Friday, December 11, 2015

Staggering your scholarships

This advice comes a day later than initially promised, but here it is. If you've been researching scholarships and you've got a lot lined up, you might be feeling pretty overwhelmed. Don't let that stop you! Here are some easy ways to organize getting things done.

First, ask yourself the following questions about all of the scholarships you want to spend time doing:
1) Which are the most complicated?
2) Which are coming up the soonest?

Organize all the scholarships by when their deadlines are, chronologically. It may help you to print them out and organize them visually, or create notecards and do the same thing - on each card, write the requirements (like an essay or letter of recommendation).

Now is when you're going to have to multitask. Start chipping away - slowly - at the bigger scholarships that are do the earliest. Get your letters of recommendation requested, start drafting essays, figure out if you can use parts of one scholarship essay for multiple scholarship essays. While you're waiting for letters to come in, or taking a break, do as many of the smaller, easier scholarships as possible regardless of when they're due. The more of those little ones you do, and the earlier you turn them in, the higher your chances will be.

Ideally, you'll want to be finished with your Big Scholarship Essays about two weeks early. This will give you time to chase down any straggling letters of recommendation, and take your essay down to the Writing Center to have it proof-read!

Any other questions? Need tips on how to ask for a letter of recommendation? Feel free to comment here, or email any of us, and we'll answer on the blog!

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