Set an alarm for yourself.

The first step to getting yourself to fill out scholarships is to set an alarm (and don't ignore it!). I had an alarm set for every day at 5:00 p.m. sharp that would force me to get on the ASU scholarship portal and look at some scholarships. Maybe I didn't even fill any out but I took the time to look through at least five pages and bookmark some so I had them saved for later. Of course on days that I had a choir concert or rehearsal for something, I either turned the alarm off or moved it to a later time.

If I ignored my alarm, I would also tally how many times/days I ignored it. It sounds super weird but at the end of the week, I would count up the tallies and fill out that many scholarships. This way, it got me to ignore my alarm way less and gave me a reason to feel responsible.

Treat this like a job.

It sounds crazy, but I honestly found it my job to look for scholarships. It sounds morbid to say it like that, but picture it this way: your manager schedules to come to work, you obviously can't just call out because you don't feel like it or just don't want to. You have to go. You go, get the job done, and get paid in two weeks! Not so bad right?

That's how scholarships felt to me. I figured it's something that I had to do every day so I treated it like a job. I gave myself two days off per week and I also took into account vacation hours (I know, very extra). By this point, I sound insane but it really gave the motivation to do it this way. It felt less of a burden when I gave myself my own rewards.

Only choose topics that sound interesting to you.

This is super important!! Not every scholarship out there will grab your attention and that is okay! You shouldn't feel obliged to fill out every scholarship you see. If you read the description and catch yourself feeling bored reading through it, you should move on. Plus, if you write about something you are interested in, it is likely that your essay will be amazing and you have a higher chance of getting that scholarship. Don't make yourself miserable! You also shouldn't make your judgment of what to apply for based on the amount of money the donors are providing. Chances are, you won't even be getting the full amount because it will be split between the scholarship winners.

Take into account your race and ethnicity.

Are you a unique race? Are you native? Are you not American? Well good news, there are so many scholarships tailored to race and ethnicity, as well as having family who is in the Navy or Army. I got two scholarship that were quite a lot of money because of the fact that I am Iranian. I got kind of bored and typed "Iran" in the filters on the scholarship portal and two scholarships came up. In my mind, I knew that they were "safety" scholarships. There would honestly be no other reason that I would not get those scholarships unless my essays absolutely sucked, which I made sure that they did not. My little logic worked.

Every day I see tons of scholarships tailored to native people, or people who have a family member in the service, or even family members who are fighting in rehab. Those scholarships can only be given to a minutia number of people so there is less competition and some guaranteed money.

Write efficiently and impress your reader. 

You don't want the judges to be doing what the gif is doing while reading your essay. Don't make your essay this giant back story about you. I have a bad habit of doing that which I am slowly trying to fix, but typically I write in the middle of the word count. However, some essays are based on page counts, in that case, always make sure to write to the page count. It shows that you care and really put effort into your essays. Make sure to add some flare to your essay. If you learned some great vocab in school use that to your advantage.

In the grand gist of it, the person/people reading your essay is in a room for hours getting grumpier by the second. You want your writing to stand out to them. Something that my English teacher taught me was to make single sentences stand as it's own indented line. That way, the readers will gain back any lost focus and get pulled into your story more. It's sort of like a hook, but a little bit more elevated.

Write different essays for the same topic.

I know that sounds a little confusing so let me explain. I applied for three different scholarships that all related to community service. Out of the three, two were on the ASU website and I knew that there would be a chance that they'll be reviewed by the same people. I know it's very annoying to write three different versions of the same essay, but trust me it is worth it. I got all three of those scholarships and I'm really happy that I took the time to write three different essays. I used a lot of the same facts in each essay however I tried to make each of the essays unique on their own.

Take advantage of your major.

