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How to Get Your Teens Excited About College Scholarship Work
College scholarship work is well…work, I know! Use these tips to get your teens excited about applying for scholarships!
I’ve been through it with all three of my boys and am currently the mom of a college senior. Teens today have after-school clubs, sports, part-time jobs, classwork, and social lives. Oh, and don’t forget volunteering, college applications, church obligations, and family commitments. YIKES!
I’ve heard every excuse in the book as to why teens believe they don’t have time for college scholarship work.
On the flip side, I know how desperately you need them to win college scholarship money. You only have so much money coming in each month, and most of it is tied up in your everyday living expenses. Where will the extra money come from that will pay for college?
You expect me to do college scholarship work?
Unfortunately, the desire for your teens to do college scholarship work to help them win money for school directly conflicts in their minds with the business of just being a teen in today’s society.
What is a parent to do?
Getting teens to find the time to apply for college scholarships can be tricky. My best tip is to communicate with them in their language. This means that instead of a verbal reminder, an encouraging reminder text or email sent a few weeks before the due date will get a better response and attitude.
Verbal reminder: “That scholarship essay I told you about weeks ago is due tomorrow!”
Text/email reminder: “You are a great writer, just a reminder that the credit union scholarship essay worth $1000 is due next week. Let’s sit down together this weekend and brainstorm ideas before you start writing. OK?”
Believe that your student CAN and WILL win college scholarships, and they will be more apt to believe it themselves and make time to apply. Having an open and honest discussion about family finances and how much their dream school will cost is also extremely important, as I share in this post.
Some teens need even more motivation when it comes to college scholarship work.
Students:
“I’m too busy to work on scholarships.”
Parents:
“I am here to help you”
“Set aside just 15 minutes a day for scholarships.”
“I will find the scholarships and you write the essays.”
Students:
“I have no idea what to write about for the scholarship essay.”
Parents:
“Let’s brainstorm ideas together.”
“You are great at <insert skill here> and I’m sure the scholarship judges would love to hear about it.”
“I found examples of winning essays for you to read to get a feel for what a great scholarship essay looks like.”
Students:
“I’m sure the college will award me with lots of money, why bother applying for outside scholarships?”
Parents:
“I did some research and your dream school only awards partial scholarships to students with your GPA. If you truly want to go there, we need to do as much college scholarship work as possible.”
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“The more scholarships that you apply for, the better and faster you will get at applying. Let’s do this together.”
What are parents saying about the How to Win College Scholarships ebooks?
“My daughter has won over $32,000 in scholarships so far!
When she gets tired of applying, I remind her that she has made over $200 an hour so far and that gets her excited again.
She is my second daughter to use the ideas in your scholarship guide ebooks with success.” Proud Dad
How to get your teens excited about applying for college scholarships #ScholarshipMom Click To Tweet
Students:
“Only smart students win scholarship money.”
Parents:
“You have so many strengths and talents. I found scholarships for you not based on grades.”
“I discovered a way to make your scholarship applications stand out and get noticed by the judges.”
“As a team, you and I can get much more college scholarship work done.”
Be sure to read: Teamwork Makes the College Scholarship Dream Work
Have you heard any of these excuses? What did you do?
Please share your successful motivational strategies in the comment box below. Together we can help students apply for more scholarships! ~ Monica Matthews
All my winning scholarship secrets are revealed right here >>
Monica Matthews is the author of How to Win College Scholarships. She helped her own son win over $100,000 in college scholarships and now shares her expertise with other parents and their students. She truly has “been there, done that” in regard to helping parents and students navigate the scholarship process.
Her method of helping students in finding college scholarships, writing unique and compelling scholarship essays, creating amazing scholarship application packets, and more have taught desperate parents to help their own students win thousands of scholarship dollars. She teaches them how to apply S.M.A.R.T. with outstanding results.
Monica’s scholarship tips have been featured on many prominent websites, and she has been dubbed the “Go-To” expert on college scholarships.
These are great tips to get the message across to a teen, speak their language, send a text to remind them rather than nagging – everyone should read this information.
Thank you, Debbie!
Great suggestions. Texting is the way to get a teenager’s attention.
Thanks, Jennifer! I also like to end with a call to action like “please let me know when you have finished, ok?”
Applying for scholarships has changed a lot since I was in high school, but these suggestions are what I’d consider to be relevant now. I can only imagine what it will be like when my kids are applying.
Thanks, Tony. When your kids start applying for scholarships, let me know and I will help you any way that I can. 🙂
Great suggestions. It’s hard to believe your HS junior would be reticent to listen to Mom after seeing how you obtained scholarships for the older sibling. Do you feel your younger child needs as much prodding as the older one?
Great point, Molly. My three boys are SO different. My middle son had a very hard time writing scholarship essays. He would literally sit down at his computer and stare at a blank page for hours. I learned that he needed more from me than my oldest son and we spent a lot of time brain-storming before he was ready to write. My youngest son (currently a high school junior) is more like his oldest brother and so far our scholarship work hasn’t been as challenging with him.
It’s hard to get teens excited about anything that smacks of work so this is good!
“Smacks of work” – Love that, LOL! Thanks, Carol!
I’m curious what happens if you do actually win a bunch of scholarships and then (gasp) they decide they don’t want to go to college?
Hi Chris. Since most scholarship checks are sent right to the college, they would just hold the money until you are ready to attend. Also, some organizations offering scholarships actually send the checks right to the student in their name, so you could use that money for an educational expense like a computer if needed. You would have to carefully read the small print and guidelines though, as each scholarship has different rules. Does that answer your question? 🙂
Yes, that’s very interesting. Does that mean that many scholarships require you to have chosen a college before applying to the scholarship? If your child starts early and starts applying while in high school (or even before) that might limit what ones you can apply for. Guess it’s all in the fine print. 🙂
Hi Chris, individual colleges do have scholarships specifically for their admitted and prospective students, but the majority of awards are for students who attend any college. It’s actually a common mistake for students to only apply for scholarships from their college. They should apply for every single scholarship that they can, beginning as early as possible!
I spend my life texting my 3 older children so communicating with teens via texting is a good idea when suggesting help or giving a nudge towards scholarship work. Good tips
Thank you, Linda!
Involved parents like this are the best. It is my goal to be the parent struggling along the math homework or looking over the english paper. It is my goal to be the parent not holding their hand but walking along with them. <3 Love these scripts! Great resource!
Jess, I absolutely love how you want to be the parent not holding your child’s hands, but walking along with them. This is priceless!
Pretty cool. You are a perfect example of an expert in a niche that needs one. Love these ideas.
Wow! Thanks, Carol! ♥
Great article. As someone who was that teen growing up, I feel like a bit of a fool. I had a few of those same attitudes/opinions you have listed here. These are great ways to combat that and turn those attitudes around into positive action.
Thanks so much, Jody! Don’t feel bad, we were all teenagers once. I have apologized to my parents several times since becoming an adult. 🙂
I was super stoked about applying for scholarships in high school – maybe I’m weird, but something about getting money AND recognition for my writing (I primarily applied for fiction/writing scholarships) really appealed to me.
Good for you, Tony! I love hearing success stories like yours. 🙂