The temptation is to enjoy this last little bit of summer. With the right plan, you can set yourself up for scholarship opportunities and have fun before that school bell rings again.

Make no mistake, winning scholarships is just as competitive as winning football games. And just like the NFL, there really is no offseason. The students who consistently win scholarships are spending the rest of their summer doing these things to make themselves more competitive:

Summer Work is Adding to the Resume

Your summer job might pay fairly well, but does it make your resume stand out from the pile? The students that win scholarships have internships, study abroad trips, or volunteer work that set them apart. Throw on a last-minute volunteer opportunity if it’s too late for anything else.

Setting Themselves Up for Crunch Time

Another sports analogy: it takes a lot of prep work to win scholarships. Winning students are setting up the systems to keep themselves organized and the essays that will keep the reader riveted. If you ask them the status of any particular scholarship, they know it off the top of their heads.

Networking

It’s never too early to network. They are meeting a lot of impressive people at their impressive summer job/internship/volunteer work. This comes in handy when it’s time to start approaching people for letters of recommendation.

Narrowing Down Their Focus

No one can apply for every scholarship that exists. It can save a lot time in the fall to know where to best spend your efforts and which opportunities are worth letting go. This takes research and an honest view of strengths and weaknesses.

Cleaning Out Their Online Profiles

The judges for scholarships are just like regular people; if they want to know about someone, they look online. Having a professional, serious online presence makes sure you pass that test.

Studying Up

Speaking of tests, scholarship winners are always wondering if they could do better on their standardized tests and grades. If they think there is a chance, they’ll spend some extra time studying, perhaps even booking themselves another testing appointment. It’s not too late to bolster scores and grades.

The temptation is to enjoy this last little bit of summer. With the right plan, you can set yourself up for scholarship opportunities and have fun before that school bell rings again.

70% of students change their major after they enroll in college.

Last week we talked about using the rest of the summer as a launching point for the activities that will eventually get a high school senior into a college—the first among those being narrowing down what is probably a fairly big list of possibilities into a manageable one from which tours can be scheduled and essays can be planned. But how do you narrow down that list? Here are some things for you and your child to think about.

Retention and graduation rates

The first thing to look at in that giant book of colleges is retention and graduation rates. Retention is what percentage of students stay in school after one year. Graduation is obviously what percentage of students end up graduating. Both tell you how happy students are with the school. A low retention rate means other students didn’t even want to stay around longer than a year, or there wasn’t enough support to keep them around. If students aren’t graduating, they didn’t want to stay around for 4-5 years.

There are lots of reasons why this could be the case, but the bottom line is an increased risk that your child won’t be happy there either.

A wide variety of majors and programs

70% of students change their major after they enroll in college. It’s natural to have a different idea about what you want out of life at the age of 18 compared to 20 or 21. But when that itch starts happening, your child wants a college that offers enough options for them to land somewhere comfortably without having to switch schools. For example, a small liberal arts school might have a great English program, but computer programming might not even be offered.

Life outside of class

The truth? Most colleges, especially your large universities, are pretty similar academically. What isn’t the same is how big the town or city is in which they are located, how expensive it is to live in these places, how far away from home they are, and other factors that can affect day-to-day life. A helpful mindset is to consider whether you would live in the place if the school wasn’t there.

Price

Because many colleges are similar in academics, it’s possible to comparison shop by price. Yes, this is the biggest investment you can make in your child’s future, but you also need to be realistic. It can be very hard to start that future if you have to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.

Remember, you’re not committing to any one school now. This process is just to separate the possibilities from the pretenders to streamline senior year.

The first half of senior year is the last chance to put up a good score on one (or both) of the standardized tests.

Although some of the college admission process has already taken place, including a student’s first try at the SAT/ACT, senior year is really where the rubber meets the road. Going into this pivotal year with the right plan can make the difference in college placement or even whether a student moves on to post-secondary education at all.

Here are the things to focus on as the school year begins.

Extracurriculars

Although it’s too late to make a real impression with extracurriculars, even attempting a late effort is better than nothing. Students can join some groups that diverge from what they’ve taken part in before to show some versatility. At minimum, a student should be willing to stand up for leadership positions in their existing groups during senior year.

Planning the list

Now is the time to narrow down the list of potential colleges, organize the materials needed for those schools, and, if possible, sign up for tours. Focusing on a few schools now makes the process easier. Students can then start working on their essays and finding the right people for recommendation letters. If there is a clear first choice, early decisions periods start in September-October.

Essays

Once the choices have been narrowed down, so have the essay prompts. Starting drafts now offers many advantages:

More free time during the summer to focus

More time to revise

More people can be brought in to help review

Testing

The first half of senior year is the last chance to put up a good score on one (or both) of the standardized tests. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a sub-standard performance has doomed your child to a lesser school. If you think they are capable of better, they should give it another try. Registration for those early testing dates begins in the summer. They should also make sure that any testing results are going to be sent to that newly-culled college list.

Financial aid

The financial aid process also starts earlier than many families think, especially if that support is coming from any government agency. Those sources and their processes need to be organized and started as soon as possible.

Senior year moves fast, so it’s prudent to use this last part of summer to make sure this final bit of college preparation time is used efficiently.

If you are successful in talking them into the generic items, let them personalize those items themselves.

As usual, the school supply lists are huge this year. Anything you do to save some money can make a difference. Here are some great strategies.

Get out the bin

Get out a plastic bin or box. Put it in the middle of the house and throw anything in there that could be classified as a school supply. Crosscheck the contents of the box with the supply list.

Use cash

Cash makes it easier to stick to a budget.

Rewards credit card

The only exception would be if you can receive great rewards from your credit card. Check your card’s website. They might have a deal with retailers for added benefits.

Sales tax holiday

Many states now have a sales tax holiday on clothes and supplies. You don’t even have to battle the crowds; office supply websites also have to follow the rules of the tax holiday.

Join the email lists

Speaking of supply websites, go ahead and sign up for their email lists. They often send out coupons and sale notices before making them available to the general public.

Facebook and Twitter

Those same supply websites will often post those deals on their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. Like and follow them.

Buy in bulk

Notebook paper will be the same next year as this year. If you have the space in your house, buy those kinds of items in bulk and keep them around as long as possible.

Rebate websites

Sites like ebates and Ibotta will be offering rebates on things you’ll have to buy anyway. Might as well sign up.

Make shopping a learning experience

That cool Minecraft backpack is expensive. Take this opportunity to show your child the meaning of budgets and marketing by showing them the difference between the name brand items and the plain goods.

Let them decorate

If you are successful in talking them into the generic items, let them personalize those items themselves. What you’ll pay in puffy paint and buttons, you’ll more than save on avoiding hot and trendy swag.