Posted by Fernando Ramirez, Career Services Career Assistant

Getting scholarships:

Once you’ve found the scholarships you qualify for, it is time to begin submitting applications. Investing a proper amount of time on the scholarship application is crucial if you intend on winning. Scholarship applications require more than just your contact information. Applications require other supporting documents, such as a transcript, cover letter, letter of recommendation, and an essay. Take the scholarship application very seriously. Here are a few tips for winning scholarships:

Tips for winning scholarships:

• Start Early: Scholarship deadlines can pass by you pretty quickly. Do not wait until the last minute to start working on that scholarship application. Nothing is worse than working for weeks on a scholarship essay to have it be rejected because of a missed deadline.
• Apply to as much as you can: The more scholarships you apply for, the greater the chances are that you’ll receive one. Don’t disregard small scholarships. A $500 scholarships is not the same as a $2000 scholarship, but it can still help pay for books and supplies.
• Get letters of recommendation: Many scholarships ask that you submit one or two letters of recommendation with your application. Get to know your professors, and let them get to know you, that way when you ask them for a letter of recommendation they’ll actually have something to write about. When you ask for a letter of recommendation, make sure the person knows about your interests, career goals, and other involvement. Give them plenty of time to write your letter.
• Edit your essays: Many scholarships ask that you submit an essay along with your application. In that essay you must show why the scholarship should be given to you rather than the next guy, so take it very seriously. Spent a good amount of time working on your essay. Then, have several people edit your essay. The more time you spend on your essay, the better it will be.
• Save your essays: As you search through scholarships, you’ll find that many of them ask very similar essay questions. Questions like “What was your most significant obstacle and how did you overcome it?” or “What is your long-term career goal?” appear over and over in scholarship applications. Save a few generic essays for questions that reappear in scholarship applications.
• Search the entire year: A lot of students search for scholarships during spring term and then forget about searching until the next spring term comes. Scholarships are offered the entire year, and if you limit your scholarship search to one period of time each year then you are missing out on a lot of free money. Search throughout the entire year. There are many summer scholarships that only a few students take advantage of.

Scholarships can be of great help to students. Obtaining a college degree is very expensive, but there is help out there. The key is to work hard and be patient; your work will pay off. There is a lot of searching to do, so get to it.

Posted by Fernando Ramirez, Career Assistant, OSU Career Services

Do you need money for tuition, books, and supplies? Probably. Being a college student comes with an extensive list of expenses. Because of this, many organizations who sympathize with students offer scholarships to help pay for student related expenses. There are many excellent sources of financial aid that students can benefit from. Below are just a few of them:

Sources of Financial Aid:

• FAFSA:  U.S. citizens and eligible noncitizens can apply for financial aid from the government by filling out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Schools and other scholarship programs may also require that you file a FAFSA to obtain financial aid. FAFSA should be completed as early as possible beginning January 1.
• Fastweb: Fastweb is an online scholarship search engine with an extensive database of scholarships. After filling out a profile, it will search for and display the scholarships that you qualify for. Fastweb can save you the time it takes to manually search for scholarships, as well as find some that you might have missed otherwise.
• OSAC: Oregon residents can fill out an application with the Oregon Student Assistance Commission (OSAC ) that contains hundreds of scholarships for Oregonians based on year in school, major, area of residence, income, high school, etc. With a single application, you can apply to as many scholarships as you are eligible for. The application is available online and is due on March 1. FAFSA required.
• Department-Based Scholarships: Most departments in school offer scholarships especially for their students. Check your department’s website or ask your counselor about these scholarships.
• Minority and Career-Based Scholarships: Many organizations offer scholarships for certain minority groups or certain career paths. A good way to search for these scholarships is to use a search engine and type in “scholarships for” followed by a career or ethnicity. For example, a Hispanic student may type “scholarships for Hispanics.” Go to the links and review the scholarships.
• Financial Aid Office: Your financial aid office has information on scholarships, grants, educational loans, and can answer all of your financial aid questions.

Stay tuned for Fernando’s next post on how to submit a winning application!