How do you win a scholarship? Perhaps the easiest way if you have an essay is to enter the eduify.com Wunderkind Scholarship contest. Beyond doing what you can to get the most votes for the essay you submit to the eduify scholarship contest, you can also win other scholarships by taking the application process seriously. Put your best effort into winning a scholarship and you raise your chances significantly. Don’t send generic, canned scholarship applications out. Scholarship admissions committees can tell when an applicant is half-heartedly applying or not taking the application process seriously enough, so why risk losing a scholarship for lack of effort?

How do you take the scholarship application seriously? We’ve already shown you how to write a stellar scholarship essay. Now, we’ll show you how to put together a great scholarship package.

Prepare

Preparation is essential to creating a well-crafted scholarship package. Many scholarship applications require the same things: strong, academic letters of recommendation (which we have shown you how to score), a copy of your transcript, a list of your extracurriculars, a personal statement, and a photo of yourself. It might be beneficial, before scholarship application time rolls around, to pick up some additional extracurricular activities in order to show yourself to be a more well-rounded student. It might sound deceptive, but it’s actually a smart idea. Preparation is key, so get the things you need together, well in advance, so that you have more time to focus on your essays (the most important aspect of the whole application process).

Research

A key aspect of finding scholarships is to do research. You can research for scholarships online or in books like The Ultimate Scholarship Book of 2009 which lists scholarships you might be eligible for. While you are researching scholarships, make sure you actually qualify for them. Read the fine print. Nothing is more a waste of time than to spend hours creating a scholarship package that you don’t actually qualify for — and trust me that this happens more than you’d think. Read all the rules and regulations of your scholarship before you send anything off.

Stay organized

Before embarking on your quest for a scholarship, write down all the key dates that you need to know. You don’t want to automatically disqualify yourself from a scholarship by sending out your information too late — or even too early. Dates are important, and you should always have your eye on the scholarship application timeline. Another great tip is to keep your different scholarships filed away separately. You don’t want to mix up your scholarships and send out the wrong applications to the wrong places. Put everything away in separate folders, label your scholarships with post-it notes, or put your applications in a filing cabinet — whatever works for you, as long as you stay organized.

Put your best foot forward

Represent yourself well to scholarship committees. When writing, make sure you keep a meticulous eye on grammar, spelling, and style. Put work into craft well-written, solid essays. Add some extracurriculars to your schedule to appear more well-rounded. Prepare yourself for your scholarship interview, and practice wht you’re going to say. Whatever you do, just put your best foot forward. A little effort goes a long way in winning that scholarship money for college.

There’s no doubt about it: scholarship essays are a tricky matter to approach. Scholarship competitions often arrive at your doorstep during the last half of the school year, by far the most hectic time in the academic year when students are already bogged down with extracurriculars, final exams, looming end-of-year grades, not to mention stress-inducing standardized tests. More often than not, high-schoolers focus on their “real schoolwork” and procrastinate on the “optional schoolwork” of scholarship applications, to the point where they end up scrambling, up to the final hours, to turn in shoddy, half-hearted applications, essays, and personal statements to a host of scholarship competitions they actually would have had a good chance of winning, had they simply believed in themselves more and taken more time to do a job well done.

There are easy tricks to consider when penning a scholarship essay — a feat which is definitely less challening than students may think. Considering the sheer number of students who write “fluff essays” to scholarship competitions, half-heartedly listing their accomplishments and not ever really investing their full energy into the application process, even putting forth any effort at all immediately puts you above the average crowd. Here are some simple tips on how to channel your inner wunderkind and win that big scholarship, without stretching yourself too thin or causing you too much stress. We promise.

Consider the organization

So what’s the deal with the organization that is giving you this free money? Because it would probably benefit you to do some research. Is this the Alaskan Oceanography Society? Because, if it is, you probably should not write your essay about how you think offshore drilling is a good idea. Is this the National Rifle Association giving you this money? Don’t tell them about your liberal belief that gun control is the only moral way. Be smart, think about where the money is coming from, and sell yourself out. You heard me. Sell yourself out.

