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Applying for scholarships should come after you finish the first steps in the College Selection and Affordability Blueprint. You first want to decide on what makes you happy in life and start thinking of career choices, well before you start applying for scholarships.

Receiving money via a scholarship at a school that doesn’t offer a program you are interested in majoring in, only hurts you in the big picture.

Point: only apply to schools that fit your overall college selection “picture”. Your college planner can “pull merit monies” available for you and compile a list of places where you should apply. This is included in your “College Plan” service.

When:

You have to keep in mind that schools had out the money on a first come first serve basis. You definitely want to be at the beginning of the line when applying. Most people think that applying for a scholarship automatically enters and application for them to get into the school. That is simply not the case. You have to apply to both- and keep them separate in your mind.

Most deadlines for scholarships are around October. This is before the college app is due to the school.

How:

After you make a list of schools, apply to each school individually filling out the necessary paperwork (your planner can help you if you need support).

Scholarship money is deducted from tuition in various ways:

1) Financial aid money- scholarship money = money owed
2) Student Loans – scholarship money = money owed
3) EFC – scholarship money = money owed
4) Straight tuition – scholarship money = money owed.

It’s important to run various scenarios because it could save you thousands in the end.

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Have you attended our free Info Hour Workshop? We go over everything you should know about applying for college, the financial aid process and college selection. You can register right here. It’s our most popular workshop!

Oftentimes, families overlook some very easy things that can make the transition to college a lot more affordable. Below are 3 easy things you can do to knock money off that tuition bill.

Financial Aid Strategy

Financial Aid is much easier than you think. When applying for aid, you want to make sure you fill out your FAFSA forms correctly and to the best of your ability to position yourself for as little out-of-pocket as possible, honestly. A College Planner can quickly show you how to do this and it could save you up to $40K off your tuition bill.

Don’t r rule out private schools:
With private schools being sometimes less expensive then public, you should always consider both. College planners have tools available to them that are not available to the open public to match you with potential money available at these schools. Remember, those that never apply for this money, never get access to the free money awarded.

Spend your summers elsewhere. If the school allows transfer credits, consider your child spending a summer or two in class — at a cheaper public school in your home state. Credit hours for an in-state resident can be as low as a few hundred dollars. Complete 15 credit hours and even at $400 per hour, you’ll spend just $6,000. Junior could then graduate early and if you’re a full-paying family, you’ll knock off upwards of $25,000 for a final semester’s tuition and fees. (Make sure the college doesn’t charge an early-completion fee).

Click here to register for a free event that discusses more free tips and tricks!

Start with Career – Not College – in Mind
By Lisa Mader, LEAP 2Success

Approximately 80% of freshmen have not declared a college major. 50% of those who have declared a major will change their major during college. 70% of college students will change their major.
The numbers evidence students not being dialed into who they are before making MAJOR decisions. This is a costly mistake. Most parents who have saved for college plan on their child graduating in 4 years. What is the possibility of graduating from college in 4 years for a student who changes majors over and over or transfers? Simply put, not possible.
Roadmap
The typical student embarks on the college selection journey by choosing the college they love, then a major and finally finding a career the major will feed to. Going against the grain, LEAP suggests students embark on the journey with the end in mind – Career. Instead of focusing on the FOUR YEARS a student will be in college, turn the attention to the 40+ years the student will work.
The roadmap should be focused on the student’s wiring. Answer first, “What am I wired to do?” While there’s not one simple answer to this question, scientifically dialing into personality with the Birkman Method® allows the student to easily identify what they AREN’T wired to do and begin to create buckets of like careers for exploration. These career possibilities would be satisfying as individual NEEDS are met and INTERESTS embraced. The Birkman® assessment identifies 77 personality scores.
Back-Up
Once careers are established, the student should back up to the majors that feed to these careers. Sometimes it’s one major as is the case with teaching or engineering, but often there are several options that would feed to the career. After the appropriate majors are established, students can do their research on what colleges are well respected for their major.
Career needs to be at the forefront of these MAJOR decisions on the college bound journey. As a College Planning Relief Specialist, I offer LEAP 2College 2Career Birkman® based coaching. LEAP 2College 2Career is an Investment in College Savings.