7 Tips to Get Scholarships

If your sights are set on college, there’s a good chance you’ve submitted your applications to the schools you’re interested in already. It’s never too early to get started on the next step – paying down tuition for whichever school you choose. Fortunately, plenty of scholarships are still seeking applicants – including FFCCU! Every year, our Club Ignite program offers members a chance to earn $1000 towards their education through the Ignite My Future scholarship. We want you to have the very best shot with any scholarship submissions (including ours), so here are 7 tips to get scholarships. This advice is right on point for Ignite My Future, and applies to any other scholarships you might be seeking.

#1 Tip to get Scholarships: Don’t be afraid to brag

The time for modesty is over! A big tip to get scholarships is to make yourself stand out above the other applicants. Judges want to easily understand your accomplishments, and you want your successes to shine their brightest. Include any official awards, accolades, records you’ve broken, or merits you’ve earned relating to the scholarship’s topic. For the Ignite My Future Scholarship, it’s important that essay readers see the volume and consistency of your community service. Be specific about programs and the time you’ve spent with them. Good qualities to highlight include a proactive approach to volunteering (opportunities you sought out and stuck with even beyond school required hours), variety of activities, and hours committed.

Give Them What They Want

Many scholarship essays have a theme or ask a specific question. This may seem obvious but…answer it! It’s easy to get lost in the weeds of spotlighting your accomplishments, cataloging volunteering hours, and describing yourself. But keep that main theme in mind the whole time! Connect specific projects and events to the theme. Explain how the time you spent has shaped and influenced you.

A related tip to get scholarships – write for your audience. Organizations that offer these awards typically have their own mission and principles. If you’re applying for the Ignite My Future Scholarship (and you should!) explaining what you’ve learned about financial literacy and fiscal responsibility could make you stand out as a candidate. Make connections between your goals and growth and the goals of the scholarship host. This might require a bit of digging on their website to see what principles are important to the scholarship provider.

Reinforce Your Recommendation Letters

Just like your college applications, scholarships might ask for recommendation letters. Even if not required, it can help to provide a letter from someone who can vouch for your efforts. Don’t view recommendation letters as an afterthought! A useful tip to get scholarships is to acquire a letter from someone the scholarship providers would regard highly. Program leaders, supervisors, or other authorities writing on your behalf provide a powerful statement. This demonstrates that you’re a memorable and valued contributor. It also establishes further documentation of your volunteering efforts. It isn’t “cheating” to take a look at your recommendation letters (if available), and tailor some of your essay to highlight elements of your service your mentors celebrate.

Proof and Reproof

While quality is key, your essay is the chance to make your case. A good piece of writing goes a long way, and an important facet of that is to polish it and make sure it’s error-free! This is an important document that you are sending. Remember that scholarship readers are going through multiple essays, probably at the same time. Make sure you stand out and do your best to impress them with your writing. Seek out evocative words, limit your passive voice, and check the essay over for errors and clarity. Then check it again. And maybe even one more time!

Additionally, have at least two other people proofread and make suggestions. Ask them if any passages were confusing, unclear, or mismatched with the purpose of the essay. Try not to take corrections and errors from proofreaders personally. Everyone makes mistakes and scholarship essays can be difficult to write well. The best writers still do multiple revisions and solicit feedback.

Crucial Tip to Get Scholarships: Seek Out Leadership Roles

Take charge, accept responsibility, and position yourself as a decision-maker. Both colleges and scholarships want to see you embrace leadership opportunities. Even if your authority is limited, call out your leadership experience. They want to see you organizing, inspiring, and collaborating – which doesn’t necessarily require being “in-charge” of someone. Sometimes these opportunities are created by you!

If you don’t see leadership positions available, ask about them! If a task requires volunteers, it also requires organization and delegation. Offering to lighten the burden of organizers is often welcome and appreciated. If you haven’t started doing this, take the steps now. You can still spotlight early days in a leadership role in the application essay.

Another way to demonstrate leadership is to start your own projects. Past recipients of the Ignite My Future Scholarship have started or led new programs and initiatives serving their schools and communities. Look for needs in your community and think of ways to address them. Then do that! Your dedication and initiative could really stand out to scholarship reviewers.

Think about the things you excel at and enjoy and find ways they can benefit your community. Are you an avid reader? Work with your library to found a book club or become a tutor to younger students. Love an underrepresented sport? See if a local rec center would be willing to spare time and space for an intramural league or weekly meet-and-play. Leverage your strengths and passion, to make it fun, personal, and keep you energized.

New leadership roles are a tall order by themselves. If you are working ahead of scholarship deadlines, your early work in getting an initiative off the ground still counts!

Apply Early

Look at that application deadline (January 31 for the Ignite My Future Scholarship). Then, enter “Submit Scholarship Application” into your calendar or scheduling app well in advance of the actual deadline. This is one of those tips for getting scholarships that has more to do with completion than competition. Leaving extra time prevents you from missing the scholarship entirely!

Take a look at all of the materials you need to submit and set some generous deadlines. Remember that it probably requires more than just your essay. You need to give mentors time to write letters of recommendation. If grades are requested, that might take time to secure from your school’s office. Think ahead about what you need and set a (padded) schedule to account for any delays that might occur.

If you are mailing anything in through physical (snail) mail you’ll need to have documents printed. Account for possible slowdowns in mail service, too.

One Last Tip to Get Scholarships: Stay Organized

Recommendation letters, grades, evidence of participation, essay writing and revision – maybe even a portfolio. Keeping all submission pieces together (particularly if you are applying for multiple scholarships) can get hectic. Find a way to organize every element – like a folder, (physical or digital). Consider a spreadsheet or checklist and mark down every piece you need to submit.

And as we mentioned above, setting a schedule is a big part of doing this right!

You’re now well prepared to apply for the Ignite My Future scholarship…and loaded up with tips to get scholarships of all sorts! If you’re looking for essay writing pointers, we touched on that particular topic in an article from 2024. The roadblocks are out of the way, so you can get started, and submit your essay before January 31, 2025!

Posted In: Ignite