like to drink milk . Another avenue of searching for scholarships depends on what field you will be entering. Schools set aside funds for specific majors. So before we start searching for scholarships you should probably determine where your interests lie. So choose your career card by taking career inventories and checking out the hot careers lists sites below:
LearnMoreIndiana.org has an Exploring Careers section with interest inventories, career clickers, career profiles and more.
College Personality Quiz from the August 21, 2008 US News and World Report will help you determine if college is the right choice for you and what type of training you might be interested in. Javascript is required and cookies must be enabled to keep a copy of the results.
Career Cruising database at the Harrison County Public Library site offers a variety of online career guidance and planning tools to help you find the right career. When you get to the homepage click on the online databases link. You will need to ask the library for a username and password to access this database by calling 812-738-4110 or e-mailing database at hcpl.lib.in.us (the software will not allow me to put the e-mail address in as a link.)
Indiana Department of Workforce Development offers a Hoosier Hot 50 Jobs list and other occupational information.
The U.S. Department of Labor Career One Stop page allows you to identify interests, explore careers and find education options.
JobStarCentral offers salary information, career guides and resume help.
Were you surprised at the results or have you always known what you wanted to be? Print and save any inventory or quiz results to include in your portfolio.
Pay Day Step 4: Search for Scholarships
Check with your guidance counselor about scholarship forms that are available through your school. Deadlines are very important. You do not want to miss out on money because you missed the deadline.
Federal FAFSA - This Free Application for Federal Student Aid must be completed to receive college aid from most any source. Parents and students need to complete the form each year and submit it by March 10 to meet the Indiana deadline. Much of the information required to complete the form has to be taken from that year's tax returns. Forms can now be completed on-line.
Local Scholarships
Harrison County Community Foundation has given thousands and thousands of dollars in scholarships to Harrison County students every spring since 1998. Check with your guidance counselor about obtaining a scholarship form. Beginning in January 2010 the forms are being made available at the foundation website.
Harrison County students are eligible for some of the scholarships administered through the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana. The site contains a 10 page downloadable PDF that details each scholarship.
Online Scholarship searches
College Scholarships, Colleges and Online Degrees has 101 Top College, University, and Scholarship Web Pages. The scholarship search is free but there are products for sale at this site.
CollegeNet.com Mach 25 claims to be a $1.6 billion scholarship database.
FastWeb.com boasts 1.5 million scholarships and grant opportunities.
Indiana Dollars for Scholars site has more than 100 on-line sources to help with the college search.
Peterson's College Planner Scholarship Central offers a free scholarship search.
Student Aid on the Web details Federal Student Aid programs including grants and loans.
Students.gov Scholarships and Grants page includes scholarship search directories for private scholarships and government grants.
StudentScholarshipSearch.com has free searchable database of college scholarships and grants updated daily.
SuperCollege.com has a free database of scholarships, grants and contests.
UNCF - The United Negro College Fund
United States Department of Veteran's Affairs gives the details of the GI Bill.
Twenty-first Century Scholars Program "began in 1990 as Indiana's way of raising the educational aspirations of low and moderate-income families. The program aims to ensure that all Indiana families can afford a college education for their children." You must have applied in junior high school to participate.
Military
Some students choose to join the military to pay for their education. Make sure you know what you are getting into. Joining the military is a huge commitment and it could cost you your life. If you are considering this option, talk with your family and friends who have military experience. Do not just rely on what the recruiters tell you. Make sure a career in the military is your real objective not just finding money for college.
Army - Money for your education from the Army Study Guide site.
U.S. Airforce ROTC - http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/
Navy - http://www.navy.com/
National Guard- The Army National Guard and the Air Guard both offer some educational assistance.
If you have already made your college choice, make sure you talk with that college's financial aid department. Many colleges offer money to incoming freshman with certain GPAs or class ranks. Find out how much you can get and how to apply for these college specific scholarships. For instance Indiana State University gives incoming freshman with a certain GPA a Laptop Scholarship and the University of Southern Indiana gives freshmen with high academic standing a set scholarship amount. The college or university you choose might have a similar program. Make sure you ask.
Find at least 10 scholarships for which you qualify. Using Word or another word processing system keep track of the scholarships that interest you. Note the URL's, deadlines and other requirements.
Pay Day Step 5: Applying for Scholarships.
Resume
You will be filling out a lot of forms, both paper and on-line, and it is smart to keep your vital statistics all together in an organized format such as a resume because you will need to use this information over and over again. Studentjobs.gov offers an on-line resume builder where you can create and store a resume or you can use Microsoft Word or the word processing program of your choice. Word includes several resume templates. Information you will need to gather includes your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, parents' names and occupations, social security number, GPA, SAT, ACT and/or PSAT scores, class rank, leadership positions, extracurricular activities, job experience, volunteer activities, references and more... Make sure you have informed your references that you are using them for your applications. Some scholarships require letters of recommendation. You need to ask teachers, counselors, bosses and other adults who have a good opinion of you to write letters of recommendation well in advance of scholarship deadlines. Since your resume will have personal, confidential information such as your social security number, keep it in a safe place. Save a paper copy and electronic copy for your portfolio.
Essay
Some scholarship applications require a student essay. Here are some websites with tips for creating a winning composition.
The Princeton Review College Essay page
Kansas State University's page Writing Scholarship Essays
San Diego State University (SDSU) Scholarship Essay Writing Tips Page
eCampusTours.com offers advice on writing your college admissions and scholarship essays.
AcademicTips.org gives writing scholarship essay tips.
Some of the websites above may be selling products. You do not need to buy their products to use their good information.
Write a rough draft scholarship essay. You will have to adapt the length and content depending on which scholarship you are applying for but the rough draft will be good practice and a good starting point. Put a copy of your essay in your student portfolio.
Now you are ready to complete the scholarship applications. If you are completing the application on-line, go back and make sure you did not make any typing mistakes. Print copies for your student portfolios. If you are completing applications by hand, make a copy of the application before you begin in case you make a mistake. Then write very carefully and clearly. You do not want to lose a scholarship opportunity due to poor handwriting. Make copies of any application you complete for your student portfolio.
The best advice is to apply, apply, apply. You can not receive a scholarship unless you apply. The more scholarships you apply for the greater the chances you will receive some financial aid.
Make sure you completed the tasks in the evaluation section.