High school counselors are among a handful of people who can offer scholarship application help. Unlike other sources of support, however, counselors have been there and done that numerous times.
Here are five specific ways their experience can help you secure scholarships to pay for college.
[See the five people you haven’t asked about college scholarships.]
1. Narrowing your search: Your high school counselor should be aware of the latest and greatest scholarship tools, including online aggregators and mobile applications. More importantly, he or she can help you figure out how to search these tools for the opportunities that match your traits.
If you’re the first in your family to attend college, for example, your counselor can help you find opportunities like the TMCF/Walmart First-Generation Scholarship Program, which offers up to $6,200 to graduating high school seniors who will be incoming college freshmen at a historically black college or university within the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s network.
Counselors may also be a boon offline. Given their experience helping students in previous graduating classes, they could have already developed a pipeline of gift aid from a specific foundation. The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, for example, earmarks funds annually for up to four soon-to-be graduates at Normandy High School in Missouri. Unless you ask, you might not know about a connection your school has with particular donors.
2. Troubleshooting application questions: Although they might not hold a candle to college applications, scholarship forms can call for nitty-gritty details. They could take hours to complete and ask you questions you don’t know how to answer.
My mentee through the iMentor program, for example, sought help from his New York-based high school counselor when completing forms for need-based scholarship applications. A first-generation student, he didn’t know much about his parent’s income, let alone how to track down a tax return. The counselor worked with the student’s mother to determine what the application required.
You might lean on your high school counselor for more than answering tough application questions. The counselor could help collect your transcripts, for example.
[Avoid seven common scholarship application pitfalls.]
3. Helping with recommendation letters: Some scholarship applications might require references or even full letters of recommendation.
Asking a teacher or coach to write nice things about you may not be your favorite task. But your counselor could help by considering candidates to ask and reviewing how and when to make the request.
The counselor might be aware of how many students are asking a specific teacher or coach for recommendation letters, for example. He or she could advise you to give an in-demand recommender more time to complete the letter or push you toward an individual who’s more likely to meet your deadline.
During your quest for recommendations, don’t forget to ask your counselor for a letter. If you’ve developed a strong rapport with your counselor, he or she could be the perfect candidate.
4. Brainstorming and editing essays: Like asking your teacher for help with an in-classroom essay, there’s no shame in asking your counselor for support with scholarship essays. Think of this individual less like a counselor and more as a brainstorm partner. He or she can be your sounding board and proofreader.
The counselor could also share knowledge about how to make your essay stand out from the crowd.
[Discover how to win a scholarship without writing an essay.]
5. Prepping for interviews: Some scholarship opportunities that deliver big awards, including the full-ride Gates Scholarship, interview finalists before choosing a winner. These organizations will often want to meet with applicants before making a decision.
Your counselor could help you prep for scholarship interviews as if you were applying for a job. They might pepper you with questions to help simulate the experience and offer real-time feedback and advice. That beats practicing in front of the mirror.
Don’t discount high school counselors’ savviness — even if college preparation isn’t 100 percent of their job description. Make a standing appointment and receive help building your bridge to college.
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5 Scholarship Tasks High School Counselors Can Help With originally appeared on usnews.com
