Scholarships

Scholarships Offered by Colleges:

Colleges offer their own scholarships for admitted students, but college scholarship deadlines can be earlier than when you find out whether or not you were accepted to that college. Therefore, you submit your scholarship application to the college by their scholarship deadline, even if you haven't been accepted yet. For example, Virginia Tech scholarship applications are due in January but you may not receive notification of your admission to Virginia Tech until February. To apply for institution-based scholarships, you must first submit an application to that institution.

Scholarships Offered by Local Resources:

See Mrs. Morris in the Counseling Center for any questions regarding local scholarships. You can pick up a paper copy of the Senior Newsletter from the Counseling Center, which has a list of all the local scholarships. The Senior Newsletter is also emailed to each students' high school email account. Some scholarships have an online application and submission process while others have a scholarship package that you must pick up and return to Mrs. Morris in the Counseling Center. You must adhere to the scholarship deadlines listed in the Senior Newsletter.

Scholarship Application Tips:

  • Essays: Once you write a scholarship essay, you can often tweak it to create another version for other scholarship applications.
  • Recommendation Letters: Make your request for a recommendation letter 2-3 weeks in advance and supply the person with information about you and the purpose of the recommendation so they can do a good job. Consider asking the same people for recommendation letters to other scholarships so they can tweak what they've already written, rather than starting from scratch.
  • List of Activities: Scholarship applications are usually interested in more than just your grades. They may want to know about your extra-curricular activities, community service, employment, and major accomplishments/awards. Keep track of these things in a google doc so you can access it when you need it for scholarships, applications, or for those writing a recommendation letter for you.
  • Time Management: Start researching applicable scholarships at the beginning of the school year. Be aware of the scholarship deadlines and plan accordingly. Use google calendar to set mini-deadlines for yourself.
  • Professionalism: Proofread everything for spelling and grammar errors and make sure you include all required items.