We’ve all gone through a class that put us to sleep or a relationship that required “selective listening.”
Older teens and 20-somethings aren’t exactly known for having strong attention spans, which is why the idea of spending a full day on one scholarship application is laughable at best.
You probably have better things to do with your time, what with the new season of your favorite TV show coming out and all. Nevertheless, you have to find time to earn money for college.
Here are some tips to help you get through your financial aid applications as they come up.
The Simple Solution: No Essay Scholarships
No essay scholarships provide simple financial aid opportunities for students seeking quick fixes. Rather than writing 1,200 words about “how no. 2 pencils changed your life,” you can fill out a 5- minute form online and potentially win thousands of dollars to use in college.
Most of these scholarship opportunities are available through drawings, where one or two lucky students are selected at random to win the awards.
If you’re lucky enough to be one of those randomly selected winners, you could get money for school without much effort at all.
Fill out as many no essay scholarship applications as you can, and you might be surprised by the results.
The Not-So-Simple Solution: Getting through Scholarship Applications
You can’t pay for a college education with no essay scholarships alone. You will eventually have to apply for scholarships like any other person would. Here are some quick tips to help you get through:
- Spread out your applications. Try to apply for one scholarship a day through the course of a week, rather than sitting on the computer for hours on end. This will make the process seem less like a job and more like a hobby.
- Fill out applications online. You should be able to get through them quicker this way, leaving you more time for—dare we say—studying…or the occasional late-night McDonald’s run.
- Challenge yourself to fill out applications. Set up rewards for every application you fill out so that you always have your goals in mind.
- Start applying early on. If you know the apps are going to take a while, you might as well allot enough time to sort through them all. This isn’t like that chemistry final you’ve been avoiding. It’s your future.
- Just get through them. If you can focus for 5 minutes and get through with an application, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. Use that as motivation to get through this process.
You can’t use your short attention span as an excuse to live off student loans. Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and get through the grueling applications that come your way. Hopefully, the tips above will allow you to get through the financial aid fuss in one piece.
Push through as many applications as possible, and you’ll graduate debt-free.