How to Organize and Prioritize Your Scholarship Applications

Flickr user Craig Chew-Moulding

When it comes to scholarships, there’s no such thing as “too many.” However, when you apply to a multitude of scholarships, things can get a little confusing. How are you supposed to organize them? Which one is due when? Did that one require a scholarship essay, or was it the other? You already applied to that one, didn’t you?

Staying organized is key—which is true of the entire college application process, really. But when it comes to scholarships, here are a few tips to keep things neat, tidy, and on track.

Create a Scholarship Spreadsheet to Organize

Once you’ve found a scholarship you want to apply to, write it down. Catalog its information in an Excel or Google Sheet. You can include the title and link to the scholarship, how much its worth, when its due, and checklists of everything required for the application all in one convenient place. Best of all, you can also keep track of your progress on that particular scholarship by color-coding. It’s an easy and effective way to keep everything in order.

Prioritize the Scholarships

With your handy spreadsheet in place, you can now prioritize scholarships. How you organize it is, of course, up to you. Maybe you want to track by due date and complete them in that order. Maybe you want to apply to a big scholarship first and then focus on smaller ones. Or maybe you want to finish up the less-work intensive ones first and write the essay-required ones later.

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