Local Scholarships Guide: How to Find and Win Them
What Makes Local Awards So Great?
Local scholarships, by definition, are going to be targeted towards a smaller pool of potential applicants. The award amount may be smaller - they’re probably not funded by international private organizations but they also will be less competitive. That means you often have a much better chance of receiving an award!
There are some other serious advantages that come with focusing on local scholarships:
First, it'll probably be easier for you to seek out personalized information and feedback about available scholarships. This is because you have resources available to you in the form of guidance counselors, teachers, or community leaders who may know about local programs. This means you're more likely to find awards that are a good fit for you.
Second, because local scholarships are relatively small (on average), you may find that their application processes are less intensive than those of the huge, national awards. This means it may be easier for you to apply for the awards you're interested in.
How to Find Local Scholarships in Your Community
There's no one way to go about looking for local scholarships, but there are a lot of different resources for you to take advantage of. The following tips and strategies will help you find as many appropriate local awards as possible.
1. Talk to Your Guidance or College Counselor
2. Focus on Local Community and Cultural Centers
3. Take Advantage of Online Resources
Submitting the Best Applications for Local Awards
If you already have some local scholarship programs in mind (or even if you’re still looking), it’s important to submit the best scholarship applications possible to maximize your chances of winning money.
Each local program is likely to have its own application, criteria, submission deadline, and administrative protocols. Keeping track of all of this information and actually completing the applications will be a pretty significant commitment on your end. As such, you want to make sure each application is appropriately submitted - you don’t want to put in a ton of work and not have anything pan out because you didn't follow instructions!
The following tips will help you optimize your success rate in applying for local awards.
Step #1: Make Sure You Meet All Eligibility Criteria
Step #2: Ask Yourself If You're a Good Fit
Step #3: Emphasize Your Ties to the Scholarship and the Community
Step #4: Complete All Parts of the Application
Step #5: Make Sure to Meet the Deadline
Finally, make it your mission to apply to several scholarship programs (and not just local ones, either). Don't put all your proverbial eggs in one basket by just applying for a single award, no matter how great of an applicant you are.
