How I Won Over 670 000 in Scholarships Scholarship Tips for Students

but honestly you will be surprised at how many people just leave scholarship free money by the way just lying there on the table you really don't have to take out loans mean know that it's long process but you have to remember that this process is just one aspect of your journey hey my name is Crystal I'm currently PhD student at Yale University and certified academic success coach in today's video I'm going to be walking you through the exact process that use to apply for countless scholarships when was high school senior and how receive free money to go to school so the first step in this process is making sure that you start the application process as early as possible usually in high school you can apply for scholarships at the beginning of your senior year for this process would recommend going to your guidance counselor usually they have list of scholarships that are available sometimes scholarships are specific to your school or your region but lot of the times you can apply for National scholarships as well in order to look for these National scholarships would go to the Internet the first thing that did was actually Google scholarships for high school seniors and even got more specific because am first generation low-income student was looking for scholarships that were specific to that demographic for example one of the scholarships applied for was the Gates Millennium Scholarship this scholarship was for minority students knew about this scholarship because one student when was freshman she was senior she received the scholarship and basically just went to her and asked her what were the requirements for it and thankfully she was able to tell me exactly what needed in order to apply for the scholarship during this process you can't be shy because lot of the times if you don't ask for help people won't know that you're actually applying for scholarships they won't know that you're actually looking for support and this was really really difficult for me because was kind of shy whenever was in high school so it took lot of me kind of jumping over my shadow and just doing it because knew that going to school was my dream and if wanted that goal to come true was going to have to be very vocal about what needed because the application process can be very tedious please do not wait until the last minute to submit your scholarship you can do this and I've talked to students who have gotten scholarship money who did apply at the last minute but in order to alleviate lot of the stress that comes with it would recommend that you start day one of your senior year looking for scholarships and getting something like as simple as notepad you could even use Excel but keep list of all the scholarships that you're seeing and write down the due date that way as soon as the scholarship opens you're keeping track of when certain material is due that is perfect segue into step two which is to stay organized honestly staying organized helps so much because lot of the stress that comes with the scholarship application process it's just not knowing where everything is like trying to keep track of everything so in order to alleviate lot of that actually like recommended in the first step got notepad so went to the Dollar Tree which is very convenient store where I'm from and picked up notepad and every time appli for scholarship wrote down that scholarship even scholarships that was looking to apply to or apply for actually wrote those down as well you can do this using Excel as well but like to have things like physical copy of things like to physically write things down and so that's why notepad was helpful for me in this process mentioned this earlier but actually applied for over 30 scholarships to be honest was quite desperate because didn't have plan my plan was going to college but since was from financially disadvantaged guess household my mom couldn't afford to send me to college and so pretty much had no other way but to receive free money for school you don't have to wait for letters to come back for certain scholarships that you apply to you can just continue to apply for scholarships as they open remember getting several rejection letters even though was able to receive few scholarships did receive lot of rejection letters so remember during this time was like every time would get rejection letter would apply for two more whether was putting two more scholarships on my list or actively applying for two more scholarships would do that every time received rejection letter just to kind of like mitigate lot of the stress that was happening the third step in this process is to spend lot of time crafting your essays as you start going through the scholarship application process you'll see that there are lot of steps to it but the biggest part and the biggest piece that spent lot of time on and that recommend to students is to spend time working on your written communication because there's lot of parts of the scholarship application that don't really give an adequate kind of example or picture of who you are as student and why you have these goals of going to school but when you're writing that is way for you to really just like pour out your whole heart during this process wrote about growing up in public housing having so many siblings wrote about the process of losing my dad to cancer and how that impacted my family both emotionally and financially and that was why didn't have money to pay for school and why my mom didn't have money to send me to school so as long as you're staying authentic and being true to the reason why you started to apply for scholarships and in the first place that will be conveyed in your writing so within this process of focusing on your application essay there are also like smaller steps or pieces of advice that go into this so the first thing is to get help whenever was going through this process actually went to my English teacher and asking for support as mentioned previously know that this process can feel overwhelming but asking for help like just alleviates lot of that stress because you realize that people are willing to support you if you just ask know for lot of student students we feel like okay don't have to ask for help can do this on my own but the truth is even though you can and honestly that was my mindset for the longest time felt like had to do this on my own and you can but you don't have to so would highly recommend getting support for your college essays by sending it to people who can review it like your English teacher if you don't have access to an English teacher or if they're just busy and can't get back with you there are also like virtual tools like