Tips for Your College Scholarship Search!

There and thousands of college scholarships available to high school students every year which can of course be overwhelming. In an effort to help students narrow down their search, Bremen High School College & Career Counselor Kristine Bonebrake provides some effective scholarship search techniques.

1. Don't waste your time with website generated scholarship sites

Everyone always searches the internet for scholarship opportunities and they will of course find websites that generate these opportunities by the hundreds. However, most of these opportunities are commercial related. While there are a lot of scholarships available through these sites, your name is essentially thrown into a hat with everyone else who has access to the web and did the same thing. It is better to spend your time and energy applying to scholarships elsewhere.

2. Start closest to home

Students should start with what's closest to them, which is usually family. Does mom or dad's company offer a scholarship? What about an aunt or uncle's company? After that, students should look a little further around their community. There are plenty of scholarship opportunities through churches, rotary or service organizations, villages, park districts, unions, and other organizations. Many of these scholarships aren't posted online so there will be a smaller pool of competitors. Plus, the student will have a better chance of winning the scholarship if they're local to the area. Additionally, students should make sure to look into scholarships offered at the schools they are interested in. Again, there will be a smaller applicant pool.

3. Use your high school resources

Every high school usually has a scholarship that's available to only their students. Bremen High School has its own scholarships available to solely Bremen students, but there are also District 228 scholarships available such as the Schmidt Most Improved Scholarship provided through the District 228 Educational Foundation. Additionally, most high schools have college counselors who are ready and available to help. If your school has a career and college resource site, this is a bonus too! District 228 schools use a a program called Naviance where counselors upload all local scholarships for students. With just a login and the knowledge of how to use the program, students have hand-picked opportunities right at their fingertips.

4. Fill out FAFSA

Just do it. Because FAFSA is based on need, many students believe they will not get any aid. While this might be true, many colleges still want students to fill out FAFSA. When the student goes to apply for scholarships and aid at their college of choice, the school may decide to award the student money simply because they didn't receive anything from FAFSA opposed to other students. Believe it or not, colleges try to be fair with how money is distributed.

5. Be prepared

Students should be prepared when they go to fill out scholarships with items such as letters of recommendation, personal essays, transcripts, and service hours. In the scholarship process you get what you put in so the more you can demonstrate why you deserve the scholarship over someone else, the better.