WRITTEN BY A PARENT FOR PARENTS
Parental contributions to the scholarship process
We all want our students to craft an honest and convincing application as independently as possible. The fact is our children may be extremely competent and academically deserving students. But they are simply very busy with their high school academics, extracurricular activities, sports and community service activities. Devoting the energy and motivation to completing scholarship applications may be the last thing on your students list.
Considering the competitiveness of the college scholarship process, it is easy to get swept away.
So how much and in what capacity should parents be involved?
Parental involvement ranges from playing the motivator to agreeing to be responsible for the
dull but essential book-keeping chores. These would include:
Searching for scholarships
Eliminating scholarships for which your child does not qualify
Gathering and organizing high demand materials like test scores,
transcripts and letters of recommendation
Monitoring deadlines
Proofreading the application, ensuring that the application is completely filled out
and free of errors and that all requested materials are included
Reading, proofreading and discussing your child's essays
Photocopying
Mailing
Motivating, supporting and encouraging your student