Preparing
for
My College Journey
One of the most important elements of being able to write anything is the confidence that you can do it and the tools and strategies to make it happen.
Online Resources
Check out these links to resources that will help both students and parents navigate the road to college acceptance and financial support.
Writing Scholarship Essays
This is a blog post from scholly.com, an organization that matches students with college scholarships. This blog post provides tips and steps for writing successful essays for scholarship applications.
This is a blog post from the Princeton Review that provides eight tips for writing college scholarship essays. The Princeton Review provides practical tips tests and test taking strategies for students preparing to enter college.
Tools for Preparing to Write a Scholarship Essay
Writing an essay for a college scholarship is very much like writing a college admission essay. You want to show yourself in the very best light to show not just that you will be a good student, but that you are worthy of the investment the organization is making. That means that you will embody their values and share their goals.
Writing this type of essay means that you first have to get to know yourself. The following tools will help you to target on some of the qualities you will want to show in a scholarship essay.
This organizer is a tool to help you figure out your strengths and how you can present them. Many times we see something as a detriment when, in fact, it can be considered a strength. Because of that, you need to be honest about your qualities, but you also need to look for the positive aspects of your personality and character. It takes you through 3 exercises to prepare you to articulate your best qualities.
This chart is a tool to support Exercise 1 in the Who Are You? Graphic Organizer. It helps you to come up with a list of 10 adjectives to describe yourself. Once you discover these descriptive adjectives, in Exercise 2 you will show examples of you behaving in this way.
Because so many essay prompts ask you to show who you are by telling a story, this graphic organizer will guide you through the process of narrating a story that will show your best qualities while structuring an engaging story.
The College Essay Guy offers this free course in writing the personal statement. Many times a collage or a scholarship organization will want you to just write about yourself based on a very generalized prompt. This 3-hour course helps guide you through that process. It also comes with a handbook of exercises.
This is a simple one-pager that gives you four criteria for evaluating your essay:
Core Values (aka Information)
Vulnerability
“So what” moments (aka Important & interesting connections)
Craft
This blog post from scholarshipinformer.com (another great site!) is 3 years old, but it still has some great practice prompts to get your juices flowing. When an application deadline is right around the corner, you want to already be prepared. So, you can practice answering some of these prompts and use them as a foundation for future applications.
This is a blog post from The College Essay Guy, who provides support and resources for an array of college essays, including admissions essays and scholarship essays. He presents examples of winning essays and breaks them down. This can prove to be a wonderful guide for students applying for scholarships who want some guidance and support.
Military Connected Scholarships
Scholarships.com is a for profit website that searches for college scholarships. They will specifically search for military scholarships. These are opportunities where the military will pay for your college tuition and for military children.
This article in Military Families Magazine was last updated on January 6, 2021. It is just as the headline states: a list of financial aid resources for military-connected students. It offers a few tips, but no other services are provided. The scholarship list is grouped by:
Year-round Scholarships
Branch Aid Societies
Private Organizations
Local Spouse Clubs
National Spouse Clubs
Militaryconnection.com is a website that provides services to support veterans. They consider themselves to be a resource for active and retired military, veterans and their families. This site provides millions of dollars in scholarships and grants, exclusively for the military community and their dependents.
This is a blog post from the non-profit organization Affordable Colleges Online, which focuses on online colleges (see above). This blog post provides resources for veterans and military-connected families who are interested in online colleges (which many people are considering in the COVID era).
General Scholarship/Financial Aid Resources
This website is a one-stop shopping experience. It provides resources for the finding schools to match your area of concentration based on the following:
It also helps you to explore different types of degrees and what programs are offered.
It provides resources for test prep (ACT, SAT, GMAT), as well as financial aid, scholarships, and loans.
This non-profit organization provides free resources for those looking to attend online colleges. The types of information include:
Online Degrees
Majors and Programs
States
Financial Aid
Advice Resources
This website provides a search engine to guide you through a database of college scholarships, grants, and loans. You can do a keyword search or filter by Gender, School level, Ethnicity, Award Amount, State.
This is an official U.S. government website that provides helpful information for college students looking for financial aid. You can create your own account and search for financial aid information. The service they provide is categorized as:
Considering School. I’m thinking of going to college or a career school.
In School. I’m in the process of earning a degree or a certificate.
Parent. I want to help my child pay for college.
In Repayment. I have loans I need to repay.
This site provides resources to understanding and applying for aid, completing the financial aid process, and managing student loans.
Scholly.com is a free online service and mobile app that matches students with scholarship opportunities. It continually provides access to scholarships every month.