Speaker 1: And, and, and, I ain't gatekeeping no material. I'm going to keep it. I'm going to be coming back. They say, look to your left, look to your right. Who you sitting next to? You may not see next to me. So I'm like, oh Lord, it's about to be me. This about to be me. And look, I'm finna put on my little suit, do this, it's a big corporate style. Hope y'all give me an internship too. Cause time running out. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Hey y'all, it's Shorty Like These. And look, it had to be about over a year since I've been on YouTube, but I have my reasons. I've been in college. I started my hair business. Y'all tap in at the passion experience, but life has been hectic and we in the summer now. I'm not really doing much. So I ain't even got no excuses with that. But we are gathered here today because I want to put y'all on game on how to get money for scholarships. When I first started my academic journey, I'm looking at my award package like, I got to figure a way to get this 20K by tomorrow because financial aid don't cover all expenses. Unless you have scholarships or maybe military coverage or other things of that nature. Yeah, I want to put y'all on this some tips and tricks and teach y'all how I got over 180K in academic scholarships and what website I used. And you know, happiness and how I paid off my tuition. So if you guys want to keep watching this video, keep watching. But without further ado, let's get into the video, but make sure that y'all like, comment, subscribe. Y'all know what to do. Let's get into the video. Okay, so the first question that a lot of you guys may have is where in the world do I find these scholarships? Like where are you finding these scholarships? Like I've been on Google. That's one of the first red flags. Well, not always a red flag, but I'm about to get into that. Most of these websites I've used are catered to HBCU students. Since I'm at HBCU, I'm currently at Howard University. So most of these websites are catered to HBCU students. Websites and organizations such as TMCF, UMCF. Believe it or not, a lot of these scholarships that I applied to, I found on different social media platforms. For example, I may go on Twitter. I'm looking up keywords that, you know, describe me. I can look up business majors, business major scholarships, or I can look up HBCU scholarships. I can look up first generation college student scholarships. You get what I'm saying? So I'll go on Twitter, I'll find keywords. Or even Instagram. Like if you follow your school's college, a lot of schools, almost all HBCUs have social media handles, right? So you can go on these social media handles and they're gonna be promoting their academics, their scholarships, their work study programs. So definitely connect with your school over social media to see what kind of scholarship websites they give to you y'all. Another thing I would say is go to your college website. Try to go on their financial aid and see what kind of opportunities they have and what kind of links they have. Because a lot of schools put links to different scholarships. Like I'm going, after I finish this video, you guys, I created a Google Doc with a list full of scholarships that you guys can just go through and click on. They help you guys out. It becomes really overwhelming trying to search for a whole bunch of scholarships. Like it's, it gets overwhelming. So kind of narrow it down to specific details about yourself, like your major, maybe your ethnicity, maybe your race, if you have a disability. Like you guys, they have scholarships for so many things. And on top of that, if you're currently a high school student, I would recommend reaching out to counselors. Your counselors should be providing you scholarship lists anyway, or on your high school website and things of that nature. But yeah, the key to finding these websites is when I was in high school, it was either from my counselor but most of these websites came from like HBCU websites, if you hear what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm about to get into more of that in the next session. Another thing I want to cover is, some people may ask, what types of scholarships are you doing? You have your internal scholarships, your external scholarships, your alumni scholarships. I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but I even got cash apps, cash app scholarships. Internal scholarships are usually given to you guys with your financial aid package. Once you get your grants and your loans, you're going to be offered internal scholarships that come directly from your school. These scholarships may be based on things such as your GPA, your extracurriculum activities, school activities, your essay, things of that nature. And your external scholarships come from outside organizations and companies and different alumni. Now for me, I know I found different scholarships from alumni that used to go to the school. I also found scholarships that frats and sororities on campus were doing. So that's helpful too. Also, I would say go for the local scholarships. If you guys have scholarships at your job, your grocery store or your gas station or your church, narrow down to the local scholarships because some of those local scholarships are way less competitive than the big scholarships. I'm not saying, man, listen, look at me, go hard and go home, but also have the local scholarships in the bag because that's what's going to fall through if everything else fails. So small scholarships. And baby, I'm telling you, listen, them $100 