In our last blog, we shared with you how to get scholarships from colleges. Earning scholarships directly from colleges can be a great way to get a lot of free money to pay for college expenses; but scholarships also come from other areas.

In this blog article, we are going to share with you five important strategies for pursuing scholarships outside of colleges, also known as “outside” scholarships.

It’s college acceptance time for many students throughout the country. Students have learned, and are continuing to learn, in these next few weeks, what colleges they will be accepted to.

But college is not just about getting in. It’s also about paying for the high cost of a college education. Some students are going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships while others will simply get an acceptance letter, if that.

So how do students maximize the amount of free money they can potentially get to help pay for college?

We hope you are having a great February. Spring has not arrived yet, however, parents are already planning for the summer. Why? Because many summer deadlines are rapidly approaching. So, how should you plan your summer? More importantly, how should you plan a fun, enjoyable, yet strategic summer? Having the right summer game plan can maximize your college planning success and give you an edge in the college admissions process, so it’s important to think strategically.

Here are five ways to make the most of your summer…

Planning and preparing for college admissions is one thing; however, paying for college is entirely different. Unfortunately, many families only focus on how to get into college, not how to pay for it. What is important for families to understand is that there are very real and serious consequences of student debt. Understanding how to pay for college is crucial because it allows families to offset the sometimes exorbitant cost of college.

School is about more than just following an academic curriculum to fulfill graduation requirements. It’s also about seeing your school as an all-encompassing learning environment that has the potential to teach you more than what you can learn inside the classroom. In fact, what you learn outside the classroom can be just as important, if not more important, than what you learn inside the classroom. This is because many important character-building skills that are learned outside the classroom are directly applicable to succeeding in life.