Flickr Yoel Ben-Avraham
Your online presence is a powerful thing indeed. Many students work hard at getting good grades, writing a powerful essay, and making sure they tick all the scholarship requirement boxes, but the one area they completely overlook is their online presence. Unfortunately, a dubious digital presence can put your scholarship at risk.
At one time social media was simply a way for everyone to have a bit of harmless fun, a place to post wild pictures and make crazy comments. However that can backfire and impact your chances of getting a scholarship.
To ensure that their funds are going to be used to educate someone who is worthy of it, most organizations will check online to get to know their prospective recipients a little better. Are you really as earnest as you claim to be in your essay or was everything you said in your application just a sham?
If your social media pages are filled with unflattering content and nothing substantial, it could put your scholarship at risk. You can turn this around by cleaning up your digital presence and using your social media profiles to highlight your accomplishments, emphasize how excited you are about the program you’ve chosen, post pictures of your sports team winning a championship game, and talk about an empowering or touching incident that happened recently.
So go through your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media profiles, remove all unsavory posts and replace them with content that shows you in a more positive light. Do this before you submit your scholarship application. Social media can be a powerful tool in your quest for scholarships but only if done right.
Use College Raptor to discover personalized college matches, cost estimates, acceptance odds, and potential financial aid for schools around the US—for FREE!
| Lender | Rates (APR) | Eligibility | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
5.34%-15.96%* Variable
3.99%-15.61%* Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT CITIZENS |
 |
4.92% - 15.08% Variable
3.99% - 15.49% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT SALLIE MAE |
 |
4.50% - 17.99% Variable
3.49% - 17.99% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT CREDIBLE |
 |
6.00% - 13.75% Variable
3.99% - 13.75% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT LENDKEY |
 |
5.50% - 14.56% Variable
3.69% - 14.41% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT ASCENT |
 |
3.70% - 8.75% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT ISL |
 |
4.99% - 16.85% Variable
3.47% - 16.49% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT EARNEST |
 |
5.00% - 14.22% Variable
3.69% - 14.22% Fixed
|
Undergraduate and Graduate
|
VISIT ELFI |
