How to Organize Your Scholarship Binder
One of the biggest hurdles for students is the growing cost of college. So, when I was a high school senior, I decided to make my dream of going to college a reality by applying for as many scholarships as I could. However, the massive amount of applications was quickly overwhelming and I was frustrated by how long each scholarship application took to complete, so I decided to develop an organizational method that would allow me to quickly and easily submit more high-quality scholarship applications in less time. After a few failed attempts, I finally developed one: the scholarship binder.
This post breaks down everything you need to know about what a scholarship binder is, how to organize your scholarship binder, and FREE printables to keep track of your scholarship application progress!
What is a Scholarship Binder?
A scholarship binder is the foundation of your entire scholarship search. Once put together, it will be your quick-reference guide for all past and upcoming scholarships, in addition to all materials needed to apply to scholarships. To put it simply, your scholarship binder is your lifeline throughout the application process and (once put together) will help expedite the application process so that you can submit more high-quality applications in less time…increasing your chance of being awarded a scholarship!
A scholarship binder is divided into 6 sections: Applied Scholarships, Scholarship Deadlines, Scholarship Applications, Scholarship Essays, Scholarship Portfolio, and Additional Materials.
What is Needed for a Scholarship Binder:
The materials that you will need are:
- A 1-inch binder
- Binder Dividers/Tabs
- Plastic page protectors
- Manilla folders (3-hole punched)
- FREE Scholarship Organizer Printables (click here to download)
How to Organize a Scholarship Binder
“Applied Scholarships” Area
The “Applied Scholarships” section is the first section of the scholarship binder and comes before any of the tabs, which is very important because it is where you place the Applied Scholarships Printable.
This printable allows you to easily track the scholarships you have applied to, when you applied, the announcement date, how much the scholarship is worth, and whether you won or lost. Plus, opening up the binder and seeing a list of the scholarships that you have applied to is extremely motivating. I suggest keeping this printable in a plastic page protector and pulling it out when you need to update or add something to it.
Whether you want to have anything else in this “prologue” area is up to you. Personally, I have my notes on how to write a great scholarship essay, mock questions for a scholarship interview, and a list of my favorite scholarship websites, all of which I put behind the printable.
1st Tab: Scholarship Deadlines
Submitting your scholarship application before the deadline is a necessity, but deadlines can easily be overlooked when you’re busy with school, homework, a job, or even other scholarship applications. When deadlines are overlooked and forgotten…well…there goes all that hard work you did.
To make sure this never happens, I created the scholarship deadlines printable, which keeps all of your application deadlines in one list. This printable is also great because it allows you to see what each application requires so that you can make sure you have collected all required materials (such as recommendations or transcripts) before the deadline arrives.
2nd Tab: Scholarship Applications
While the first tab was completely dedicated to keeping track of scholarship deadlines, the second tab is focused on keeping track of the actual applications, whether they be a hard-copy to be sent in or digital version that will be submitted via email.
For paper applications that have to be turned in by hand or sent in the mail, you should put them in plastic page protectors; this is not only so that they don’t become lost, but also so that they don’t become hole-punched or damaged.
However, not all scholarship applications have a hard copy, as many scholarships are only available online. For these, open a Word document and copy certain pieces of information into it: the website URL, Scholarship due date, essay prompt, and any additional materials needed. (If there’s a contact email address or phone number for questions, you can choose to include that too, as it is helpful in case you have questions later on.)
After you paste all of the necessary information into the document, print it. Hole-punch it and put it under the “Applications” tab, but you should also save the Word file that you put all of the information in. If you need to write an essay, you can type it in this document where you have constant access to seeing the prompt without opening up your scholarship binder.
Although you will still have to turn in the application and accompanying materials online, having a copy of everything in your scholarship binder will allow you to see all of your in-progress applications at once and will allow you to better manage your time between them. Additionally, printing an application gives you a place to take notes, write down ideas, or do pre-writing if there is an essay involved.
Bonus Tip: Place the scholarship applications in the scholarship binder in order of their due date to provide a better sense of the timeline when each application is due.
How to Organize Digital Scholarship Applications
However, for online applications, you can take it a step further in terms of organization.
