4 Ways to Increase Odds of Winning College Scholarships

Paying for College
1

"High school students can win college scholarships for a variety of reasons. So it might be tempting to fill a resume with many experiences in the hopes of catching the attention of a scholarship committee.

Instead, consider strategically making the most of your high school years. There are plenty of ways you can strengthen your scholarship applications while pursuing your passions inside and outside of the classroom. Here are four of the most common ways you can become a competitive scholarship applicant." …

https://www.usnews.com/education/scholarship-search-insider/articles/2018-03-29/4-ways-to-increase-odds-of-winning-college-scholarships

2

Interesting that the cited article never once uses the word “leadership”.

Thank you for posting this article.

3

It is very, very difficult to win a large, national scholarships. We had great results at the local/state level. I would caution parents and students to be very, very careful about lesser-known national scholarships - while they may hand out a $1000 award, some are really just data gatherers. I saw one that asked for the student’s social security number!

4

I recommend that anyone looking for advice on scholarships read anything posted by @CourtneyThurston . She had amazing success with scholarships: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-major-scholarships-competitions/1901217-i-won-292-500-in-outside-scholarships-and-almost-425k-total-my-story-p1.html

5

Thanks for tagging me, @Lindagaf

I’m happy to help however I can.

The outside scholarship game is a bit of a toss-up. I personally had a lot of success with national/international scholarships, and almost NO success with local scholarships. Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason for these things.

6

I just want to help the ones who will apply to top colleges. This can be helpful for your grad school, also. It is an advice that is given by college advisors after charging thousands, but I just found out about it. It is late to help mine, but it will definitely help if you do it ASAP. Remember, helping a few dozen kids with STEM program will not be enough, but recruiting helpers and reaching out to several thousands of low income students will guarantee acceptance to Harvard and more. It isn’t difficult at all to reach out to thousands when you count everyone who shows up even if they don’t show up every gathering. More than few students used this method over the years, and they got huge scholarship based on community service and acceptance to almost every college. See the link: Post #790. Don’t wait until fall. Start the volunteering group now and grow it. Even for a grad school, this will help since college puts heavy emphasis on community service.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/2041489-harvard-university-class-of-2022-rd-thread-p53.html

7

I work at a grad school, and we don’t care a whit about community service. We do care very much about experience in the field of study, however.

8

There are lottery scholarships, sure. But applying for the biggies requires the same savvy as for a top college.

Of course, the author works for a loan service company.