01
Ignoring 'small' local scholarships.
The $750 Lions Club award has six applicants. Three weeks of essay-writing for the $25,000 national award has zero hit rate for most students. Local first, every time.
VI.Common mistakes
The things almost every family does at least once
Forgiveable individually. Patterns at scale.
02
Using one essay everywhere without tailoring.
Reuse the middle, but always rewrite the open and the close to match the specific scholarship's mission. Readers can tell when you didn't bother.
03
Asking recommenders late.
Two weeks isn't enough. Four is minimum. Most students get one bad letter because they asked late and the teacher dashed it off.
04
Skipping the optional fields.
On scholarship applications, every optional field is a tiebreaker. If you don't fill it in, you're betting the reader will fill it in for you favorably. They won't.
05
Not following up on outcomes.
Many scholarships announce results by mail with no email notification. Check the Tracking column monthly. Update the status when results come in — it's how you build the year-over-year picture of what's working.
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