Create a “Scholarships” folder on your computer. Then create a folder for each month of the year. With each Word document that you copy and paste the scholarship information into (for the scholarship binder organization listed above), save the file under a name beginning with its due date and the title of the scholarship. For example, the file name might be listed as “1-31 Local Library Scholarship”. Save the document into it’s appropriate folder based on the due date. By doing this, when saving the applications in the folder, they will arrange themselves numerically, so you can see them in the order of their due date in the folder and also have all the information ready and in one place when you begin to work on any essays related to that scholarship.
3rd Tab: Scholarship Essays
The “Scholarship Essays” section organizes your completed scholarship applications and essays into which ones won and which ones lost. As you continue applying for scholarships, it can be helpful to refer back to your previous essays to see what did and didn’t work; even more, if you can identify a pattern in your winning essays, you can apply that same pattern in future essays, potentially increasing your chances of winning a scholarship.
In order to keep these essays organized in this tab into whether they won or lost, the three manila folders come into play. To put them in the binder, you will want to hole-punch each folder and cut them down the middle (where the crease is) and then insert them into the “Essays” tab. (This cutting them in half isn’t a requirement, but it does make it easier to flip through the binder.) These folders will be labeled “Won”, “Lost”, and “Other”, and their corresponding essays will be inserted into these folders.
However, you may be wondering what the “Other” tab is for. The “Other” tab is where essays that were not finished/submitted go. Although you may be super-organized and hard-working, there are going to be several times where you just don’t get to finish. I once wrote an entire essay, only to find out that the sponsor (a law firm) forgot to include a spot to submit it on their website, nor an email to send it to. This meant that the essay went into the “Other” tab, where I could easily pull it for future use on another scholarship competition.
Although we mainly spoke about the “Essays” tab being a way to identify patterns between winning and losing essays, it’s also beneficial because it allows you to see every scholarship essay you’ve ever written all in one place. This means that you can look back on your essays for ideas, inspiration, and possibly even re-use it on a future application. Since many essay prompts will be similar, pulling from your old essays can save you a lot of time in the long run.
However, it should be noted that some organizations request that the essay becomes the property of the organization upon submission, meaning that you can’t re-use in another scholarship contest. With others, however, it’s perfectly fine, so having your essays in this tab for reference can be a huge help later on.
4th Tab: Scholarship Portfolio
Your scholarship portfolio is a quick-reference guide to all of the extracurricular activities, honors and awards, leadership positions, and more that you have completed throughout high school and college. With each item, write down a thorough description of what you did for each activity (or the criteria for earning the award or leadership position). Along with having this list in your binder, keep a digital copy that can be updated as necessary.
Having this portfolio saves both time and stress as you only have to do the work once. Once you’ve completed it, all you have to do is copy-and-paste the information into your future scholarship applications. Putting together a comprehensive portfolio that you can copy and paste into each scholarship application can dramatically decrease the amount of time spent on this section in your applications.
For more information, be sure to check out my post on how to create a scholarship application portfolio.
5th Tab: Additional Materials for Scholarship Applications
The additional materials that you will need to include with each application are going to vary, but some materials are going to be requested often, such as transcripts and letters of recommendation. These are materials that you always want to have extra copies of, just in case you run into a last-minute application that requires them, or in case a deadline rolls around and you find yourself one-item short and unable to submit your application.
These additional scholarship materials may include:
- Official and/or Unofficial Transcripts
- Recommendation Letters
- Copies of College Acceptance Letters (for high school seniors)
- Letters of Good Standing (for college students)
- Resume
- Cover Letter
- It’s a good idea to have this written beforehand, even if you don’t need it for any scholarships yet. You can then use it as a template and change out the information based on what scholarship you are applying to, yet you won’t have to write a new letter from scratch each time you need to submit a cover letter. This will save you time on your scholarship applications.
Additional Resources for Applying to Scholarships
Creating and organizing a scholarship binder will collect all of your resources in one place and make the application process feel much less overwhelming. By having all of the materials accumulated and prepared ahead of time, it can drastically decrease the amount of time and stress you spend on each application.
For additional resources on applying to scholarships, be sure to check out these posts:
