Raise your hand if you have free time!

...Anyone???!!

If you're in Grade 12, it's not likely you have much free time on your hands — so then why are you telling yourself you'll find scholarships, "when you have some free time" ?

Here's a reality check: it ain't going to happen.

Anyone I've worked with who has had success with scholarships has made it a priority to find them. They've put it into their schedule, and spent the time necessary to do it properly.

Yes, that's right — they put time into their schedule (like a meeting) to find scholarships.

"What gets scheduled gets done."

There is no one time of the year when all scholarships are available. Scholarships are offered every month of Grade 12. They open and close all year long.

You may search for scholarships this week and there are none that suit you. Then you look next week and two scholarships have opened that suit you perfectly. The next week there are none. And the next week there are four. And so on for the whole year.

It's for this reason that you must schedule searching for scholarships, and you must do so regularly. If you take the "one and done" approach, you'll miss out on many opportunities.

If you schedule it, you're more likely to get it done. It's that simple.

I suggest you schedule at least 30 minutes every two weeks from September to November, and then 30 minutes every week from December to the end of May.

Best wishes for a successful scholarship search!

Janet MacDonald is a former university admissions officer who helps high school students and parents to find and prepare university scholarships through her company, MycampusGPS.ca. She offers one-to-one scholarship consulting for high school students, and scholarship essay writing workshops. Janet's blog is one of the top education blogs in Canada.