Scholarships: Tips & Where to Start

Here's where to start searching for attainable scholarships:

• High school counselor
• Visit your local library
• Ask local businesses, churches, and civic organizations
• Contact your local Chamber of Commerce
• Contact your local and state government
• Contact the scholarship office at the college you plan to attend
• FREE online scholarship search engines
• Beware of scams and never pay for assistance to find scholarships

• Create a calendar that lists the deadlines of all the scholarship you want to apply for.
• Send in everything requested and required for by a scholarship application, but nothing extra.
• Put some effort into your essays and customize them for each scholarship application you submit
• Ask for letters of recommendation at least two to three weeks in advance of when they are needed
• Use your resources wisely. Local scholarships are often the easiest to get.
• Be persistent and don't get discouraged. Every application you submit will not result in a scholarship. Rejection letters are part of the process for scholarship applicants. Rejection can be discouraging, but if you give up and stop applying for scholarships, you are guaranteed not to get any funds.
• Start searching for scholarship opportunities throughout middle and high school. Keep a running list of those scholarships for which you've applied, those for which you can't apply until you're a senior, and for those you've received. After you are in college, you can still apply for scholarships! School breaks are a great time to get these out of the way
• Have a plan for your college. The more specific your college plans and goals are, such as where you will attend and what you will study, the more you can target available scholarships to help you finance your education.
• Know your personal strengths and weaknesses. Focus your scholarship search around your talents. Emphasize your strengths, interests, and abilities in scholarship essays. Make allowances for your weaknesses. For example, if you procrastinate, ask someone to hold you accountable to take action or if you are not a good writer, ask someone who is a good writer for feedback on your scholarship essays and applications.
• FastWeb.com has some helpful tips on applying for scholarships.
  

DISCLAIMER: The scholarship pages listed below are not endorsed in any way. They are merely placed here to assist you with searching for scholarships.

• FastWeb
• Federal Student Aid
• Arkansas Department of Education
• FundMyFuture
• Arkansas Community Foundation
• Baxter Regional Medical Center
• U.S. Department of Labor’s free scholarship search
• CollegeBoard
• Scholarship Season
• Farmers & Merchants Bank Scholarships
• Scholarships.com
• FinAid
• Hispanic Scholarship Fund
• UNCF
• Bureau of Indian Education
• Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund
• sayGoCollege
• Elks National Foundation
  
• American Indian College Fund
• Salliemae Scholarship Search
• Gates Millennium Scholars
• Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund