Jim Intriglia’s Blog

Process, Planning, Strategy and Knowing Oneself Key to Winning Scholarship Dollars

As a life-long learner, I have met college graduates over the course of my academic career that scoffed at the notion of using student loans as a principal means of financing a college education.

These grads would often ask me why I would choose to go into debt through a student loan when there was an abundance of free money available in the form of scholarships and grants?

I had always considered the prospect of winning scholarship as being reserved for a small percentage of students that were either geniuses, athletes, minorities or unique in some other special way that would serve to opt me out.

When I returned to college a few years ago however, I learned during the college admissions process that I automatically qualified for a $500 Pell Grant. It suddenly occurred to me that there was money available to help students finance their education.

Could I really finance most of my college education through winning scholarships and pursuing educational grants? I decided to dedicate some time and find out if what I had been told over the years was indeed true.

In researching the topic of winning scholarships, I came across several good books that addressed the subject of applying for scholarships. While these books addressed certain parts of the scholarship winning process, none of them presented any kind of a strategy, plan or process that addressed how to go about winning scholarships.

In reading about students that had won scholarships over the years, it was apparent that they had both a defined strategy and process that they used to win college scholarships. Simply applying for scholarships willy-nilly did not appear to be the strategy that these students used to win scholarships of any financial significance. There was growing evidence that a “shoot-from-the-hip” approach to winning scholarships was an excellent investment in frustration, as well as a waste of valuable time and energy for students and parents alike.

Along the lines of having a proven systematic process and strategic plan to effectively winning scholarships, one series of books stood alone from the rest. The author, Benjamin Kaplan, financed most of his Harvard education at age 21, by winning two dozen merit-based scholarships totaling $90,000. His national acclaim and testimonials by parents and students that had used his winning scholarship approach supported his claim that many more students could finance their college education through winning scholarships.

In reviewing Kaplan’s “10 Day Scholarship Success” plan present in audio book format, his book “How to Go To College for Almost Free” and accompanying website Scholarshipcoach.com, several key requirements essential for winning scholarships were apparent. Some of the key areas that addressed an effective winning scholarship strategy include:

• Investing a significant amount of time to discover one’s career interests, unique talents and skills, before beginning the process of researching and applying for scholarships.
• Investing time to learn how to organize information needed to launch an effective winning scholarship campaign.
• Realizing that being effective in winning scholarships is a process that requires advance planning, organizational skills and a good deal of patience.

In applying Kaplan’s approach to winning scholarships, I discovered that his approach provides a systematic means for students to discover their true career interests, strengths and unique talents. The benefits alone gained by embarking on his winning scholarship journey can be greater than the actual winning of a scholarship itself, as the so much self-knowledge and career planning clarity is gained by a student during the course of using his process.

Kaplan’s personal style and his approach to winning scholarships resonates well with high school students. His strategy translates equally well for adult learners and even middle school students and parents that want to get an early start funding their college education.

For college-bound students that endeavor to minimize their college education debt by employing a winning scholarship strategy, Ben Kaplan’s winning scholarship books are a must-read.