How to Win College Scholarships

Start searching early - apply often

You are a high school senior, or soon will be and you want to win scholarships, but struggle to find the time to really put your best foot forward and apply to win.

In order to win scholarships, you need to take the time to apply. I mean really apply, with all that goes with it. Try, fail, try again, nothing... crickets. Guess what? Try again. Keep trying. Frustrated and feeling like you may never win a scholarship, but you keep on trying. That's the will it's going to take.

I know this sounds like something a drill sergeant would yell at you while you are doing pushups, but it's basically true. Find the time. MAKE the time. If you want to win. You really just need to get that first win and then you will be hooked. There’s nothing like a little success to kick your search into the next gear.

If it was easy, everyone would do it

To put it plainly, you typically get out of something as much as you put into it. If you spent 5 minutes "applying" for 20 scholarships, well, so did hundreds of thousands of others and each of you has the same chance of winning, since none of you provided anything that sets you apart. The great thing about essay scholarships or a scholarship that requires a short video, etc. is that you know each scholarship is being reviewed and judged and that there will be fewer applicants.

Given how quick and easy it is to do, it's worth applying for those “easy” scholarships. But, if you don't also spend some time finding and applying for the lower competition scholarships, the ones that may require more time but will have way fewer applicants, you aren’t very likely to win.

I get it. I truly do. Time is in short supply. However, it takes time and effort, in most cases, to accomplish things worth accomplishing. That includes finding money for college. It's understandable that students don't want to spend any more time on applying for scholarships than is necessary. The ones who find and/or make the time– maybe an hour or two a week, even, will be the ones who win scholarships.

Set yourself apart from the competition

I have been doing this a long time and I have personally communicated with scholarship winners and read their stories. We have published interviews with students who used our free scholarship search platform to find scholarships and then spent the requisite amount of time applying for a number of them.

Read these interviews if you want to better understand what it takes to win. Do what these students did and avoid tens of thousands of dollars in student debt later down the road.

Start applying for scholarships today

You are awake about 112 to 120 hours a week. If you took even one or two hours of that time each week and spent it searching for and applying for scholarships, just think how much you would increase your chances of winning. Start right now and commit a couple of hours a week to the process.

With a little sacrifice, you could put yourself in a much better position to pay for college without taking on a bunch of student loan debt when you graduate.

So, how can you win scholarships to pay for college?

The best way to find and apply for scholarships is to create a profile on Scholarships.com. This allows you to be matched with scholarships that fit your qualifications. If you already have an account, simply log in to access your personalized list. Use the icons to group and organize:

• = Favorite - Select this icon to save the scholarship to apply to later.
• = Applied - Select this icon to indicate you have applied for the scholarship..
• = Won! - Select this icon to indicate you applied for and WON this particular scholarship.
• = Hide - Select this icon to hide a scholarship from your list of matches.

Start now. If you are only a freshman in high school, a sophomore, or particularly if you are a high school junior, don't let that stop you. See what is available now and what will be later in high school. Stay organized. Keep track of the status of each scholarship and keep notes of the deadlines. Once you have created your Scholarships.com profile, you will receive emails each week to remind you of approaching scholarship deadlines.

Return and log-in to your Scholarships.com account often. Make sure all of your information is up to date and complete. See if there are any new scholarships in your list of matches or just continue reviewing, saving and organizing them as favorites or those you have applied for.

Be sure to apply for scholarships that you feel really match well to your abilities and interests. In particular, be sure to apply for scholarships with requirements beyond your name and email address. Do the work and set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants. Don't worry about being the best essay writer, jut focus on being yourself and answering the prompt as best you can.