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 often destroy a graduate’s future. That
leaves grants and scholarships. They don’t magically appear. Someone has to
apply for them.
When writing my book, Free College, I realized I
didn’t complete writing many chapters without having a specific goal, with a
time limit. Once I set this up, the chapters seemed to write themselves. This
is 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 Winter Break. For most
students, this means two weeks. For others, it may be three. 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 would be two or three.
You’ll still have time for visiting with family and friends,
watching football or parades, opening presents, and eating lots of turkey or
ham. Discuss your family’s travel plans with your parents in advance. Block out
time 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. The average
student takes about an hour, after the first one.
Sure, vacations should be fun, but why not dedicate 20 hours of
the 500 over the upcoming Winter Break to applying for scholarships? Doing so
might result in being awarded thousands of dollars for college. Go ahead and do
it. I dare you.
For daily updates to help students earn free money for college, check out my Twitter feed, @elizawallace27. For even more information on college planning and scholarships, you’ll want my new book, Free College. It’s for families of Pre-K through High School students. Scroll to the top of this page, click on the image of my book on the right, and buy it now from Amazon.
You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com
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This is excellent advice for every young person. They must set goals and realize that college is not going to pay for itself.
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