High School Students
Investigate Scholarship Options Early
High school students who hope to earn
college scholarships and grants should begin researching
scholarship opportunities during their sophomore or junior year of high
school or even earlier. It’s important to find out what types of
scholarships for high school students are available, so that you can take
steps toward making sure you are eligible well in advance of the time you will need
to apply. By investigating scholarship options early, you’ll have time to take the
right classes and beef up your resume to ensure you have the best chance of winning
scholarships when it comes time to start applying.
For example, the National Key Club scholarship program is open only to Key Club
members with two years of tenure in the organization. If you wait until your senior
year to join the key club, you will have eliminated yourself from consideration
for this type of scholarship. Additionally, the
Dell Scholars Program is open to only those individuals who spent a minimum
of two years in an approved college readiness program. Students who hope to receive
these prestigious scholarships must plan ahead in order to qualify.
These are not the only
scholarship awards that have participation requirements. Many of the awards
most worth winning have specific eligibility requirements, rather they be a certain
GPA, a certain ACT score (just imagine coming across this and realizing the next
ACT test day is after the scholarship application deadline), a record of
community service, or any number of other criteria. The earlier you investigate
scholarship options, the earlier you’ll know not only what’s out there, but what
you’ll have to do to win.
By conducting a scholarship search and researching
scholarship and grant oportunities early on in your high school career,
you can be at an advantage when it comes to scholarship eligibility. Then, when
your senior year of high school arrives and you begin the scholarship application
process in earnest, you can put your name in for tons of awards for which you’re
clearly eligible, rather than beating yourself up and thinking of what could have
been.