Analyze the scholarship application questions and prompts beneath the surface level

Really. It won’t take you take much time to analyze a simple question to a slightly deeper level. If you are willing to walk 10 feet, you might as well go the extra, I don’t know, 5 feet. Although the best thing to do would probably be to take a little more time and walk a mile. Most students are so bored with scholarship essay writing that they spend as little time as they need to, to think of answers to essay prompts that are neither piercing, intellectual, nor remotely interesting. Spend a little more time thinking about the question than you otherwise would. Analyze. Study. Even research, if you need to. A good think will take you a long way when it comes to getting your hands on that cash.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Maybe it’s not a good idea to have your classmate who is applying to the same scholarship edit your essay, but it’s a good idea to show it to a teacher or a parent or a tutor, to get a fresh perspective on what you’ve written. Don’t just write a hasty essay and mail it off to that Impressive Scholarship Committee without having it looked over once, twice, ten times if need be.

Brag

So this scholarship money is supposed to go to the ‘most qualified candidate’ right? So show them how qualified you are! Wow them with your accomplishments, your honors, your academic record. But do it in a graceful way. Don’t boast pompously about how much brighter you are than your lowly peers. Tell the committees, straightforwardly, why you believe that you are a good candidate. Not why they should think you are. Frame it as a personal belief only. And don’t try to be annoyingly modest. False modesty brushes people the wrong way as much as straight-up bragga-lagging, so just be real as possible. Ya heard?

What are 4 things to do on your college visit and 3 things to avoid doing? Read our tips after the jump!

Do socialize

Talk to other students, ask plenty of questions, and most importantly, make sure you stay with a current student during your visit to get a real sense of campus life! As we wrote in 5 things to ask yourself when picking a school, “A variable that often gets overlooked when you apply to school is your inherent personality. Your happiness definitely matters when going off to school, and there is no worse feeling than going to a school you dislike, where you don’t get along with the student body and are unhappy. One thing you have to ask yourself is, in general, what the student body will be like in the ideal school you attend.” It’s important to socialize with other students during your campus visit in order to gauge whether the types of students you meet at the college you are visiting are the type of people you want to spend the next 4 years of your life with.

Do eat

Whether the food is good shouldn’t be one of the bigger deciding factors of choosing a college (because, chances are, the food won’t be good). However, eating at the school cafeterias is a great way to talk to currently enrolled college students. This goes back to our socializing point. Go to the cafeteria, grab a snack, and strike up a conversation with someone. Generally, students are understanding of visiting high schoolers (they were there at one point too!) and are more than happy to answer some general questions. I’m not saying you should monopolize their precious mealtime, but there’s no harm in sparking up a short chat.

Do learn

You are going to school to learn, and the departments and curriculums that interest you are definitely a relevant factor in ultimately picking a school. College visits are a great way to sit in on classes and see/hear what the whole shebang is all about. For those who are extra ambitious, see if you can schedule a meeting with a professor during office hours! Just make sure you have a list of relevant questions in hand as to not waste anyone’s time.

Do explore

Ditch the parentals and go off exploring on your own! This is your college visit and it’s totally your prerogative! BUT, don’t get lost. Make sure you have a map, a guide, or a clear understanding of your surroundings. You don’t want to be THAT high schooler who flies out for their college visit only to get lost in a neighboring town.

Don’t get arrested

It goes without saying that getting arrested or getting caught doing anything illegal should be number one on your “don’t” list. If you are caught before matriculating doing anything of questionable legality, the administration won’t hesitate to rescind your acceptance. Better not take any chances. After all, you’ve worked so hard for the past four years to get in, so it’d be a tragedy to lose it all in an instant.

Don’t be parented

Don’t let your parents dictate your opinion of the campus too much. Say they want you to go to Wharton, but you’re totally set on the Fashion Institute of Technology. It’s your life, your career, and your responsibility to choose the right school for YOU. Their input should be minimal!

Don’t judge

You are on a college visit to gather information, and not to disperse it. Keep an open mind and don’t judge. If you’re a die hard straight edger and you witness some college students getting rowdy at a kegger — keep in mind that they are living their lives according to their own desires, not yours. Likewise, if you are a social butterfly and can’t fathom why the campus is full of science nerds who live in the library — don’t judge. Colleges all come with their own personalities. You are looking for one that you fit in with, not trying to fit them to you. That distinction is crucial if any good is to come out of your visit!