Encouraging Juniors To Begin The Scholarship Process

Guest post by Monica Matthews,  Scholarship Expert

College scholarship searching and applying are traditionally done in a student’s senior year of high school.  High school juniors, however, can take a huge leap in the process by starting before their crazy-busy senior year begins.  There are many benefits of starting the college scholarship searching process early. First, the competition for scholarships aimed at the high school junior is much less than for those directed at high school seniors.  Most students and their parents are not even aware of college scholarships that are just for high school juniors, such as the Nordstrom Scholarship and the Discover Card Scholarship, to name a few.  Encouraging students to search for and apply for these scholarships gives juniors experience at writing essays, personal statements, and calculating community service hours. Another benefit of applying for scholarships as a junior is making early contact with high school teachers and asking them to write letters of recommendation.  A high school junior can prepare a scholarship resume, hand it to their favorite teacher, and show that teacher how serious they are about winning scholarships to help pay for college.  When those same teachers are swamped with letter of recommendation requests from seniors in the fall for college and scholarship applications, high school juniors who have already applied for scholarships will have their letters in hand ready to submit. There is a lot of money out there to be won in the form of college scholarships.  The earlier a student can prepare and apply for them, the better their chances of winning.  Becoming comfortable with the scholarship process early gives students feelings of confidence and takes away the fear of the unknown that often accompanies writing essays, filling out applications, and asking for letters of recommendation.  For more tips and advice on winning college scholarships, visit http://how2winscholarships.com.]]>