Right Major + Right College = Career Success - Helping you get where you were meant to be.
RSS Follow Become a Fan

Recent Posts

Do two year to four year college transfers graduate?
College choices affect postgraduate lifestyle
Why don't institutions who serve students hire people who like them?
MOOC Moves to Save Moolah
What is the one BEST career for my teen?

Most Popular Posts

Discouraging Words
Got an IEP? Don't forget to take it to college.
Letting the kids in on budgetary limits for college
Got a rising high school junior?
Using the summer to your best academic advantage

Categories

Admission Decisions
Adult Students
Campus Safety
Career Planning and College
Choosing the best college for you
College Admission Essays
College application process
College Applications
College Buyer Beware
College Camp
College Costs
College Freshman Adjustment
College Graduation and Beyond
College Major
College Prep
College Prep Opportunities
College Scholarships
College succcess
College Transfer
Early preparation for college
Education Consumerism
FAFSA
FInancial Aid
Financial Aid and Scholarships
Getting in....or not
Highly Selective Colleges
IEP
Learning Disability Accommodations
Money and College
MOOC
Moolahversity
Online College
Parent and Grandparent Support
Parent and Grandparent Support in the College Process
Parent and student relationships in the college process
Parenting Teens
Positioning Students for Success
Scholarships
Social Media and College
Student Loan Debt
Student Loans
Success Hints
Summer Activities
The Junior Year
To-do lists
powered by

College Talk Blog

Scholarship paper chase

Scholarships. Parents hope for them but are often unsure how to proceed.  Students and parents find the entire college financing process mysterious and confusing.  They may not know that they should pursue scholarships until it is too late, usually when they receive a college admissions or financial aid offer significantly less than the actual cost of college. 
 
Students know scholarships are nice to have but they're busy, way too busy.   Because students are unaware of the condition of family finances,they may believe their parents have that whole college cost thing handled.
 
Often students and parents expect the college admission office to send a scholarship offer with their acceptance letter.  While that does happen to some, too many receive no scholarship attached to their acceptance letter.
 
The least effective approach is to leave the whole scholarship process up to the college or the student. Colleges differ in how much scholarship money they have and how it is distributed. Students lack sufficient motivation to do the work required to apply for scholarships because they do not have the experience to grasp the cost of college.  They are also usually unaware of family financial challenges.  They often do not know how to proceed.  And when they do begin the process and see the amount of work involved, they often give up scholarship applications in favor of other pressing deadlines for high school academic work and college admission applications.
 
A much more effective approach to the scholarship process is to:
 
  1. approach the scholarship chase as a family, discussing family resources in relation to college costs, to set an important foundation for making college plans
  2. join forces as an extended family with the student in searching for scholarships
  3. develop a scholarship tool kit filled with the items typically requested by scholarship grantors to reduce the stress of the application process
  4. make a scholarship application spreadsheet so that important scholarship deadlines are not missed
 
The bottom line is not to leave the scholarship process to the student.  It is best managed by a family or the student with at least one adult supporting the student in the process.
 

2 Comments to Scholarship paper chase:

Comments RSS
click here on Thursday, January 24, 2013 8:04 AM
Thank you for posting the great content…I was looking for something like this…I found it quiet interesting, hopefully you will keep posting such blogs…
Reply to comment


Foundation in Canberra on Thursday, February 21, 2013 6:04 AM
Your blog helped me a lot in my scholarship. I am really glad to comment here. Keep updating in future.
Reply to comment

Add a Comment

Your Name:
Email Address: (Required)
Website:
Comment:
Make your text bigger, bold, italic and more with HTML tags. We'll show you how.
Post Comment