It is time again for college scholarship applications. For students that are interested in going to college and would like some of their finances paid for, filling out a scholarship application is beyond necessary. Counselor Alicia Bailey is the person to talk to if a student would like to apply for a scholarship. Good grades are not the only reason a college might give you scholarship these days.
“Being a good citizen, having good grades, and extra curriculars are things that make students eligible for scholarships,” Counselor Nathan Jacobson said.
However, students may not realize is that  scholarships became available as of September 20, are The Automobile Dealers of Greater Kansas City, Black Community Scholarship Fund, Coca-Cola Scholars Program, Elks National Foundation: Most Valuable Student Scholarship, Missouri S & T: Chancellor’ Scholarship, and several more that can can be found in the counseling center. The money awards for these scholarships range from $500 to $60 thousand.
“December 1 is the big deadline on scholarships for seniors,” Mr. Jacobson said. “Colleges will still take applications after that but they start giving out money then and when the money runs out there isn’t any for the other  scholarships.”
Scholarships are not only a wake up call to seniors to look at applications but also to the other grade levels.
“Students need to start looking at scholarships at the end of their junior year,” Mr. Jacobson said.
This is so students are aware of what they are getting into and any adjustments that need to be made in their school schedule and job life. Although starting to look at scholarships is not the same as when students need to start filling them out.
“To be eligible for scholarships, you need to start preparing the moment you step into high school,” Mr. Jacobson said.
Scholarships applications, like anything in life, vary in difficulty. Competitive schools can make it harder for students to produce good applications.
“Competitive colleges and applications are more difficult but they pay more,” Senior Andrew Billingsley said.
Colleges receive many applications a year so filling out more than one scholarship to more than one college is a wise choice for students.
For example in last year alone, Truman seniors submitted over 800 scholarships for the Independece Scholarship Foundation.
“The more students apply for scholarships the higher their chances are for earning a scholarship,” Counselor Alicia Bailey said.
Statistics show that the more an action is performed, the higher the chances are the desired outcome will occur. There are two Murphy laws that apply to the situation of scholarships applications in particular. The first one is when working towards a problem it helps to know the answer. The second is nothing is ever as easy as it seems.