This is another tip that is super important. I am positive that any scholarship website gives you filters to mess with. Try those out! They say it is limiting, but sometimes it's not bad to limit your searches. I was bored yet again and decided to type in my major in the "major search" filter. I found a couple and I filled them out. I got one of them so hey, it doesn't hurt to try. I was also super lucky to be accepted into the honors college at ASU so I had those scholarships to fill out as well.

I see so many scholarships now relating to many of the specific colleges at ASU. That means less competition and more chance at getting one. If you write a killer essay for your major, you will surely score some money.

Don't be afraid to brag about yourself.

If you've accomplished some big things, talk about them! Many scholarship applications ask you to list your proudest achievements and you really should go off. If you've gotten awards, gotten inducted into something, or even completed some major hours of community service talk about it. Say how hard you tried for these achievements and you will be golden. If you've had leadership positions in and out of schools, scholarship judges really dig that too. They want to see how diverse you are, just like colleges do that when the accept or reject a person.

I personally always mention how I am bilingual. It's not really an achievement, but fully speaking another language is something that not a lot of people have under their wings. Something as small as that landed me some scholarships too!

Give your essays titles.

This might be an obvious one, but sometimes since we think since it's a scholarship essay we don't really count it as a "real" essay. Now I am not saying do a full-on MLA header, but a catchy title is always a must. Titles grab attention and stick in minds. I remember that for my community service scholarships, the scholarship donor told me how much he enjoyed my simple yet grabbing title. My title was nothing but two words and yet it stuck out to the donor and ended up scoring me the scholarship. Honestly, have fun with titles. Make them vague and interesting.

Something that I also tend to do when I don't know what to title my essay is picking out a sentence that I write somewhere towards the end as my title. It sort of wraps your essay together and is a super clever way for you to elevate your writing. There's a little title hack for you!

Stay on topic and don't lose focus.

I know on essays it's sometimes easy to forget what you are writing about. I've had to rewrite essays because I completely misunderstood the prompt or I just started writing about something that is totally not what the prompt had asked me for. The best way to stay on topic is to copy the prompt of the essay on the actual document you are writing on, making the font bigger, and either bolding or highlighting it. Make sure to delete it when you are done though!

So the next time you're going "Wait, what am I writing about?" you could just scroll up and say a big "ohhh" to yourself.

Filling out during summertime is best time.

Summertime means there will be fewer people in town and more chances for you to receive scholarships. I personally have found that a lot of people put the idea of school behind them in the summer (as do I) but that also means there are more scholarships out there for you to snatch. So if you aren't going anywhere this summer, seek out some scholarships. I've also found it a lot less stressful to write scholarship essays during the summer because I don't have the thought of my school work in my mind. So pour yourself some lemonade and start writing.

Seek out other scholarship website as well.

Although the scholarship portal of the specific school you are going to is your best bet, there are also tons of scholarships websites out there that carry a wide variety of scholarships. The ones I recommend are Fastweb, Chegg, and the good old mighty Collegeboard. Fastweb and Chegg have a lot of "No Sweat" scholarships which are super easy to fill out and no essay is required. Of course, they are much harder to obtain but if you want to just spend a whole hour doing those, I think you got a pretty good chance there. They also have a ton of scholarships on those websites that the typical scholarship portal might not have. They also tailor some scholarships based on your interests. Whether it be artistry, musical, and business they got it covered.

And for all you out there who essay writing sounds awful to you, they got many that work with video submissions or creating a project as well.

Lastly, have patience.

When I first started filling out scholarships I wasn't getting a single one and it made me so sad. I felt like nothing I was doing was working and I remember writing a very sad email to my freshman adviser and bless her soul, she cheered me up through it. I was over it. I didn't want to fill out any more scholarships and I remember crying over some too. I was really in the dumps and I didn't know what I was doing wrong.

The truth is though, you never are doing anything "wrong" when filling out scholarships. It all depends on the taste of the judges and if you fit with what they have in mind. So if it takes months for you to get a scholarship, don't give up so fast. Keep pacing yourself and write more. The more you apply for, the more you have a shot at getting one.