this video isn't sponsored by them in anyway just really enjoy this tool I've been using it for years now whenever you get the Pro Plan you can actually link it to your email you can link it to word think even now Google Drive has access to grammarly so there's so many ways and so many across many different platforms that you can use this tool but it really really does come in handy because it can check for things like plagiarism there's just so many aspects to gram and if you're interested included link in the description box but like said this video isn't sponsored by by them just really enjoyed this tool and thought would pass it along the biggest thing for this is that you really want your college essay to stand out because lot of the times the scholarships only focus on the essays honestly the essay for me especially took the most time because wanted to make sure that it was like said authentic that it conveyed my story and why was applying for scholarships and also that it was like grammatically correct some scholarships won't even look at your essay if there are errors in it know this may seem like huge thing but promise you if you start early then you won't have to worry about it at all so the fifth step in this process is just finding way to stay motivated as often as possible because you might receive lot of rejection and it may seem like it's shot at who you are as student but it's not true lot of the times there are hundreds sometimes thousands of students applying for one specific scholarship so you just have to make sure that you find way to stay motivated and inspired and remember your why as you're going throughout the process when was doing this would actually watch YouTube videos like motivational YouTube videos to help me throughout this process watch lot of Les Brown lot of people who were actually going through the process themselves and talking about it similar to what you're doing now look for people who had accomplished the things that was looking to accomplish and honestly that helped me the most because saw that it was possible and sometimes that's all we need to see another part of staying inspired and motivated is just surrounding yourself with people who understand the vision as well this can be difficult sometimes in high school because we have lot of people around us lot of the times and sometimes our friends may not understand why we are doing certain things or why we're taking certain steps know when was going through the process would after school immediately go to the public library because we didn't have internet at home during this time so had to you know use my resources and there were lot of times where had to decline hanging out with friends after school and that was very difficult would say because you do want to be high school student and you do want to make sure that you're making the most of your senior year but at the same time if you have goal you have to keep your eye on the prize and remember why you started in the first place and honestly the people who love you and support you will understand that this is your goal and so maybe you won't be able to hang out but like said you have to keep your eye on prize and you have to remember why you started in the first place okay so the last and final step in this process is making sure that you prepare for your interviews some scholarships that you're apply to actually won't require interviews from you they'll just require like certain stages in this process all you have to do is just be yourself they're just going to ask you about lot of the stuff that you put in your application so things about your story so please make sure that you don't lie about this because if you do get selected for scholarship and you have to talk about your journey they're going to know if you're lying about lot of the stuff that you put inside of it so just like said stay true to who you are be authentic be truthful and promise that the interview process will go as smoothly as possible so here are list of scholarships that actually received whenever was high school senior and honestly if it wasn't for these scholarships would not have the possibility to be where am now so to say that am grateful and completely humbled by this journey is an understatement and that's why go out of my way to make sure that I'm passing along the information if you have watched to the end of this video then obviously you really want this so give yourself the best chance at succeeding and just apply and apply early because if you don't apply for that scholarship then the answer is no anyways and that's what had to constantly kind of like remind myself of as was going through the process thankfully everything worked out better than could have imagined and pray the same thing for you and don't forget that self-belief goes long way hope that this is helpful please let me know don't forget to like this video if you did find some help from it and comment and let me know if there was any specific area that you would like greater explanation on don't forget to subscribe as well because would love to have you around as continue to go throughout this process of just sharing my journey and helping students find their way because lot of the things that share are things that wish someone shared with me when was going through it but honestly you will be surprised at how many people just leave scholarship free money by the way just lying there on the table you really don't have to take out loans mean know that it's long process but you have to remember that this process is just one aspect of your journey like once you apply for scholarships this time hopefully you'll never have to do it again and also forgot to mention that some schools actually automatically match you with scholarships once you apply to that school so if you want as you're looking through the scholarship process you can go ahead and look at the schools that you're hoping to apply to and go to the financial aid kind of like office it should be like financial aid and scholarships you should see tab for that on their University website but they have list of scholarships as well and so you can also contact people there and see if they provide Financial or student aid that is separate than loans because would say even though student loans can be helpful for people who don't have the resources so know sometimes you just have to do what you have to do but if this is something that you're serious about then would recommend looking for free money first and then if you don't have the free money at the end of this process then you know do what you have to do but really hope that this is helpful and please let me know if you have any questions and look forward to seeing you around bye