A new article from NASFAA - Eight Steps to Winning a Scholarship

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This great article really jumped out at me today.

Eight Steps to Winning a Scholarship. 

This article is by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. They list eight great ways to get a scholarship. They are: (their words in bold italic):
 #1: Consult your Financial Aid office. This is a great idea, because they often know of local aid and scholarships, which are easier to get.
#2. Contact your academic department. They can know of other aid packages or where to point to others. (I had not thought of this - - it is a great idea).
#3. Use a free scholarship search engine. You can find some suggestions on the Nontrads Scholarships
Page here: http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships.html. The best sites I have found include the Fastweb search pages and the Broke Scholar search site.
#4. Don't assume: you still may be able to get a scholarship if you don't have straight A's. The article suggests you look for aid in your personal areas of interest or hobbies.
#5. Write that essay... the places that require essays have less competition, according to the article. It helps to practice, too.
#6. Stack up the small scholarships... many small scholarships can really add up. Don't overlook a scholarship just because it is small.
#7. Apply early - this applies to everyone. The article goes on to say that people applying in high school can always re-apply the next year.
#8. Don't get scammed... the article warns of sites that charge you in order to give you tips or scholarship aid. Watch out for scammy sites and protect yourself by using sites that do not charge you.
I would add at least one more tip - - fill out your FAFSA first! (the official site is here.)
Also: you can look for more scholarship links at the NT Scholarship pages: page one and page two.
Good luck!
Read more here:
8 Steps to Winning A Scholarship
-Betsyanne 
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My Top Ten list of College Scholarship and Grant Sites

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I like to talk about my favorite scholarship search sites. This is my first Top Ten list.

 My Top Ten List

of Scholarship and Grant Sites

#1. The official FAFSA page at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. This page is a must for people who want to see what loans or grants they can get via the U.S. government.

#2. The FastWeb site at http://www.fastweb.com/. This site is now celebrating its 15th anniversary. It is a free site, with many different scholarships listed. You register there and FastWeb matches you up with the scholarships that most fit your profile.

#3. The Scholarships.com site  at http://www.scholarships.com/. This site has been recommended on many other websites as being a quality site with many links and resources. 

#4. College Scholarships and Online Degrees and Scholarships - - these two websites are owned by the same people. If you link to them on your page, they will help you learn about how to promote your site. They also have great information and link pages on their sites, plus even more specialized websites too.

#5. The FastAid site at http://www.fastaid.com/ Their link here explains how the FAFSA works, and also give tips to international students and has 10 questions you can ask your Financial Aid Administrator.

#6. Fresch at http://www.freschinfo.com/index.php Fresch has a big database of over 450,000 awards, plus many other information pages for scholarship hunters.

#7. The Grants Site at http://www.grants.gov. This site has a huge number of grants, a special resource page, and more. From the website, "Today, Grants.gov is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs and provides access to approximately $500 billion in annual awards."

#8. The College Board Pay for College Page at http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/index.html. This page answers many questions - - such as How Financial Aid Works, and Top Questions for the Aid Office. It is a free site too.

#9. The Mapping Your Future Resource Page at http://mappingyourfuture.org/paying/scholarshipresources.htm. This page contains 16 links to great scholarship resources. They already have FastWeb listed too.

#10. Last I list my two resource pages on the Nontraditional Student website, which feature more scholarship and grant links too. These pages are here:
The Scholarship Links Page One at http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships.html, and The Scholarship Links Page Two at http://www.nontradstudents.com/scholarships_page2.html. You will also see advice here on how best to fund your education.

I hope you find this list useful. Please let me know what scholarship and grant sites you like too - and your successes if you use this list. Good luck!

All for now,
-Betsyanne


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Some more great scholarship links June 2010

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Have some time? Search for a scholarship.

Here are some more sites that you might like. They have articles, videos, and more scholarship sites to add to your scholarship site list and folder.

I hope you do have a filing area now, and a folder. You can find out more about organizing your scholarship search here:
Get Organized about your Scholarship Search

Here are the new sites you can look at. Let me know if this help you.
#1: The EHow Featured Scholarship Search Articles. http://www.ehow.com/find-scholarships/. This site has many articles and also videos to help you in your scholarship search. Some are: How to find Musical Scholarships, Finding Scholarships for Blacks, and how to find Drama Scholarships.

#2: The IEFA Site - http://www.iefa.org/. this abbreviation stands for the International Financial Aid and College Scholarship Search page. They help US students and international students find aid for studying abroad.

And here is another great site. It is the College Board site. This page, http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/scholarships-and-aid/8936.html tells about how to develop a strategy for finding money for school.

More articles you may like:

More links for your scholarship arsenal
Real stories about real people - and how they got their scholarships
and
How an advisor can help you find money for school

Good luck in your scholarship search!


-Betsyanne

The Nontraditional Student website and blog

My Squidoo pages - and Join Squidoo with my referral: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/lizziebeth

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