Scholarships, Applications, Grants and Loans, Oh My!
Megan Payne
Staff Writer
Starting high school is intimidating. Nerves kick in and it feels like the entire four years is going to drag on and never end. So when the senior year hits, most students forget to move on, they get lazy or space things off. But in reality, that’s when one should start applying for colleges and filling out as many scholarships possible.
Applying for scholarships, college, grants and loans all have two things in common. one thing is every senior has the opportunity to do them.
The other thing is most students procrastinate. Waking up and accepting the fact one may have slept all throughout high school is the first step.
Scholarships became overwhelming, especially especially because I waited until the last minute. It’s very easy to start senior year thinking everything is just going to get done itself. Now that senior year is more than half over, I started counting down the days and forgot about the things that should be first priority.
Looking back at my junior year, I realize that would have been a great year to start applying for scholarships and colleges. If I would have started in my junior year, it would’ve relieved a lot of stress when my senior year began. Junior year easily feels like it will never end, then slowly getting towards senior year. That’s the year most students make sure they have a start on applying for colleges, but me, I still slacked and never got it done.
In my case, I kept telling myself “I’ll do it later.” That never happened.
After a long day of school, students receive a lot of homework, then they still want time to hang with friends and family, and the time slowly slips away.
In high school, it’s easy for students to have an idea about what they want to become when they graduate. In my case, I’m halfway through my senior year and I just now figured out what I’m going to college for. Knowing what college though, that’s a different story.
When applying for scholarships and colleges, it is common to get overwhelmed. Being a senior is exciting, but if I could have started it over from the beginning, I would try to plan better and actually apply for more scholarships.
All the loans and grants that are out there are great sources for students that may not get a scholarship, but that means they have to apply for all of them.
High school is a great way to plan the future, but in order to plan and get everything done, effort has to be put in.
