Raphael Kang .com

Applying for Scholarships
for High School Juniors and Seniors

My Story:
- During my senior year in 2002-2003, I applied for 50-55 scholarships.
- I won 12 scholarships that gave me a total of $24,000, essentially a full-ride to UC Berkeley.
- List of scholarships that I applied for

This is how I found my scholarships and applied for them.

1. College Center:
- Every high school college center has a list of scholarships. Visit the college center once every month for updates.

2. Websites
- Huge, categorized lists of scholarships

Recommended:
- Fastweb.com
- Petersons

- There are many more, but these are my favorites.

3. "Brute-Force"

- After a couple of days of looking through the college center resources, books, and websites, I still wasn't satisfied. So I thought of an idea: Looking at other high schools’ college centers.

a. Go on www.google.com
b. Find out names of some well-known high schools around your area. (i.e. Beverly Hills High School)
c. Google "Beverly Hills High School scholarships"
d. Visit the high school’s listing of scholarships.
e. Repeat A-D with different high school names.

- Some of my best (most generous) scholarships were found through this "Brute-Force" method.

Tips:
- Find 4, 5 well-known schools that are in your city or county. Ask your counselor or teachers.
- Finding the schools and googling them should take about an hour.
- The key is to re-visit the school scholarship pages every week for updates.

4. Books (Optional)
- Huge, categorized lists of scholarships.
- However, it’s very time-consuming to find scholarships since you have to browse the entire book to find scholarships.
- But for the very motivated… here are the books that I recommend:

- Kaplan – Scholarships 2006
- Petersons - Scholarships, Grants and Prizes 2006

B. Organizing Scholarships
- Make a list of scholarships. Keep the list simple. Just sort them by deadline.

C. Applying for Scholarships

1. Application - Just fill them out.
- Deadlines: Scholarships are due on various dates, but most are due from November - April.
2. Essay
- My college essays were very useful for scholarship essays.
- Most tended to ask me about my "greatest achievement" or "why I need this scholarship."

Tips:
- Have someone proofread your essay.
- Ask your English teacher. Your teacher gets VERY few requests from his/her students to look over their scholarship essays. He'll be proud of you and gladly look it over.
- If not, ask your career counselor or your high school counselor. Or find a teacher who likes you.
- Hire an English tutor. It's worth the money.
- Fastweb.com has excellent articles about writing scholarship essays.

3. Transcript - Order them at your high school. Cost 1-3 dollars.

4. Letter of Recommendation
- Tell your teacher or high school counselor in advance that you're going to need letters of recommendations for scholarships.
- Ask the same ones you asked for letters of recommendation for colleges.
- They'll tell you when to pick them up.

D. Books I (Highly) Recommend
- Includes Listings of Scholarships, Tips / Advices, and Sample Essays

- Ben Kaplan - How to Go to College Almost for Free: The Secrets of Winning Scholarship Money
- Ben Kaplan - The Scholarship Scouting Report: An Insider's Guide to America's Best Scholarships

E. Final Comments
- Applying for scholarships is easy to do. That's why it's also easy NOT to do. And that's why most high school students don't.
- It does take discipline, especially when you feel like everything's over after finishing your college applications.
- These scholarships are serious sources of money and aid.

- What would you rather do? Apply for scholarships or work minimum-wage jobs?

$1000 - 125 hours while earning minimum wage ($8 dollars per hour)
$2000 - 250 hours while earning minimum wage
$5000 - 625 hours while earning minimum wage

- If I had to work for $24,000 that I received, I'd have to have worked for 3000 hours if minimum wage was $8. That's 125 days, 24 hours a day. Does that put things in perspective?

- If you're a high school junior or senior reading this, I'd have to ask you these questions:

Why WOULDN'T you apply? What do you have to lose?

You have the choice to be extraordinary or ordinary?
Which one do you want to be?

Note: If you have further questions or comments, please email me. I’ll be more than happy to help.