By: Sherri Peterson, Financial Aid

“Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man’s lifetime income – which he then spends sending his son to college.” — Bill Vaughn

College is expensive!  Scholarships are a great way to help students and their families pay for college.  While scholarships are available year round, a large majority of them have deadlines within the months of January-April; which means if you’re not looking for them yet, you should start looking now.  Here are some tips to help improve your scholarship search:

• Create a separate email account that you use for scholarships only and share that email address with your family.  Sharing access to the information helps students as parents and family members can help them look while they’re busy during finals.
• Keep a notebook or file with the scholarship name, due date, and website or provider contact information.
• Create a scholarship portfolio or a system to save the following information: transcripts, test scores, activities, volunteer information, letters of recommendation and copies of any essays you’ve written.

• Create a free profile on scholarship search websites and keep it updated… “Take 5 to update 5” criteria: GPA, grade level, field of study & careers, personal info, and affiliated organizations or companies.
• Save information on past scholarships for which you missed deadlines or need to apply for in future years. Scholarships are often renewed each year with similar criteria, so if the deadline has passed, save it and create a reminder on your calendar to apply next year. (Do the same for scholarships that require you to be further along in school.)

“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.” -Spike Milligan

The Financial Aid Office maintains a database of scholarships available to students at www.gonzaga.edu/finaid.  Other websites offering free scholarship searches are provided below.  Don’t forget to check them often, as they’re always adding new scholarships. Remember to inquire about scholarships offered by other organizations related to your special interests, hobbies, ethnicity, or religion, as well as your employer, your parents’ employer(s) and other organizations.

Organizations offering scholarships or free search services: