College Scholarships?


Question:
I am currently a high school junior and I am about to graduate from this year in a couple of weeks. However, it will only be another year until I go to college, and I would like to start searching for scholarships and other things like that now so that I have a good chance of getting some. Do you have any ideas on what I could do to start my search?

Answer:
You could go to safe scholarship sites like:
www.fastweb.com
www.scholarships.com
Also, ask around town in the big businesses to see if they offer any scholarships. Most mportantly, your counselor should have many scholarship applications that you can apply for.
You can do the big scholarship search engines, as Patricia suggested. They're a great jumping-off point, but the trouble is that every other high schooler in the country is applying for those contests, too. I won about $35,000 in independent scholarships before I left for school, and all of mine were under-the-radar awards that would never have shown up on FastWeb.

Try contacting local groups like the Elks Lodge, the Rotary Club, and the Optimist Club. They love to help young people, and chapters often have awards and competitions that are not well-publicized. The Veterans of Foreign Wars run a great audio essay contest every year; I believe the top prize is $20,000, but there are tons of smaller cash prizes along the way. Guidepost Magazine has an annual essay contest for high schoolers, as well.

Finally, check with groups that relate to your heritage, religion, or interests. There are lots of scholarships that are given within a very narrow category, meaning the applicant pool is smaller. The National Italian American Foundation, for instance, gives generous scholarships to students who are either of Italian descent or plan to study Italian in college. There are tons of similar groups out there.

Best of luck!
You're off to an excellent start by thinking ahead. Good for you! There are some resources online. The first step is to figure out how much money you'll need. The rest depends on your financial situation, your grades in high school and your level of determination (which is apparently strong) to attract the best grants.
To determine how much money you will need for a college, and subsequently a student loan or grant, follow these steps:
http://www.collegecashplace.co...
this site may help http://www.studentfinancialadvisors.com...
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