If you’re in high school, the only thing you may have on your mind is getting out of your parent’s house. What you should be thinking about is the college education that you will be quickly approaching. As much as it sucks to think about this, you need to start figuring out a way to pay for college. Otherwise, you might be stuck at McDonald’s until your retirement. Here are some simple scholarship hunting tips for high school students to help you land the aid you need.
Use the Internet
The internet can be used for a lot more than Facebook. (Gasp!) Indeed, you can find just about every scholarship application you need online, giving you a chance to search for financial aid right at home. You could fill out no essay scholarships on the web in a matter of minutes, or you could complete the lengthy ones that take a few days to get through. No matter what the situation may be, you need to use the internet to your advantage. Start searching for scholarships right away.
Talk to Your Counselor
Your guidance counselor may have access to scholarship information that no one else has. You could talk to one of your teachers about speaking to your counselor during class, and then you could go in when most other students aren’t around. See if he or she has a list of scholarships you can apply to, or if he or she knows of any organizations you could join for scholarship money. You might be surprised by the results.
Contact Your Future College
Just because you’re not in college yet doesn’t mean that you have to stay away from it completely. You could speak with a financial aid advisor for your school of choice and see if you have any scholarship opportunities available at this time. A lot of organizations will contact college financial aid advisors to promote their scholarship contests. All you have to do is get in with one of those people, and you could access awards that otherwise aren’t advertised in the community.
Watch the News
Despite the ever-growing importance of the Kim/Kanye relationship, there is a lot more to the newspaper than the entertainment section. You should keep an eye out for scholarship contests that people are holding in your community. These may be listed in newspapers, mentioned on news shows, advertised in newsletters…etc. If you stay up to date with what is going on in your community, you may get in on a financial aid opportunity you might have missed otherwise.
Take the time to find financial aid now, and you’ll be much better off in the future. All it takes is a keen eye and a little education.
About the Author: Taylor Sheppard is a college student that started looking for scholarships her freshman year of high school. She now gets to attend college debt free because she put in the right amount of effort early on.