As high schoolers our job options can make us what–10, 15 dollars an hour? There’s a way that we can be making much more. Instead of working for money to pay for college, we can work to lower the price. Just looking for and filling out scholarship applications can save thousands on college tuition.

Hannah Revard, an Eagan High School student, capitalized on the opportunity to save. She did so well that in three years she found $100,000 in scholarships and went to college for free. Now she is helping others to do the same.

Hannah recommends that you start as early as possible. There are college scholarships available to kids that are in elementary school. Because virtually no one knows that there are scholarships for all ages, not just seniors and juniors, there is very little competition for freshman and sophomores. Many of these scholarships understand that most younger students don’t know where they want to go, meaning they will hold on to the money until you’re ready to go to college.

Before you start looking for scholarships, Hannah believes it’s best to get organized. She recommends you create a spreadsheet for all the scholarships you find with certain information about each scholarship. The information you gather should include:

• Name of scholarship
• Amount
• Website/Contact information
• Deadlines (whether it’s send-by or arrive-by)
• Number of references needed

This way you don’t miss any deadlines and you fill out the application in its entirety. After all, if you miss a deadline, you miss out on the money. Many scholarships also allow you to apply year after year, so don’t forget to update the spreadsheet to make sure you have the most up to date information.

Naturally, everyone wants to know where to find the scholarships. Hannah says looking is the longest part of applying. There are three main places to find them.

1. Scholarship search engines
2. Regular search engines (google)
3. Other

Scholarship search engines include website such as FastWeb.com and Scholarships.com. These websites take your information (gender, grade, interests, etc) and give you a list of scholarships that match your qualifications. They make it very easy to find scholarships and have many choices. The downside for these search engines is that many people know about them, so the competition is much fiercer. This is why you can’t rely solely on this tactic.

When using regular search engines, you want to find scholarships you are highly qualified for and no one else knows about. The vast majority of scholarships most applicable to you and with the least competition are not on scholarship search engines. Many scholarship providers don’t know about these engines, don’t care, or don’t want to pay to be on them.

Start with a list of everything you’re good at, you like, you’ve won, relates to you, or is unique to you. Think of the same list for your parents or grandparents. Then find all the related terms to this list and every college major that relates to them. Then plug all those words into google along with the words “scholarship”, “grant”, “fellowship”, “contest”, “ college”, and “award”. For example, say I’m good at math and my dad was in the Air Force, a search may look like the photo below.

The “Other” category is for scholarships not on the web. The non-internet scholarships have very little competition. Some places to look include your parents’ employers, military branches (if either of your parents served), word-of-mouth with your teachers/friends/counselors, e-mail lists, and forums.

Hannah outlines all of this information and more in her book: Thousand Dollar Hour: Funding College through Scholarships. She also has a website at thousanddollarhour.com. If you’re looking for a job, the highest paying one may be right in front of you.