scholarships and $500 scholarships, they're going to add up. Say you get four $500 scholarships, that's $2,000 right there that you're working with. So definitely go for the local scholarships and look for resources internally and externally. Most of these scholarships more than likely are going to go directly to your school. Most scholarships go directly to your school, but I did find local scholarships where they either send me the payment directly through my Zill or Cash app, or they gave me a direct check. Local scholarships that come from like your church or alumni or different smaller organizations and places near your home, they're more likely to give you a personal check. And this is going to come in clutch if you want to get like a laptop, books and supplies, moving expenses, dorm materials, these local scholarships is what's going to help you cover yourself before even going into school just for like your supplies and your academic costs. So definitely look, them internal, them local scholarships, get them most definitely. Okay y'all, next section, where should I put in these essays? Y'all, when you guys are doing your essays, you have to, first of all, you want to read the prompt and then I want you to ask yourself, what makes me unique? I know there's about to be hundreds of other applicants for this particular scholarship, but what's going to make me stand out? It could be an obstacle that you've encountered. It could be you starting a business. It could be you being a content creator. It could be you being an entrepreneur. It could be you being a singer songwriter. Like if there's any hobbies, sport, academics, extracurricular activity that you did, including your essay, that's what the prompt is asking for. Most of these scholarships ask questions like, what makes you, you, or what gives you courage to be real? Or tell me about an obstacle you encountered, or why did you choose your major? This is the answer I usually give. Hey, my name is Khadijah Davis. I wanted to go to a HBCU because I went to predominantly white high schools. My childhood was very unstable. I went to three different high schools. I started creating YouTube as an outlet and I started doing logos and graphics as another outlet. Any obstacles that make you, you, or any things that you did that made you a success, include it in your essay. These companies and organizations that's giving you money are looking for, they want to know if you're a good leader or not. They want to know, I'm investing my money in a good student who's not only a student, but a good person all around. So anything that shows us you're hardworking, dedicated, you have good leadership skills, include that. Now that I told y'all what to put in your essays, let me teach y'all the finesse. You guys, look at me. Look at me. Don't stretch yourself out writing a hundred essays. Most of these essays ask for similar prompts. I advise you getting yourself a Google Docs and writing out maybe like three essays according to three different prompts. Do like three different scholarship essays. Save these essays. When it's time for another scholarship, when you find another scholarship, use the same essay, but tweak it so it can fit the prompt. You get what I'm saying? Or you might say, hmm, I can use this paragraph in another essay. Hmm, I can use this opening paragraph for another essay. Hmm, these two prompts are similar. Let me use some of the same things. If y'all get where I'm going, keep up. Because I don't want you guys to stretch yourself out doing a whole bunch of essays because I want you to do as much essays as possible. I mean, I want y'all to do as many scholarships as possible because the more scholarships you do, the higher chance of you getting selected, right? But to make it easier on yourself, have essays on standby that you can keep recycling. You catch my drift. Also, have letters of recommendations in your head. If you're a high school student, it could be, most recommendations are likely to use people in your family but I would say it could be, if you have a job, it could be your manager, it could be your teacher, it could be your principal, it could be a pastor at your church. Anybody in your community or anybody around you that can vouch that you're a good person and you have great leadership skills, definitely use those letters of recommendations and keep them on hand. If you go to do scholarship applications and they say that you can upload your own letter of recommendation, I recommend having recommendations saved as a PDF on your computer so when it's time for those scholarships, you can upload because there's gonna be times where you might be like, I forgot to do this scholarship and it's due tonight but I need my letter of recommendation in by tonight but I don't know if my letter of recommendation, who I wanna use is free. So definitely have those saved as PDF on your computer so you can have them on hand. Another thing I would recommend is, you guys, now that you're in college, these letter of recommendations can be mentors. Like one of my scholarship programs had offered me a mentor. So I'm like, hey, I'm lit. I get to use my mentor as recommendation. But it could be, if you're a captain of a team, well, say you're on like a step team or a dance team, you can use like the co-captain or the head captain as a letter of recommendation. Anybody that can vouch for you, you know, and go for like a letter of recommendation of something that you're a part of. Like, hmm, I'm a part of this, this or that. I can use who's in charge as a letter of