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pplying for scholarships is a daunting task. Maybe on a free weekend you muster up enough willpower to open up your laptop and start googling scholarships. It takes only a couple seconds to find yourself overwhelmed with options. Should you just power through and apply to as many as possible? Or select a few scholarships and put in more effort into each application?

You’ll hear all kinds of advice about scholarship application strategies, but there’s no foolproof method when it comes to applying. There is, however, one piece of scholarship strategy that holds unequivocally true: your best chance of winning a scholarship is by applying to local scholarships.

What is a local scholarship, anyway?

Let’s define a local scholarship. It is a scholarship that only considers applicants who either live in a specific area or go to a specific school. Often, these scholarships are sponsored by local businesses, nonprofit organizations, or even alumni. These donors are connected to the community and want to support the education efforts of promising young people who are also part of their community.

Maximizing the amount of local scholarships to which you apply maximizes, in the most efficient way possible, the likelihood that your efforts will pay off and that you will win a scholarship. It’s simple math. Those scholarship lists you’re finding on the first page of Google? They’re the same scholarships every other high schooler in America with enough motivation to do a Google search is finding. The applicant pool for these types of scholarships can be huge. But local scholarships have much smaller applicant pools, so your shot at winning a scholarship is significantly higher. 

A lot of the scholarships I received were local ones. The $2,5000 municipal utilities scholarship was open only to high school seniors residing in the utility’s service zone, which encompassed just the town of Shakopee. Another $3,000 local scholarship I won was awarded by the Shakopee rotary club to Shakopee High School seniors who demonstrated academic excellence and leadership in the community. You didn’t need to live in the town of Shakopee, but you did have to go to the Shakopee High School. The final $1,000 local scholarship I received was funded through alumni donations and awarded, once again, only to my high school’s graduating seniors. For all these scholarships, the applicant pool was limited to just the 600 or so graduating seniors in town. Without a doubt, these odds helped me snag these scholarships.


All of that sounds great. But where do I find local scholarships?

Your counselor is going to be your best resource for identifying local scholarships. After all, it’s part of their job to help you get to college, and searching for scholarships to get you there is part of the process. Many guidance centers curate a list of local scholarships that they distribute in the fall to juniors or seniors. Get your hands on that list. Next, apply to every scholarship you’re eligible for! 

Let your mantra be: if in doubt, fill it out. 


I’ve applied to every local scholarship. Should I stop?

Once you’ve applied to all local scholarships and you still have time, then it might not be a bad idea to do a bit of Googling for other scholarships out there. If you do this, it’s very important that you find a niche. Maybe you’re a black belt in karate, or have Irish heritage, or are a fan of Ayn Rand, or want to study agriculture in college? There are scholarships out there specifically for you. Really! You’ll be surprised at what you can find out there. Once you’ve exhausted your local scholarship options, expand your search into these types of categories. 

Quality vs Quantity

Applying to scholarships can be exhausting, I know. Don’t burn yourself out. Find a balance between quantity and quality. Applying to local or niche scholarships, though very important, is just one strategy toward graduating without debt. You still need to keep up with your schoolwork. You still need to spend time actually applying to colleges. Volunteering in the local community. Participating in sports and other extracurriculars. All this is important because it makes you a stronger applicant. Because, as we’ll discuss in a future chapter, it’s not just local scholarships you should be aiming for — the scholarship offers you receive from college can make a big financial impact, but you’ll need to have a standout application.

One last piece of advice. Don’t delay — those deadlines might look like they’re still far away, but they’ll be here sooner than you think. It’s tough to crunch out quality scholarship essays and applications at the last minute. Find that sweet spot between quality and quantity and apply, apply, apply.

Posted 
Aug 12, 2023
 in 
Scholarships
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