Although many students want to go to college, few have
the financial resources to do so without scholarships, grants or loans. I’m
completely against loans, since they have a tendency to destroy a graduate’s
future. That leaves grants and scholarships, but they don’t magically appear.
Someone has to apply for them.
When writing my book, Free College Awareness, I realized I didn’t complete many chapters
without having a specific goal, with a time limit. Once I set this up, the
chapters almost seemed to write themselves. This could be true for scholarship
and grant applications too. I suggest setting up a routine for finding, filling
out, and submitting college scholarship and grant forms.
To this end, I propose a challenge over the upcoming
Thanksgiving holiday. For most students, this means four days. For others, it
may be five days. Whichever is the case for you, pick the number of
applications you wish to submit during this time. They will all be completed online,
of course, so you don’t have to worry about offices being closed. My suggestion
is a minimum of one per day, better yet, set your goal at two or three.
You’ll still have time for visiting with family and
friends, watching football or the Twilight Zone Marathon, and eating lots of turkey
or ham. Discuss your family’s travel plans with your parents in advance. Block
this time out on a calendar (you can print templates online for free). Then block
out your sleep schedule. You’ll do a terrible job if you’re sleep deprived.
You now know when you have free time for meeting this scholarship/grant
application challenge. Use a red pen to outline the times you are allotting to
find, complete and submit your applications. If you have already filed at least
one, you know how much time you’ll need for each. The average student takes
about an hour, after the first one.
Sure, vacations should be fun, but wouldn’t you
dedicate ten hours of the 120 over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday if doing
so might result in being awarded thousands of dollars for college? Go ahead and
do it. I dare you.
For more information, you’ll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing. How to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.
You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com
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