[JonInMiddleGA]

For those who are just starting this process I can't emphasize enough how much paperwork you have in front of you if you want to maximize scholarship opportunities.

Last night was a private scholarship (any school, private organization ... hell, I'll just name 'em: it was the DAR) that ended up requiring the same form in quadruplicate with literally one line changed on each of the application. Then 4x of transcripts, achievements one-sheeter, etc etc etc. All end up at the same address.

Another pro-tip: either you or your student needs to become very adept at "repurposing" essays, i.e. What can be taken from Essay X and re-used for Essay Y. Between admission applications and scholarship applications and specific program applications there have been something in the neighborhood of three dozen essays leaving my house since last summer (and that's probably on the low end). That's a lot of writing, I don't care how old you are. Repurposing & reusables are very helpful.

Stay on top of everything & everybody, all the time. By that I mean watch carefullly for schools to fuck shit up with applications ending up in the wrong place, etc etc. Make sure you actually get confirmations.

The biggest mess thus far was a major university that suffered a technical glitch and took every single scholarship application that one department looked at and locked all other schools/colleges/programs out of. We caught it because my wife noticed he got a feeler from a degree track he had zero interest in ... and then his application no longer appeared in the system. Took three phone calls & much headbanging against the wall before, magically, two days later the school acknowledged the error was widespread & that all applications were being restored to the proper status.

Absent careful (to the point of anal retentiveness) monitoring, no telling when or if the problem would have been caught ... leaving my kid unconsidered for about $30k worth of scholarship money he's in the hunt for.