Help Your Son Or Daughter Get A Scholarship

You gotta start young. Are you with me so far? Here's the drift: Nobody's going to come to your front door, knock and say, " Hi, I have a $60,000 scholarship for your son!" It's not going to happen.

However, your child can do college. No matter what your financial situation is, you can help and, in most cases, succeed. I have two sons: one holds a JD and the other, a Masters. I make less per hour today than I did forty-four years ago. So it can be done! Here we go.

1. Start a dossier on you child. Our society is big on documents. The spoken word of you often means little to others. They want it in black and white. The file on your child should begin early and contain newspaper clippings, school awards, history of membership in organizations, public service work and summertime jobs held by your child. A large notebook should do the trick. Try to maintain the information in chronological order. Review and update it at least every year.

If your child is a good athlete, save all newspaper clipping of games that mention your son or daughter. Also save all videos and photos, transcripts and recordings of radio and TV interviews. Some of this can pay off later.

For high school sports players, try to get your son or daughter into a summer camp. These camps run about $300. Try to scrape up the money. These camps are usually recommended by his or her coach. For example, the camp should be at a major university like Penn State, Va. Tech, etc. If your child does well at one of these camps, he or she would get plugged into a computer file. If the kid is really good, sports magazines will be calling you for more information. The competition is tough but give it a try.

For the intellectual, save all media info also. Participation in outside school organizations should also be included. One-of-a-kind achievements are especially important and should be included. Extracurricular activities should be listed also.

A thorough and well documented file on your child is the first step toward scholarship along with good grades.

If your child is not an A student, don't give up. Some scholarships take into account intelligence and creativity along with education. A lot of the world is run by C students.

2. Talk to your child. Convince, don't coerce. Impress upon them the importance of staying away from drugs and crime. Remember, they are going to make mistakes. Relay to them that you have their interest at heart and that you support them. Encourage don't discourage.

3. Check out the scholarships available. Go on the web. Get as much information as you can about the scholarships that are out there. Turn over many stones. There are scholarships available for ethnic, sexual gender, economic status and technical and artistic reasons. You have help-your school guidance counsellor, state departments of educations, etc.

There are a lot of music scholarships. Many of these are instrument specific. For example, if you child plays the violin, there's probably a scholarship out there that will pay for the full four years of college. That is, if your child is good on the violin. There are scholarships for opera, woodwind, general music, etc. Leave no stone unturned!

The info is out there. You have just got to get to it.

The best of luck to all of you.