I've been awarded thirteen external scholarships totaling about $38,000 and two on-campus scholarships totaling about $200,000 (one of which was full-tuition). I started applying for scholarships in the first semester of my senior year in high school and I am now in my junior year of college. I've applied to over 60 scholarships in total, so I've gotten my fair share of rejection letters or no response at all. Trust me when I say all of your effort will not be wasted. Some of your effort will definitely not be as fruitful as you'd been hoping, but all of it won't be wasted.
Seven of the external scholarships I won were from out-of-state organizations and six were from local organizations. My school district would send out lists of local/national scholarships every month that had upcoming deadlines, but sometimes I would also see if other local school districts were sending out scholarship lists to their students as well. I would just Google "___________ School District scholarships" and see what scholarships they were highlighting. Some of them were specifically for students in their district, so I ignored those, but they also had listed local scholarships that my district had not. I also Google scholarships relating to my identities and interests (ie. LGBTQ+ scholarships, scholarships for students interested in environmental careers, scholarships for volunteers, etc.), so I'd recommend that as well. Most importantly, keep track of deadlines! I know that I could have applied to more scholarships, but deadlines always snuck up on me because I wasn't paying enough attention to when they were coming up. Best of luck in your scholarship pursuits!
I've been awarded thirteen external scholarships totaling about $38,000 and two on-campus scholarships totaling about $200,000 (one of which was full-tuition). I started applying for scholarships in the first semester of my senior year in high school and I am now in my junior year of college. I've applied to over 60 scholarships in total, so I've gotten my fair share of rejection letters or no response at all. Trust me when I say all of your effort will not be wasted. Some of your effort will definitely not be as fruitful as you'd been hoping, but all of it won't be wasted.
Seven of the external scholarships I won were from out-of-state organizations and six were from local organizations. My school district would send out lists of local/national scholarships every month that had upcoming deadlines, but sometimes I would also see if other local school districts were sending out scholarship lists to their students as well. I would just Google "___________ School District scholarships" and see what scholarships they were highlighting. Some of them were specifically for students in their district, so I ignored those, but they also had listed local scholarships that my district had not. I also Google scholarships relating to my identities and interests (ie. LGBTQ+ scholarships, scholarships for students interested in environmental careers, scholarships for volunteers, etc.), so I'd recommend that as well. Most importantly, keep track of deadlines! I know that I could have applied to more scholarships, but deadlines always snuck up on me because I wasn't paying enough attention to when they were coming up. Best of luck in your scholarship pursuits!
