For those of you who are hopelessly fighting to receive government grants or University scholarships, it isn't too late to search for smaller scholarships on your own. Trust me, they add up quickly. Here are a couple of steps to take if you aren't ready to give up on getting college scholarships.
1. There are some really great FREE websites out there that can help you find scholarships based on your academics, individual achievements, artwork, composition skills, family heritage, or community service and involvement. To name a few, www.collegeboard.com [1] and especially www.fastweb.com [2] have really come in handy. This way you can search for scholarships that you are actually eligible to apply for and might have an interest in completing the requirements. What's great about these sites is that they list some scholarhips that are even available AFTER you start college. You can continue applying for financial aid well into your college career!
2. Essays are not as long and hard as they seem. I know many students from my high school that I never in a million years would have expected to win a scholarship from an essay contest, but many of them have. Take the time to write one of those 500 word essays. You'll find that it's not hard to accumulate that many words on a page if you just start to type.
3. Have another person look over your essays or applications. They may be able to catch a mistake that you didn't notice. That one mistake could be the difference between receiving the scholarship and having the scholarship committe chuck your application in the discard pile.
4. Lastly, don't put off applying to a scholarhip until the last minute, especially if it requires mailing information. Applications, essays, questionaires, etc. need to be mailed BEFORE the due date. The scholarship committees expect to RECEIVE the application on the specified date. Many times, having the envelope postmarked on that date just won't cut it.
I hope that these few, but effective, ideas will help you in your search for scholarships over the summer!