Justin started college without applying for any financial aid. He didn’t think he qualified for scholarships as a high school student, so he never applied for them. His first semester of college opened his eyes to how much it cost to get an education. He came to us seeking help. We helped him prepare a reusable master application with great home-run or value statements. He used the search engines to find 150 sources of financial aid. He did not qualify fully for many of them, but qualified enough to get $37,000 of scholarships within 12 months.
Q: Some web sites won’t let me submit my application, why?
A: We’ve seen this happen a lot in the last two years. Scholarship web sites cease to accept applications once the deadline has passed. Usually you will find an advisory on the web site stating that the deadline has passed and that they will not accept applications until a certain date. We recommend that you flag your calendar to submit the application for the next rotation of the scholarship cycle.
We also want to remind you that many scholarship committees award money several times a year, so you also want to flag those deadlines.
Q: How long does it take to earn scholarships?
A: Each scholarship differs on how long they deliberate before selecting recipients. We’ve had some people who received awards within months of submitting the application. One father told our staff in September that his son, who attended our workshop in May, already had been awarded $60,000. Other clients told us that they heard they received a scholarship 12 months after they submitted the application.
Most will tell you how long you have to wait before they send you the money. Some scholarship sponsors list the names of recipients on their web sites. You can find out how long it took them to receive the award. Some committees state in the application how long they deliberate.
Saturday we share several cautions about applying for scholarships and the search engines
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