OK, so we all know that these days college is a bit on the...expensive side.
Which is crazy in a sense, because the mounting costs of tuition (and other things) almost makes you want to say whatever to college. Then again, can you really afford to not go to school? I mean, for most jobs nowadays you need more than just a high school diploma.
(That's as far as I'm going to go on the subject. Save it for a different article.)
Anyway, one way you can pay for school is by looking for scholarships. Sure, your school might grant you a merit scholarship upon admission, but it usually doesn't cover the whole cost of going to school. One thing that surprised me about searching for scholarships the summer before my freshman year was how long and somewhat tedious the whole thing was. Don't get me wrong, there are millions out there floating around. It's just a matter of deciding which one you actually qualify for, whether you have to write an essay or send in a video, figuring out the deadline and of course finding how much money it is. You've got to read the fine print. There might be a lot of words, but, trust me, if it is a legitimate scholarship then all of the questions that you might have should be answered there.
Now, going into my sophomore year, I would like to say that I've learned a thing or two about the whole scholarship search. For one thing, I definitely know now that all of the scholarships don't just disappear once the summer ends. I don't know why I assumed that, but I did. I also have been utilizing the scholarship search engine Fastweb more than I did last summer. Another scholarship search engine that I use now is call Scholly. When you sign up, they do ask you if want to pay a few dollars to have access to the whole site. Let me tell you, it's totally worth it and I'm not usually one of those people who think in-app purchases are completely worth it.
The most difficult about this whole scholarship thing for me is writing the essay. Now I never really minded essays (even back when I was in elementary school), but when you're constantly applying for scholarships that have specific writing requirements, it can get a little tiring. That's why I always enjoy coming across a scholarship where you can only answer the question in 250 words or less, for example. The scholarship deadline could be in two months and I'd still do it. It's a nice break.
Despite the fact that there are still some difficulties when it comes to the scholarship search. This generation is still on the luckier side of things. I remember my parents saying that when they went to grad school in the 80's, they had to physically drive to the post office to "submit" their essays/applications.
Say you applied to 20 scholarships in a week. Can you imagine how much that would cost at the post office?
