Scholarship Tip #1: Pay Attention to the Deadline

I get a TON of questions about scholarships, so I'm going to write a series for the next few weeks about scholarships.  Here is the first one, and it might seem an odd place to start, but it's important to start with this one because if you don't pay attention to this, you are going to miss winning scholarships everytime.   Here's the tip:  when you write down when scholarships are due, you should write down the date 2 weeks before the actual deadline.

Watching students over many years, I've noticed a trend that won't come as a surprise:  students will push things to the very last minute of the very last day.  And before parents and teachers jump on students with a well-practiced lecture on procrastination...remember...most of us do the exact same thing with our own deadlines.  

So, is that it?  We're simply doomed to not winning scholarships because we can't get our act together ahead of time?  

No--just be sure that when you list the deadline for ANY scholarship you want to apply to, you should list it 2 weeks BEFORE the actual deadline on your own personal spreadsheet.  This way, you don't even come close to missing it.  I've seen it happen too many times where students miss the deadline by hours, usually by a misreading of the time deadline.  For example:  some deadlines will say "Deadline on October 1st at 4:00 p.m. EST".  The student ONLY sees October 1st, and submits it before midnight...but the reality is that it was due at 2:00 p.m. MST (2 hours difference from EST).  So, they're late...and when they're late...their application isn't even considered.  Why is this?  Because many scholarship committees have more than enough applications that were received on time, and they don't need to make exceptions for the late-comers.

The lesson?  Make sure that all the work you do on a scholarship application pays off by getting it in EARLY (I advise 2 weeks early, but even 1 week early still works...and allows for a little window to fix things, while still getting it in several days before the real deadline).

***Note:  This same technique also works for other deadlines:  in high school, college, and life beyond the K-16 world. ;-)