Scholarship Search Secrets
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Make optimal use of Internet technologies to find scholarships.
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Scholarship Deadlines
What's the secret to applying for a lot of scholarships? Start early, like your sophomore year in high school, and make the promise and commitment to yourself to apply for one scholarship every day once you get a schedule set up. Here's a way of approaching it.
Step 1. Take a weekend to do some serious, heavy research into scholarships. Spend two days just Googling for dollars, finding scholarships you are eligible for. Ideally, try to find about 100 scholarships in two days. No need to apply for them, just locate them.
Step 2. Make notes of the deadlines for those scholarships and put them onto your calendar as shown in the next secret.
Step 3. Once everything is in your Google calendar, switch it to Agenda view, and see which are the first scholarship deadlines ahead of you.
Step 4. Apply for scholarships at least once per day, keeping on the schedule you have put together.
Step 5. When you've reached 100 scholarships, set aside another weekend and go hunting for more.
Miss No Deadlines
When you find a scholarship you want to apply for, make sure you take careful note of its deadline. An easy way to remind yourself of it is to add a reminder to your calendar. Here's how to do it in Google Calendar. Open your calendar, then click Quick Add.
Unlike other calendaring systems, Google's Quick Add lets you type in a natural language sentence and it will automatically turn on reminders and alarms as well as place the event on your calendar. For example:
When you browse to April 2008 on the calendar, you'll see that scholarship there. Click on it to edit the details.
Make sure you specify a week for the reminder. This will give you plenty of time to put all the materials together and get them in the mail if the scholarship requires materials to be mailed.
Google Calendar also allows you to receive reminders by SMS/text message and email, another great way to keep on track.
