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?

I asked in my Scholarship Help and College Talk for Parents Facebook group if anyone had a topic they would like me to cover in a short video.

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 have quickly learned how vital the actions 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 copies ASAP. You can do this, and I am here for you!

How to best organize for senior year?

Many documents 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 and save any documents sent electronically.

• Honors/Award certificates
• Report cards
• Volunteer hours/Contacts
• Newspaper articles that mention your student

You should also be building your scholarship list for students at all levels.

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 the big scholarship listing book like this one.

Instead, have a method of saving scholarships that your students will be able to apply for when they qualify.

This is also important if you have younger students. You can keep a growing list for them at all times. (More on how to do this below.)

Did you know there are scholarships available to students at all levels, from elementary school to grad school and everything in between?

What to do at the 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, students won’t be eligible to apply for any that require letters of recommendation if they haven’t planned ahead.

Also, when school starts in the fall, they will already have their letters in hand and won’t have to bother busy, swamped teachers who have just been asked by new high school seniors for theirs.

• Have your list growing and ready. If you come across a scholarship your student does not yet qualify to apply for, don’t ignore it. Have a list for each student level (middle school, high school freshmen, college sophomores, grad school, etc.) 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, as 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:

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 when my boys squeezed 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 How to Win College Scholarships ebooks! Partner with them throughout the scholarship process.

• How? There are so many ways, but one is for the parent to find scholarships and the student to write 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. Our kids often have no idea about the true cost of college, and discussions like this are eye-opening and necessary.

• Go on college visits. Get kids excited about college by checking out the schools they are interested in in person. Remind them of the cost and how important scholarship money is for your family’s financial situation.

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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 strategies are found 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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What can high school juniors and their parents do NOW to help with scholarships in their senior year? Use these SMART spring scholarship tips! Share on X