Start Your Scholarship Search Early

For many high school seniors, by the time you have completed your college applications and turned your attention to scholarships, it’s too late for some awards.  Whether you delay because of procrastination or because you are preoccupied with college applications, if you snooze, you lose. To make sure you don’t miss out on scholarships, we recommend the following:

Begin your scholarship search early, i.e. at the start of your high school senior year

The number one reason most high school seniors miss scholarship deadlines is because they do not start their scholarship search soon enough.  Even if you are not certain what college or university you plan to apply to, start identifying and preparing paperwork for scholarships as soon as possible.

Get organized

If you start off organized, you are less likely to miss an application deadline or forget to ask for a letter of recommendation.  Create a spreadsheet of the awards you want to apply for, along with their deadlines.  As you collect application materials, put each scholarship packet in a separate file folder.  Attach a checklist to the front listing all the required materials and the date you requested and sent the materials.  The checklist should also indicate the deadlines.

Start preparing in advance

Make scholarship applications a part of your normal homework routine. Work on them a little every day. This will prevent you from being overwhelmed and ensure that you don’t turn in hastily completed, last-minute applications. Contact your school or college to provide authenticated copies of your grades, and the Government Department of Immigration for a letter stating proof of citizenship if the scholarship requires it. You usually have to pay a fee for these.

Find out what scholarships are available

Your best scholarship research sources include: this website, local newspapers, scholarship and career fairs and your school guidance counselor.

You can also use these links to find out what scholarships are offered to international students who want to study in the US, Canada and Britain.

For the US:

• http://www.scholarshipexperts.com/
• http://www.usastudyguide.com/Financial_aid.htm
• http://www.edupass.org/finaid/undergraduate.phtml

For Britain:

• http://www.ucas.ac.uk/about_us/media_enquiries/media_releases/2006/2006-01-25

For Canada:

• http://www.studycanada.ca/english/scholarships_canada_international_students.htm#u
• http://www.infozee.com/canada/financial-aid.htm

Reuse your college application essays for scholarships

You can often save yourself some time by editing your college admission essays appropriately and reusing them for your scholarship essays.

Submit your application before the deadline

Don’t wait till the last day to submit your completed applications; try and get them in at least two weeks prior to the deadline date in case the scholarship administrators need to contact you to clarify any points.

Don't despair even if you do miss some application deadlines

Remember that even if you miss some deadlines or don’t receive any awards this year as a high school student, you can reapply next year and for many scholarships you can reapply all the way through college. Apply for the awards that you haven’t already missed the deadline dates for and get ready for next year when, as a college student, a whole new door of scholarship opportunities will open to you.