Tip No. 6. If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.
Once you begin applying for scholarships, keep a file filled with previous applications; your large-essay document; smaller essays you have written for each application; a list of all your extracurricular activities, awards, honors and letters; letters of recommendation and transcripts. There may come a time when you receive a scholarship application days before it is due for submission. If you have a file with all of the right information, completing the application will be a piece of cake. For this reason, make sure that some of your letters of recommendation say “To whom this may concern,” or some other generic heading. This allows you to submit the letter with any application. If you are going to use the generic-heading option, be sure to pay close attention to the date. You don’t want to send a letter in September that has a January date. Always have three or four copies of your transcripts on hand. This makes life a lot easier when applying for scholarships—trust me. If you have everything at your disposal, applying for scholarships is no longer a cumbersome task. An application can be in and out of your hands within an hour or so.
Tip No. 7. Work the minimal amount of time possible.
The more time you spend working, the less time you have to search for scholarships, build relationships with your professors and participate in extracurricular activities. It is imperative that you use the time you spend in school to focus on school. You have the rest of your life to work; work isn’t going anywhere. Unless you are a nontraditional student who has a spouse and/or children, do not work anymore than is absolutely necessary to pay tuition and bills. Shopping and vacationing is unimportant right now (this is coming from someone who loves to do both). You will only be in school for a few short years, so use this time wisely. You will never again have the opportunity to be fully engrossed in campus life unless, of course, you return to school fulltime to obtain another degree. At this point in your life, if school is all you really have to worry about, then only worry about school. Don’t take on responsibilities you don’t have to take on. Spend your time studying, going to school activities and providing community service. You will not regret it, and it will make your scholarship application stand out.
Tip No. 8. Apply, apply, apply!
No one who didn’t apply for a scholarship ever received one—well, not to my knowledge. Apply for every scholarship for which you are eligible. This will greatly increase your chances of receiving at least one scholarship. I have found that the more scholarships for which I applied, the easier it was to apply for additional scholarships. I also found that the more scholarships I was awarded, the more scholarships I continued to receive. It was a law of attraction that I had never experienced. So again, apply, apply, apply! You can’t go wrong by applying for a scholarship. What’s the worst that can happen? Even if you aren’t awarded the scholarship, you have gained experience, and the next application will be that much easier. If you don’t see the results of your hard work immediately, don’t give up. Continue to apply until you begin to see results. Your hard work will pay off in the end.
Once you begin to receive scholarships, pay close attention to my last two tips.
Tip No. 9. Stick to a tight budget.
As an undergraduate nursing student, I would not have survived had I not had the good sense to create a budget. Once I received enough scholarships to quit my job, my budget became VERY important. I only received scholarship money once per year, for the most part. I had to figure out how to make the money I received in September last until the next September. Unless you receive a scholarship that pays out each semester (or quarter) or unless the scholarship money is disbursed in a nontraditional fashion, you will only receive the money prior to the beginning of the fall semester or quarter.
Here is my advice for how to deal with this situation: Figure out how much you spend each month on rent, necessary bills, gas, groceries, etc., and move that amount (plus maybe $200 for incidentals) from a savings account to a checking account each month. Spend only the money in the checking account! You have to make yourself believe that the money in the savings account doesn’t exist. This is what I did when I was in college, and it worked well for me. In fact, I still use this tip for managing money.
Tip No. 10. Become more involved.
Once the scholarships start to roll in, show your gratitude by doing more on your campus and in your community. The purpose of scholarships is to provide you with added income so you don’t have to work so much, and you can focus on your academic experience. This doesn’t mean just spending more time studying; it means spending time being involved in things you may not otherwise have been involved in, if you had to spend all your extra time working.
The 10 tips I have given you are not exclusive to undergraduate students. In fact, I still follow each of these tips myself, and my undergraduate career ended more than seven years ago. At the master’s level, scholarships are not as easy to come by, but fellowships are plentiful for doctoral students. At each level of your education, these tips are helpful.
If you have any questions about what is written in this two-part blog post, please post in the “comment” section below. Be sure to share these tips with your classmates and colleagues. Don’t keep them to yourself. And good luck on your applications!
For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.