recommendation because they can vouch for me. So-and-so is on my team. So-and-so is hardworking. So-and-so is already on time. So-and-so gets her 100%. Recommendations do look good. And even if a recommendation is optional, put in a recommendation because it's gonna make your application stand out and that's for sure. Okay, what's this scholarship process like? Like I've been doing scholarships and scholarships and scholarships and scholarships. I'm not hearing back from any. Baby, look at me. You gotta have patience. Like some of these scholarships, I'm like, look, I gotta figure out a way to get this money by tomorrow. Like I need to hear back so I know if I need to take out a loan, if I can afford this school. Sometimes it's stressful, but you gotta be patient. Like it's some scholarships I did in December. I'm just now hearing back from in June, July. Like, yeah, so some of these scholarships might take anywhere from a couple of weeks to months to get back to you. So I say making a Google Doc and make a list of the scholarships that you've done in your Google Doc, right? Or in your notes. Make a list of the scholarships that you've done and include a dollar amount. How much is each scholarship worth? If it's really taking a long time, I recommend reaching out to whoever is in charge of the scholarship or the website or any contact information I have. Either call or send them an email. Hello, my name is so-and-so and I attend so-and-so university. I want to hear back from you guys about the so-and-so scholarship. Do you know when applications, when you're gonna get back to your applicants of who's being selected for these scholarships? So stay in contact with these organizations. Make sure you use a reliable email because these scholarships are gonna be sending you emails. Congratulations, you got this scholarship or unfortunately we cannot offer you this scholarship. Definitely use a good email, preferably a school email or an email that you constantly check because you don't want to miss out on any of this free money, y'all, for real, free money. Come on, who don't want free money? It's free bread. Another thing I would recommend is, when you guys look, make sure that you're meeting all eligibility requirements, you guys. Like, especially when you go on United Negro College Fund. Okay, so for example, on United Negro College Fund, they have a list of member institutions, specific member institutions. I forgot how many. So say you do a scholarship, right? I'm about to tell you guys what I did. So I was going to do a scholarship, right? And it said UNCF institutions, right? It didn't say HBCUs in general. So I'm like, oh yeah, I go to Howard. Of course, Howard's like a United Negro College Fund institution and I did my application. You guys, I wanted a scholarship for $12,000 but I couldn't accept it and I'm gonna tell you guys why. At the time of the application, I thought I was gonna be going to Clark Atlanta. Changed my mind, ended up going to HU, right? I was like, can you guys transfer this scholarship from Clark Atlanta at Howard University? That's where I, that was my final decision. I made a decision day two. That's my institution I wanted to attend. They're like, we want to transfer for you but we're not allowed to because Howard University is not a UNCF institution. It's a HBCU but it's not in our list of institutions. So with that being said, make sure when you're applying, if your school's not like a UNCF institution, make sure that it says HBCUs or black colleges in general. Because you don't want to misread something about your major, about your age, about your classification, about your race, about your institution. Congratulations, you got the scholarship but you can't accept it because you didn't read thoroughly. That's gonna break your heart. So definitely read, make sure you know all the eligibility requirements, you guys. I think a big thing I want to point out to you guys is that I think a common misconception or a mistake that people make is after their high school year, they stop applying to these scholarships. No, you got scholarships for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, grads. Like y'all never stop applying to scholarships. Keep applying and applying and applying and applying. Big mistake, big mistake. Do not stop applying to scholarships. You got to keep applying. You're around, you're around, you're around, you're around. I applied to so many scholarships that I'm forgetting. Oh, I applied to this? Like, and they take forever to get back to you but you guys, you guys, you have to keep applying no matter what grade you're in. And I want you guys to have patience, like I said before. And you guys make sure that your essay is strong. Your essay is the most important part because you can have a 4.0 GPA. This is when you're getting into college and when you're doing your scholarship applications, you have a strong GPA, but that essay ain't hitting on nothing then it may not follow through. But yeah, make sure you guys stand out from the crowd, have a good essay and make sure that you guys use the websites that I gave y'all because for y'all, for y'all, it's for y'all. But yeah, I want to make this process easy. If y'all ever, ever, ever, ever have any questions, y'all can DM me on Instagram at shorty like these. I answer any of y'all questions, all of that good stuff. I'm not gatekeeping. I'm putting y'all on, we all got to eat. We all got to eat, baby. I ain't gatekeeping nothing, we all got to eat. And y'all like, it's really crazy. I remember sitting at my, I remember