If you or your child are thinking about attending college in the near future, cost is probably your top priority. Top schools continue to raise tuition fees as many young people become increasingly mired in debt. By the second quarter of this year, student loan debt in the United States exceeded $1.8 trillion, according to the Education Data Initiative.
To keep costs down, prospective students can ideally win multiple scholarships. But that’s easier said than done.
But Karlin Greene did it. And she doubts you can do it either.
Green won 30 scholarships to attend undergraduate and graduate school at the University of North Texas, graduating debt-free with degrees in broadcast journalism and public relations, advertising and applied communications.
She used her skills to work as a full-time content creator and founder of Scholarship Guru, through which she has helped clients win millions of dollars in scholarships.
“A lot of mistakes are made when it comes to scholarships,” Green says. The biggest factor, she says, is not doing your best in your essay.
“I always tell my students to approach it like they’re marketing themselves, because many of the principles you learn from marketing can be applied to scholarships,” she says. “Because you’re trying to convince someone why they should invest in your education, not someone else who’s competing with you.”
Here are Green’s thoughts on the most common mistakes applicants encounter when applying for scholarships, and how to avoid them.
1. Focusing on national scholarships
No matter how good an essay you write, it can be difficult for anyone to stand out from a sea of applicants, Green says.
“Nine times out of 10, when people first start a job, they apply to a very wide range of qualifications,” she says.
And while these national scholarships may come with five- or six-figure rewards, “you’re much more likely to win local, state-level scholarships, and what I call intersectionality scholarships.”
This means awards with multiple criteria that represent you, including race, gender, geographic location, and field of study. “That would narrow down the competition,” she says.
2. Don’t treat yourself like a hot commodity.
Green recommends infusing your application materials with concepts from the marketing world: scarcity and urgency. Essentially, how unique are you or your academic goals and why should you receive funding now?
For example, medical students may want to emphasize that they intend to specialize in treating rare and deadly diseases, Green says.
“If you find relevant data, such as news articles or research articles, that point out and emphasize this, it will tell the audience and the judges that it makes more sense to invest in your own education than, say, someone who is going to get plastic surgery,” she says.
3. Apply to only a few scholarships
It’s easy to feel discouraged if you don’t get the scholarship you expected, but even for the best applicants, it can be a numbers game, Green says.
“I won 30 scholarships, but applied to just over 100,” she says. “I have another student. She won 20 scholarships. She applied for a little over 200 scholarships. So it depends.”
In addition to websites, Green recommends using online tools like Bold.org and Going Merry to find scholarships you qualify for and can apply for in bulk.
Overall, for the average student, Green recommends applying for 100 to 200 scholarships.
“It may seem overwhelming, but when you compare it to applying in the current job market, many people are applying to hundreds of jobs,” she says.
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