Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 22: Avoid Unimportant Distractions

Saturday’s we share a tip or caution to facilitate getting scholarships or avoiding problems

Gerry wanted to go to college, but couldn’t afford tuition without some financial aid. He came to our staff for assistance. The search engines indicated that Gerry qualified to apply for more than 150 scholarships. The number surprised him. The staff helped him begin preparing his reusable materials. At this point, Gerry’s excitement waned. He began missing scheduled appointments. He delayed 5 months before completing his master application and another 8 months finishing his reusable essays. He didn’t start applying for scholarships until over a year later. His list of qualifying scholarships decreased to less than 80 because of the delay.

Unimportant Distractions Unrelated to Applying for Scholarships

Many students, in high school and out of high school, begin seeking scholarships, but become easily distracted. The source of distractions may be related to applying for scholarships. Still other sources of distractions may not have relationship to applying for scholarships.

Sources of unrelated distractions include:

• Family, friends, and school mates
• Video or computer games
• Work and civic responsibilities
• Texting and social media
• Homework and other school assignments
• Extracurricular activities like sports, performing arts, and service clubs
• Television, movies, etc.

Unimportant Distractions Related to Applying for Scholarships

Many students allow the process of finding scholarships and preparing reusable materials to delay them from submitting applications. Examples of unimportant distractions that delay people for applying for scholarships include:

• Review search engines without completing profiles
• Overwhelming feelings that the whole process requires too much work and effort
• Doubt that you will be successful, or that the process will get you money for college
• Continually editing your master application, correcting it, and never using it
• Constantly changing your themes and value statements
• Procrastinate asking  people to write letters of recommendation on your behalf

You can avoid these distractions by

• Setting goals for how many scholarships you will find each week
• Establish a deadline for completing your reusable materials
• Report your progress to a coach or counselor each week or month

Tuesday we share Chegg as a source of money for college

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