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| Scholarship Guidelines |
 – Include a cover letter with your application that highlights your college plans and career goals, as well as any personal information you might want considered during the scholarship committee’s decision process.
– Make sure to send all required documents with your application, when it’s time to submit your completed application. Otherwise, your application could be considered unfinished. Also, you might want to send it via certified mail so you can make sure the documents are received.
It is advised to make copies of each application you submit for your records. Once your application has been received, send a thank-you note. This gesture can gain additional attention of committee.
Be Scam Savvy
Be careful to avoid scholarship scams. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Here are a few common examples:
Sketchy free seminars — Although some hosting organizations are legitimate, a number are disguised sales pitches for fee-based scholarship searches or high-interest-rate loans.
Fee-based scholarship searches — Be wary if an organization asks for an up-front fee for scholarship matching/searching services. Many of these companies will just take your money and disappear without helping you. Paying fees to get an edge over other scholarship seekers doesn’t work. Assiduous searching, good organization and use of free resources does.
Scholarships requiring an application fee — Multiply a $10 fee times 2,000 applicants for just one $1,000 scholarship, and companies requiring you to pay for a chance at a scholarship have already made a big profit. There are thousands of legitimate scholarships available each year that don’t cost a dime for you to apply!
Random scholarship prize — Exercise caution if someone contacts you and says you’ve won a scholarship for which you never applied. Be very cautious and contact the authorities, if these organizations request a redemption fee or bank account information in order to hold your scholarship money.
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