Why I Started the Scholarship Mindset Series
A few weeks ago, I started a Facebook Live video series on how to get your child into the scholarship mindset.
The idea for the series came to me when I was thinking about the common myths and the roadblocks that hold students back from finding and applying for scholarships. As I normally do, I looked for patterns, or common features of the problem, and tried to boil it down to the root cause.
Most of the roadblocks we hear from students are some form of the following:
"I don't qualify for scholarships."
"I can't find any."
"I don't have time."
These are all excuses. We know when a teenager REALLY wants something, they usually find a way to get it.
So the question I asked is:
What's the REAL reason why students don't find and/or apply for scholarships?
A big part of the answer is mindset. They must be in the right mindset, and be motivated. Mindset is the foundation upon which everything else is built.
And this foundational piece is one that's often forgotten, or not considered at all.
There are many ways to think about mindset, or to define it. But for our purposes, let's keep it simple and say it's a person's attitude towards something. Our mindset can affect they way we approach a situation, particularly a challenge.
And scholarships can be a challenge. They take time and effort -- time to find ones you qualify for, and time and effort to complete the application, some of which are long and require many pieces of information.
But let's not forget -- in addition to the actual physical process of scholarships, there's also a mental one.
Our child needs to feel some amount of confidence they are qualified for the award, and that they have a chance to actually win it. We can find all of the scholarships we want, and lay them at their feet, but if our child doesn't feel like they have any chance to win it, they won't want to participate in the process.
Then there's also the "putting yourself out there" factor -- the very real possibility that even when you've done your best, it's not good enough. There's a good chance or being rejected with scholarships, and teens are (as we know) loath to put themselves in a position to be rejected.
These two mindset issues alone may hold our child back from trying. They may use the common excuses I mentioned above, but the real problem might be mindset.
So, as you can see, there's a lot working against us, as parents, to try to get our teen to take advantage of scholarship opportunities.
HOWEVER, it's not all doom and gloom. I believe, as parents, it's our job to set the foundation for our child to have a positive experience with scholarships.
The job entails physical help, e.g. helping to find scholarships, proofreading their essay, etc.
But it also entails setting the mental foundation for success, or mindset.
In the FB Live series, I'll take you through the steps to helping your child get into the scholarship mindset. I hope you find them helpful.
mycampusGPS FB Live -- Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST at : https://www.facebook.com/mycampusgps/
Need help with scholarships? Contact me to discuss my services!
About the author
Janet MacDonald is a Scholarship Coach with mycampusGPS Education Consulting. She is a former Canadian university admissions officer. For seven years, she was the coordinator of a scholarship program at a major Canadian university. Janet has helped her student clients win hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships.
You can find her online at mycampusGPS.ca, and on LinkedIn.