November is National Scholarship Month: Here’s How to Celebrate

Starbucks has whipped out the red cups, superstores have hung the holiday decorations and everyone has begun the countdown to turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. But there’s another event worth celebrating this month too: National Scholarship Month! National Scholarship Month is sponsored by the National Scholarship Providers Association and aims to draw attention to the great need for scholarships. The month-long campaign hopes to draw more scholarship opportunities from community organizations, businesses and colleges, which is great news for students. Consider this: the more scholarships that exist, the better your chances of actually winning one. So how can you get in on the celebrations this month? 1. Update your Fastweb profile. How long has it been since you updated your Fastweb profile? Weeks, months, years? An outdated profile could mean missed opportunities. The more updated your profile, the better your scholarship matches list. So go back to your profile, update your GPA and test scores if applicable and add any jobs or student organizations that you’ve been a part of since the last time you cleaned up your profile. 2. Break the ice with Fastweb’s Featured Scholarships. So maybe you’ve never applied to a scholarship before – or you’ve only applied to one or two. You can ease into the process through our Featured Scholarships. These are opportunities from different sponsors that we’ve chosen to highlight as easy-to-apply-for scholarships. They typically require you to simply fill out a form, and you’re done! 3. Set a scholarship goal. Once you’ve applied for Fastweb’s Featured Scholarships, set a goal for yourself this month to apply to one or two scholarships per week. If you want to apply for more, go for it! Treat this like a homework assignment. Devote time each week, either on a weeknight or a weekend, to complete these applications. If you find that the time it takes to complete applications is easy, try adding one or two more applications to your plate each week. 4. Make it a habit. After devoting a month to applying to a few scholarships each week, it should become a habit. Take what you’ve learned over the course of National Scholarship Month, and apply it to every other month of the year. Applying for scholarships is a numbers game; meaning the more you apply to, the better your chances of actually winning. Diligence in your scholarship search and application can lead to big payoffs for college. 5. Take on Fastweb's National Scholarship Month Challenge. We've issued a challenge: apply for at least then awards throughout November, National Scholarship Month. We've created a great list of scholarships to get you started.