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Spring Scholarship Tips for High School Juniors
What can high school juniors and their parents do NOW to help with scholarships in the senior year?
[2023 Edition]
Many members responded and here is the first video along with my notes.
This is what one mom wanted to know:
“How to best organize for senior year. What to do at the end of Junior year to be ready for senior year scholarships. How to keep kids filling out scholarship applications and enjoy their senior year.”
I have gone through the scholarship process with all three of my boys and learned quickly how vital all of these actions that I share here are. This is what worked for me and helped my boys win scholarships and avoid student debt. (PRICELESS!!!)
All of my winning scholarship strategies are found in my ebooks, so if you are serious about helping your student win scholarships, be sure to download your copy ASAP. You can do this too and I am here for you!
How to best organize for senior year?
There are many documents that will be needed when applying for scholarships. Right now create a special place for all of these things and keep adding to it as your student brings them home. I would also print out and save any documents that are sent electronically.
- Honors/Award certificates
- Report cards
- Volunteer hours/Contacts
- Newspaper articles that your student is mentioned in
You should also be building your scholarship list for all levels of students.
For example, if you come across a scholarship for a college freshman and your student is a high school student, don’t simply click away from the online source or turn the page in your big scholarship listing book.
Instead, have a method of saving scholarships that your student will be able to apply for when they qualify.
This also is important if you have younger students. You can have a list growing for them at all times. (More on how to do this below.)
Did you know that there are scholarships open to all levels of students from elementary to grad school and everything in between?
What to do end of junior year to be ready for senior year scholarships?
#1 MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Get letters of recommendation before school is out for the summer
Out of all of these spring scholarship tips, I cannot stress this one enough.
Why?
Because there are tons of scholarships with summer deadlines, and students won’t be eligible to apply for any of them that require letters of recommendation if they have not thought ahead.
Also, when school starts in the fall, they will already have their letters in hand and won’t have to bother busy and swamped teachers who have just been asked by new high school seniors for their letters.
• Have your list growing and ready. If you come across a scholarship that your student does not yet qualify to apply for, don’t ignore it. Have a list for each level of students (middle school, high school freshmen, college sophomore, grad school, etc.) started and keep adding to it. I highly recommend the Scholarship Toolkit Organizer to keep detailed track of each award as you find them.
• Be aware of scholarships with summer deadlines. They absolutely exist, even for high school juniors! (Go HERE for scholarships open to high school juniors.)
• Encourage your students to volunteer. Think they have no time? Students can start their own projects like all three of my boys did and work on them in their own time.
Find volunteering ideas and learn what community service programs my boys started here:
Open to High School Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors! APPLY NOW HERE
30 Awesome Activities for Volunteering and College Scholarships
How do we keep kids filling out scholarship applications and still enjoy their senior year?
Kids are so busy! I totally get it and remember well the days of my boys squeezing out every minute to keep up with academics, sports, part-time jobs, volunteering, family commitments, college visits, and more.
• What can a parent do? This is the heart and soul of my ebooks, How to Win College Scholarships! Partner with them and work together in the scholarship process.
• How? There are so many ways, but one is that the parent finds scholarships, and the student writes the essays.
• Have an open and honest talk about family finances. This is so important! You need to be on the same page when it comes to how much your family can realistically afford for your student’s college education.
• Get the numbers of how much their dream schools cost and discuss them in detail.
• Go on College visits. Get kids excited about college by checking out in person the schools they are interested in. Remind them of the cost and how important scholarship money is for your family’s financial situation.
Watch my short video that addresses all of these spring scholarship tips and goes into greater detail about each of them here:
All my winning scholarship secrets are revealed right here >>
Do you have a scholarship question that you would like answered?
Join my free Scholarship Help and College Talk for Parents Facebook group or email me at info@how2winscholarships.com
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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.
