1. Apply more – Get more!” The more eligible scholarships you apply for, the more prizes you are likely to get. !” There are about 2.4 million scholarship offers, over $14mln available. So you have every prospect of success!

2. Big chance of winning is a bet you should definitely take. Don’t neglect applying to the small scholarships. 20 scholarships for $1,000 equal are the same as one for $20,000. The result is the same. Heaps of small scholarships will form rally substantial one. Besides there is a less competition for smaller scholarships, as everybody tend to apply for the biggest awards. Try everything you are eligible for!

3. Your main enemy – small details. Preventable mistakes are the number one killers of successful applying. The most frequent mistake is missing the deadline. Next error is putting the incorrect information to the application (wrong spelling of your name, telephone, school). Never leave required boxes empty, follow directions for the essay length and formatting.

4. Scholarship searches should be conducted throughout the year as scholarship deadlines are scattered all year round too. There is a fishermen proverb: do not allow the big fish to get away because you were not ready.

5. Reject the thought that some scholarships are not for you! If you think that only very cleaver or beggarly person can get it, you are wrong. Some scholarships are awarded for some questionable feature, as Zolp Scholarship, which is offered to students with the last name – Zolp. Other fun award is Brand Duct Tape Prom Dress Scholarship, for those wearing duct tapes for the prom exclusively. This sounds crazy but the $3,000 award that comes with it is the sum of money to be taken into consideration.  
 
6. The best time for starting the search is… right now!

7. Use synonyms. They are rarely used conversationally, if you try to use them, your search may be more effective. (For example, look at the word-combination “sponsoring foundation”. People never use it for scholarship search, but Scholarships are often controlled by foundations, so you can find some awarding foundation in such way.)

8. Use searching tool. There is a kind of tool that could make a search for you every minute, every day. This tool is called Google Alerts, it’s free. Go to www.Google.com/alerts, start entering your previous list of searches in the interface. For each search add an alert (for example, “Boston University Scholarship”). Every day you will get a list of digital notes in your email box, which match the terms you were looking for. Try to search for very specific terms; otherwise you’ll get lots of unnecessary emails. Also you can read news about scholarships, entering required topic into the search gap on http://news.google.com/, and go to the link Google Reader.

9. Two heads are better than one. Ask your friends for the help in the search process.