When should you apply for scholarships?

[Gokart#5]

Hi,

Just wondering when should you apply for scholarships. It is currently July 12th, and one of the scholarships I was looking at says it closes on July 14th, IN 2 DAYS?! I thought scholarships are more when you apply to universities and have your ATAR. So should I be applying for this scholarship now despite only being in term 3?? 

[AngelWings]

Depends on the scholarship.

There are some scholarships that open up every semester at uni and are only applicable to uni students. There are others where they require a lot of work to obtain e.g. interviews, so the applications might start as early as July. Some scholarships will be covered by VTAC, but others won’t. There’s even a number which are conditional e.g. “if you come to X institute or achieve Y ATAR, you can get $1,000 from Z scholarship”, so they won’t need it until later. Each scholarship is different, so it’s often best to treat this on a case-by-case basis.

Do you mind telling us which scholarship this was?

[Gokart#5]

sure, this is the scholarship:

Deakin Scholarship for Excellence   Undergraduate - $5000 per year Postgraduate - $10,000 per year   
Normal course duration   
Open date: 16/6/22
Closing date: 14/7/22 (Closing soon)

[AngelWings]

Thanks!

In the case of the scholarship you’ve listed, it’s actually one aimed at current Deakin students, as one of the eligibility criteria says you must be “enrolled at Deakin University in Trimester 2 2022” and “bachelor and honours students enrolled full time unless there are exceptional circumstances preventing full time study”. Unfortunately, this means as a Year 12 student, there’s a very high chance you won’t be able to get this scholarship until next year, if you study at Deakin. (Full time usually means taking 3+ subjects at uni level.)