When my daughter finished ninth grade at Monroe High School, I told her to start a file in the computer called “Big Resume.”

Everything that she did in school, or out of school, went into that resume with dates of participation and notes about accomplishments or efforts. This list was so detailed I think we even wrote down the name of every Girl Scout badge she earned.

I told her it didn’t matter how long that big resume got. It would never be the final copy of whatever got sent to a scholarship committee, awards committee, college admissions office or potential employer. This was our reference information.

At the end of 10th grade, we updated it with everything she had done that year.

At the end of 11th grade, we updated it again.

The flurry of college application and scholarship paperwork started during her senior year at Monroe High School. Each committee or application asked for biographical information in a slightly different way, or with a slightly different emphasis. There was even one packet where she was needed to explain what she had done in high school that would help lead to her chosen career.

But we didn’t panic.

We had somewhere to start looking up all those details. We could say that she was in student government as a freshman (even though she decided not to continue in later years.) We knew what grade level she was when she earned specific ranks and awards in Girl Scouts. We knew how many years she had participated in the Monroe CROP Walk and March of Dimes fundraiser walk as a member of Monroe High’s National Honor Society. Etc.

What I knew, and what a college scholarship expert explained in a press release sent this week to The Monroe Evening News, is that this information is scholarship application material.

Dale Clifton of Dayton, Ind., who goes by The Scholarship Doctor, has written “The Best Little Scholarship Book in the World” and “The Champions Goal Setter.” On his web site, he has some  scholarship application advice posted for everyone to see. A snippet:

When the scholarship applications start to come due, the mind goes blank. There is a time deadline and there are lots of things to do. The pressure mounts. But, when you’ve kept an organized, detailed and accurate record, there will be no sweat, no stress, no nothin’. Considering the high cost of four years at college, it really “pays” to write things down.

Hmm … that’s exactly what I did with my daughter.

Dale also explains what scholarship committees are looking for these days: community service, leadership, vocational interests, extracurricular activities and good grades.

It is a fact that some scholarships are written only for the top-ranked students. Depending on where the cutoff point was for any given scholarship program, my daughter might qualify with a 3.9 high school GPA; but in other cases, she might not.

But my daughter had far more credentials than just a 3.9 GPA to put down on her college and scholarship applications. And we had the record-keeping to prove it.

She did get some scholarship awards as a senior in high school in addition to what her college offered.

She also was awarded two more scholarships this year as a college sophomore.

Now, if you want more expertise from Dale, well, he makes a living as a consultant and he has resources available for purchase on his web site.

But my job at The Monroe Evening News includes typing up scholarship announcements for local students. That means I see some of the supporting information for the award notices beyond the details of who won what. Based on what I’m seeing, there are some key points parents need to remember when seeking out scholarship funds:

• Most scholarships that Monroe County, Mich., students get are funded by local civic clubs, local scholarship foundations or the individual colleges the students attend. You will find those applications at your high school counselor’s office, the financial aid office at your chosen college, and sometimes listed in the Community Page and Classroom Page of the print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News. As time allows, you should expand your search to the parents’ employers and parents’ professional or civic memberships. Spend time searching the national scholarship databases only after you have maxed out all of your local information resources. You can spend hours looking through scholarship databases even after you fill out all the filtering information. NONE of the scholarships my daughter won came from leads in a national database.
• Pay attention to all deadlines. The busiest scholarship application season in the Monroe County area is January and February of senior year in high school. It is quite possible that your high school seniors will need to fill out multiple applications that are due within weeks of each other. You may want to give the kids a break on family responsibilities while they writing essay after essay in hopes of getting cash for college!
• If there is a notable accomplishment that your student will want to list on college and scholarship applications, make sure that accomplishment is achieved no later than fall of senior year. In my daughter’s case, the noteworthy accomplishment was her Girl Scout Gold Award. Her Gold Award project was completed (except for final documents to the council office) by November of senior year and therefore could be listed on all appropriate college and scholarship applications. Now for an achievement that didn’t lead to money: my daughter won a state medal from Family, Career and Community Leaders of America during spring of her senior year, but it was past any deadlines for turning that award into scholarship application material.

The scholarships that my daughter won, plus the effort I put into with making sure the need-based financial aid paperwork was filed on time, is helping her get a private college education on a budget.

Yes, I did have to sign for some college loan money in my name. But I had a good credit score to do that through the Parent PLUS program rather than seeking out private commercial loans, which are increasingly difficult to find in today’s credit market.

And the scholarship money my daughter is earning is keeping both her loan totals, and mine, as small as possible.

If you have a Michigan student in high school or college and need more information on paying for college, I have a college financing sidebar.