It doesn’t matter whether you’re a senior in high school, or getting ready for graduate school. The scholarships offered in America are numerous, prevalent and a signature away. Here’s what you need to do.

Be aggressive. Scholarships don’t go looking for you, you need to go looking for the scholarships. Check with your school office of financial aid, which usually will have information for available scholarships and grants. It also wouldn’t hurt to check with your department chair. For example, if you’re a English major, check with the chair of the English department. These professors usually have inside information on scholarships available.

Don’t procrastinate. Now we all know the two rules to procrastination: do it today, and tomorrow will be today… tomorrow. But once tomorrow comes around, and the deadline was the day before, you’ve missed your chance. Most scholarships require that the envelope be postmarked by the due date of the scholarship, but check to be sure. Some will say “Postmarked by…” and if there is no specific deadline, call them. Whatever you do, make sure you take the time to gather all the required information (transcripts, resume, etc.) and fill out the application and get the required signatures. Ask questions. You can help and hurt yourself more than anybody.

Ask your upper classmen. If you know people within your degree that are closer to graduation than you are, approach them about what scholarships they’ve applied for. Many scholarships are annual, meaning they’re only offered to juniors, etc. This can be a tough approach, but don’t be a putz about it. Ask someone you know, or an acquaintance you’ve been in contact with recently. Shoot them an e-mail about it; be professional. They can probably push you in the right direction.

Check the internet. We’ve done our research for you on this one.

Fastweb has a pretty nice list of scholarships available for both graduate and undergraduate students. If you’re headed to law or medical school, check this list out. For undergraduate scholarships, this one is highly recommended by over 18,000 high school guidance counselors. Fill out your student profile for free.

The Scholarship Experts is a pretty good resource too. You can customize your search to filter out scholarship that you might not qualify for, and has been endorsed by Forbes Magazine, Kaplan, Sallie Mae and is a member of the Better Business Bureau. “Fast, Free, Easy“.

Free Scholarship Guide is neat because you can apply for a list of over 4,000 scholarships, some job opportunities, and all the while enter to win a $10,000 scholarship that can be used for just about anything. Applications through Free Scholarship Guide are also free.

Money certainly doesn’t grow on trees, but there’s plenty of it out there that’s being given away for free.

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