How to Win Summer College Scholarship Money

The other day I wrote about a tasty scholarship offer and before that I wrote about great resources for finding other resources:

Where to find scholarship money:
www.eStudentLoan.com
www.fastaid.com
www.fastweb.com
www.finaid.org

But the way you apply and how you fill out the application has a significant affect on your chances of winning. At least that's what I read and it makes a lot of sense. It is surely better to be safe than sorry so if you are going through the hassle of filling our a scholarship, do it as well as you can so you can actually win.

How to help your chances at winning:

1. Double check that you are fully eligible
2. Complete the application in full, not just the required fields.
3. Follow every direction, even if it seems cumbersome. If it asks you to mail in folders and you don't, it may disqualify you.
4. Be neat. Type as much as you can, what you can't try to feed into a printer. If you have bad hand writing, be slow and careful.
5. Write an essay to make an impression. Be honest about yourself but be bold.
6. Stay well ahead of the deadlines.
7. Double check and confirm to make sure your application was received where it was needed.
8. Keep a saved back up. You may be able to reuse parts of your essay/application, plus it is good to have in case things go wrong.
9. Re-read, get rid of access. Be a perfectionist.
10. Ask for help via phone or email if you need it. This can help establish a personal connection with the organization.

The best tip of all is to stop reading about it and start filling out those applications.
I have decided I will spend 2 hours tomorrow on filling out applications. When will you do it? Why not now?

Best of luck to all!