Getting college scholarship money is not all that difficult if you go about it the right way. There are lots of college students that get scholarship money every year that helps pay for their education, and scholarships are one of the best sources of college funding because they never have to be repaid. Essentially, you are receiving money for free to go to college. So why not try to get as much college scholarship money as you can before resorting to college loans instead?

However, applying for college scholarships requires discipline and organization in order to be successful. In this article we will review some of the common characteristics of those who are most successful in applying for college scholarships.

1. First of all, students who are most successful in getting scholarship money are willing to put in the extra time and work necessary in order to get the money that they need. They don't rely on their parents to do all the work for them, and they don't wait till the last minute to try to throw everything together and get it in the mail.

2. It's also important that you don't restrict your search for scholarships to just one or two sources, as no one database has all of the available scholarships listed in it. Quite often, students will simply use a database found on the Internet such as FastWeb, which is a good place to start. But remember that most likely lots of other students will be accessing the same online databases, making it more difficult to get the listed scholarships. So why not expand your search locally, and find out what scholarships are available in your area that can be much easier to qualify for and receive?

3. Some students fail in their quest for getting scholarship money because they simply don't try for enough scholarships when they apply. You need to think of this as a numbers game, and the more scholarships that you apply for, the better your chances of getting the money that you need. So don't just apply for one or two scholarships and see what happens. Instead, try to apply for as many as you can comfortably handle at one time.

4. If you apply to several scholarship programs at once, you will need to be well organized to keep it all straight. So make sure that you have a way to track all of the scholarship deadlines and requirements so that you give yourself the best chance possible to receive scholarships by getting your information packets in on time and fulfilling all the required steps outlined in the application.

5. Another very important part of creating a winning scholarship packet is to try to personalize your essay as much as you possibly can. Instead of just reciting dry facts as you would for a term paper, be sure to try to let the scholarship reviewers know as much about who you are as you can in the scholarship essay. Remember this is the only way that they will get to know you, and quite often your personal story can have a large impact on whether or not you are awarded a scholarship.

6. Finally, be sure to avoid all scholarship scams that promise to do all the work for you, or ask for some sort of payment in advance of receiving the scholarship. These scams are just ways to cheat students out of their hard earned money.

Every dollar that you receive from college scholarship money will be a dollar that you do not have to repay as a loan with interest later on in your life. That makes college scholarships one of the best forms of college education funding that you can possibly get. If you follow the tips listed above, very likely you will be able to get enough scholarship money to at least pay for a significant part of your college education.

Steadman Issenburg writes on many consumer related topics including education. You can find college grants and scholarships and graduate school scholarships and more by visiting our education website.