My daughter, Susie, and I were successful from honest hard work and heeding the advice that we found along the way. If I taught my daughter nothing else in the past 18 years it is: Want the right things; go for what you want; don't stop until you have it! We (mom and daughter) won over 10 scholarships worth over $90,000 and we're still working on it!

• Do your homework! The recipe for scholarships is:
• excellent grades
• excellent GPA
• excellent class rank
• excellent SAT scores
• great extra curricular activities
-- all put together in an attractive package!
• Study hard and get good grades!!! Good grades don't come from luck. They come from hard work! If you need help -- tutoring -- get some, but get good grades -- starting today!!!!
• Buy SAT/ACT software or books and dedicate many hours to studying - at least 60 hours! Make yourself a schedule and stick to it! SAT scores can mean dollars!!!
• PARENTS: Help your children!! STUDENTS: Get your parents to help you!! In my mind, it is more important for the student to spend their time studying, doing volunteer work, writing essays and applications and even some reasonable amount of rest and relaxation than to work at McDonalds. At $100 per week, it would have taken Susie 15 years to earn the over $90,000 she has won so far. I realize that this is not possible for every family, but I'm glad that I could provide Susie with all of the spending money that she needed, and support her by helping her research scholarships.
• Do some volunteer work. You can find some anywhere! Old age homes, day care centers, homeless shelters, dog shelters, the library, the zoo -- you name it!
• Speak to your high school guidance counselor early and often. Be persistent! Local scholarships are more likely than national ones! Check the school guidance counselor early (sophomore year) and often -- once per quarter in sophmore year. Once per week in senior year! Don't be one of those students who your guidance counselor meets for the first time in March of your Senior year - get to know him/her EARLY and they will be much more likely to help you!
• Don't apply for any scholarships for which you, you're own best critic, don't think you're eligible for! Don't waste your time with applications for scholarships based on academics AND need -- unless you have BOTH! Most scholarship committees don't think a family income of $60,000 is truly needy when you're competing against families with $20,000. Most academic-based scholarships don't think a 3.4 GPA is outstanding when 90% of their applicants have 4.0 GPA's! Save your time and effort for scholarships that you are eligible for! Don't do any applications for which you aren't eligible and treat every application for which you are eligible as a gem!
• Study the local possibilities. You have a lot LESS competition with the small local scholarships than you do with the big national scholarships!
• Check all of the local chapters of national organizations -- Lions Club, Elks, Kiwanis, etc. Ask them if they offer any scholarships to local students - most do!
• Do 'blind' internet searchs from everyone of the 'net search engines, searching for "scholarships" on them all - you'd be surprised what you might find!
• Be your own best fan. Don't lie, but always humbly brag about your accomplishments!
• Above all, BE HONEST. Don't lie about finances, grades, work experience, or anything!
• Be prepared to spend a LOT of time on your applications. You are asking these organizations to GIVE YOU MONEY - treat it like a JOB. Dedicate the time necessary to it. Your first 12 applications should take 5 hours each - or more!
• Don't shy away from scholarships based on difficult essays -- if everyone is afraid of them, less people apply, and that improves your odds!
• Read and follow ALL of Bill's tips!! They are the key to our success! "Bill's Tips" give a wonderful step-by-step recipe for a great scholarship application presentation. These tips are wonderful -- and wonderful things sell well wrapped in wonderful packages!
• Be persistent! Spend many hours, starting early, and don't ever quit!
• Use FreSch's Forums -- share your successes and failures and we can all learn from each other! Ask lots of questions and answer others if you can!
• Consider the odds! Your time is better spent applying for a scholarship available only to Italian high school seniors in your county for which there is only one award, than applying for a national scholarship open to all college students for which there is only one award! Yeah, apply for the big one, but spend your real time on the ones with reasonable odds!
• Pick the right people to write your recommendations. Surely, you've impressed someone along the way! And make sure you give them plenty of time to write your recommentation - don't ask them three days before the deadline!
• Look at ALL of the resources! FreSch! is a great database and web page and I've learned a lot here. I credit all of our winnings to Laura, Bill, Caryl, Ron, and the rest of the FreSch bunch! While none (so far!) of our scholarships came directly from the FreSch database, what we learned here helped us win so many others! Be realistic! Don't put all of your eggs in one basket! Study FreSch - and use ALL the other free scholarship databases!
• Never pay any money for information or applications!
• Apply to schools which accept students with lower credentials than yours. That will make you more desireable and more likely to get a financial award!
• Watch deadlines -- a late application is just as well filed in the trash!
• Be realistic. If you don't have TRUE need (and most of us DO NOT) and you don't have truly great grades or SAT's or community service -- pick a school that you can afford. Apply to a few that you can afford and a few that you can't. If the scholarships come through -- you're in. More likely, if they don't, then you're still in! If you have to go two years to a community college and two years to a state school, you'll still have a great education!

Search for {scholarship} {grants} {college} {education} {university} {financial aid} {student loan} {fellowships} {internships} {minority scholarship} Webmasters Earn Cash!