sitting on my phone, trying to make a decision on what college was best for me. And one of the top things that I had considered was what is affordable. When I signed this deal, like I did not know how I was gonna, I did not know how I was gonna pay for Howard. Y'all, we just had a 7% increase. Tuition done jumped from 28K to 38K. And room and board is like another 10, 15K. So my freshman year, I'm like, dang, I'm looking at 40K. My financial aid, like I said, only covers half of this. I don't know how I'm gonna pay for it. I was like, do I really want to go to this school? Do I really want to go? Like, you know what? I was like, God got me. I got me. I got support from my family and peers. I'm going to bust, I'm about to bust my, I'm about to, you know, I'm finna put in this work and I'm not going to stop till I be eliminated all my resources. Like I'm going to use all of my resources. I told myself that I'm on the phone with my counselors. I'm on the phone with people that go to the school. I'm on hold with financial aid for an hour or two. I'm writing down a list of questions. Who am I speaking with? When can you guys call me back? I have this question, I have this question. Has this scholarship closed? When is the scholarship open? Have you received this document? I'm following up on these different scholarships. And you guys, when I got to school, I was like, oh, I still don't know how I'm gonna pay for this. I'm just here. I'm just here. I did not know if I was going to be back the next semester. You feel me? I didn't know if I was going to, you know, they say like, no, when you first get it, they're like, look around the room. Who you see right now, you may not see next semester. So I'm like, y'all might not see me next semester, but hey, I'm here while I'm here. And I did a lot of these scholarships. I waited too late, you guys. Another word of advice, don't wait too late like me. Do these scholarships. Start in your high school year and start searching and doing it, like during your senior year. So by the time the summer comes, you already heard back from these scholarships, but I wish I would've done them earlier, but everything worked out in the end. But a lot of these scholarships I didn't do till the summer before my freshman year of college. I'm going into college, I haven't heard back from half of these scholarships. But by December, I had heard back from all of them, like, yo, I paid off my whole school year with scholarships. I'm like, this is such a blessing. I'm gonna keep doing scholarships, keep doing scholarships. And I picked up doing some more during December, January. And by this May, June, July, the other scholarships I did ended up rolling in. And now I paid for my entire four years, no loans. And y'all, I'm so humble for everything. I'm so grateful for everything. And sometimes I'll be on Instagram and I'll be on Twitter. And I be seeing, like, I'm always reposting GoFundMe's for other people. And I'm just like, this could be me. Let me repost them. Let me, let me repost this. Let me support them. Let me send them a list of scholarships that I use because I wanna help other people. Cause this definitely could have been me almost not being able to come back to school. Like, you guys never know what may happen, what circumstances may happen in people's lives. So yeah, I really made a scholarship video because I'm always posting, like, I'm always posting scholarship notifications and congratulations on my story to let you guys know that these scholarships are real and they actually can happen. And it's not only just to, like, hey, you guys, I got a scholarship. No, it's not about me showing off cause I'm very humble and grateful. It's about me helping other people get money for school, if you get what I'm saying. So yeah, that's why I wanted to create this video. I wanted to help you guys and I wanted to put you guys on. And I wanna do, like, positive content on my channel. And anywhere I can help the next person, I'ma help the next person. If it's an opportunity for the next person, I'ma help the next person. And that's just the type of person I am. That's how I get down. But yeah. Is there anything I left out in this video? Oh yeah, y'all. I was thinking, man, I don't really deal with Niche and Unigo and all these other scholarship power. I ain't never heard a soul tell me, I got a scholarship from these people. Y'all just wanna blow me up with emails, I'm pretty sure. No shade, though. I don't know. Y'all might be legit. But without further ado, that's the end of my YouTube video. I hope that y'all enjoyed it. Follow the Instagram, follow the hair page. I got some fire content and stuff coming for y'all, but y'all gotta stay tuned. Y'all gotta tap in. Y'all gotta connect with me. Also, follow me on TikTok, follow me on Twitter, follow me on these. I'm not leaving out any other social medias. I don't really even Facebook like that. Yeah, also let me know what videos y'all want. What kind of videos, what kind of content y'all want? Do y'all want? I don't know what kind of content y'all want, but I'm doing a video. I hope you guys liked it. And hopefully I can come back with some more video content for y'all too, cause I've been gone for a hot minute. But yeah, I'm gonna get back with y'all. Hollaback. Oh, it's short like Deej, but y'all know it's Deeja Davis. I ain't gonna give out my government, but I'm trying to, you know, rebrand, tweak up my little YouTube name. You know what I mean? But yeah. And can't wait to get back with you guys soon. Can't wait to drop the next video and holla back.