Scholarship Time!

As a high school senior, I am preparing to go to college by filling out many different scholarship applications. I have always looked forward to receiving a higher education, but one obstacle stands in my way: I have to pay my own way.

You see, as child of parents who are in the middle class and with an older sister who is already attending a university, my parents can’t afford to send two children to college.

Currently, college scholarships are such a high priority in my life that I practically live in the career center. For the entire month of February I will be writing essays and filling out applications.

What I really need to do is find a scholarship that will give me more than a thousand dollars because most local scholarships only offer up to a thousand dollars. Although it is a substantial amount of money, college-wise this will only buy me text books.

This past week in particular has been crazy with scholarships. The worst thing about them is that even though you go through all the trouble to fill one out, you are not guaranteed any money.

The scholarship I have been most worried about is the Masonic scholarship. The one thing that had been holding me back from completing it was a personal essay that I had to write. The good thing is that the rest of the general local scholarships require that same essay, so once I have finished it I don’t have to worry about it ever again.

I am also trying to write a leadership essay so I may turn in my application for the UTSA terry scholarship. As much of a pain it will be to write this essay, this scholarship gives a minimum of 40,000 dollars to its winners. It is essential for me to complete this essay because it will also be going on my UTSA honors college application as well as a Time Warner Cable scholarship offered only to UTSA students. If I were to win these scholarships and other local ones, I might be able to graduate with little to no debt.

As of right now, I am in Denton, Texas visiting Texas Women’s University. If I happen to like it, I will need to study its cost and compare it to UTSA and Texas State University. Since Denton is so far away, I also have to consider how much it costs for me to make the drive home, because scholarships will not cover trips to and from the university. I guess it all depends on what I see tomorrow.

Currently, I am undecided as to which university I will be attending; however, scholarship money will definitely have a major influence in which one I will be choosing because my goal is to graduate from college without being in debt.

-Iris