High School Seniors: This Blog is for You

As a high school senior you may feel that you are bombarded with requests and tasks to complete as you sprint for the finish line to graduate.  Your counselors have mentioned scholarships – telling you they are ‘out there’- you just have to find them.  Now POE is also stressing that you need to apply for more scholarships than just the one they give out.

 POE’s goal is to fill the gap in funding between all the funds available from Pell and Cal grants, savings, any family support, work, and then what it costs to go to college.  Totally filling the gap is not always possible, and then there are unexpected costs in college.  What we often hear from freshman is that they were planning on the money they would earn from Work Study to help financially, but jobs for freshman are very difficult to secure.  Upper classmen have taken them and finding a job on or off campus is very difficult.

 POE encourages seniors to apply for many scholarships.  When we read the applications and the section titled ‘What other Scholarships have you Applied For’? is blank – we are disappointed.  We wonder why.  High school counselors have told us that students think that if they list other scholarships they will have less of a chance to get a POE scholarship.  Not true!  In fact, if we see other scholarships listed it looks like the student is very motivated to go to college, along with securing as many funds as possible.  So please check out the listings which have been gathered for students from this area.  It is easy to scan the list by criteria and due date.  If you have any questions be sure to ask your counselors.  Good luck.