credit: legacy.bowlinggreen.kctcs.edu

Follow the Instructions

One of the most important things to check before submitting your application is to make sure that you’ve followed the application instructions to the letter. Did you include all the required elements? Did you keep your essay under the word limit? When you follow the instructions, not only does it speak highly of you to the scholarship committee, it also automatically gives you a leg up over any other applicants who may not have followed the instructions. Many scholarship committees even go so far as to disqualify any applicants who don’t follow the instructions.

Final Presentation

Make sure that the appearance of your application represents you well. Thoroughly proofread everything you wrote and check for any errors. If any part of your application was handwritten, go over it again to ensure it is completely legible. If you’re submitting a paper application, make sure your pages are clean and neatly organized. Unless specifically requested, don’t use any special presentation materials, such as report binders or folders; these can make it difficult for the scholarship committee. Let the quality of the content in your application speak for itself without any bells and whistles.

Addresses

Before sealing your application, ensure that the address you are sending your application to is not only the correct one, but is correctly and clearly written. Scholarship committees usually specify an address to send your application materials to, and it’s not always the same address that’s listed in the Contact Us section of their website. If sending your materials electronically, take care to spell the email address correctly, or your application could end up somewhere in cyberspace instead of in the inbox of the scholarship committee.

Deadlines

Finally, make sure your application will arrive with plenty of time before the deadline. Sometimes scholarship committees require your application to be postmarked by the deadline date and other times they require your application to be received by the deadline date. Whatever the case may be, ensure your application will arrive on time. You don’t want all your hard work to go to waste!

After you’ve sent off your application, pat yourself on the back for a job well done! If you follow this checklist, you can be confident about every scholarship application you submit.

Looking for more scholarships to apply for? We’ve got thousands of them here at Cappex!

Students get so severely stressed out about finding scholarships even though there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of scholarships out there to be had. A little work just has to go into it. Maybe some organization, some time to actually apply, some more time to review your work, and maybe a little more time to make it extra super appealing to whoever will be reading your application.

Just because you apply for a scholarship doesn’t mean you’ve done a good job at showing the scholarship providers that you deserve it. But you probably do deserve a nice hunk of free money; so take the time these scholarship applications probably deserve instead of just crossing your fingers that some Wizard of Oz type person will just pick your name out of a hat. Give youself a step up!

Start now. See if you’re a match for these scholarships, all due before 2012.

1. Dr Pepper Million Dollar Tuition Giveaway
Deadline: December 31
Award range: $2,500-$100,000
Quick fact: Open to high school juniors through college juniors, Dr Pepper will be awarding 50 different students with big, like really big, scholarships.

2. ScholarshipPoints.com Scholarship
Deadline: December 14
Award range: $500-$10,000
Quick fact: This scholarship’s application process shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.

3. Most Valuable Student Award
Deadline: December 2
Award range: $1,000-$15,000
Quick fact: Open to all high school students, this scholarship is renewable, which means it actually can add up to $60,000 total!

4. Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum Student Essay Contest
Deadline: November 11
Award range: $50-$100
Quick fact: Available for all high school students.

5. STOP hunger Scholarships
Deadline: December 5
Award range: $5,000
Quick fact: All grades, high school and up, with volunteer or community service are eligible to apply for this renewable scholarship–remember, renewable.

6. Imagine America Scholarship Program
Deadline: December 31
Average award: $1,000
Quick fact: High school seniors and college freshman must be attending or plan to attend a participating US career college.

7. Ecologist Initiative Scholarship
Deadline: December 31
Average award: $850
Quick fact: This scholarship is meant to engage young people from around the world in environmental clean-up and conservation projects. If that’s passion of yours, apply!

Will you apply to any of these? How much time do you spend on scholarships applications?