You may have noticed that many education scholarships have application deadlines in the spring of the year. For high school students pursuing a career in education, this means you should be looking for scholarships at the beginning of your senior year of high school at the latest. Compile your list, with all the application deadlines and application open dates and maybe even pre-fill the applications so all you have to do is send them in when the application period opens. In some cases the earlier you apply the better chance you have at receiving the scholarship. Nobody has ever been denied a scholarship for applying on the first day of the application season. Ideally, you might start researching applications even earlier than the beginning of your senior year of high school. Maybe the summer before, or even the spring semester of your junior year. It’s never too early to start looking at all the funding sources available to education students. You might think competition for many scholarships will be stiff. And while that’s true for the famous scholarships like Coca-Cola Foundation or Gates Scholars, it’s often the case that many education scholarship funds for undergraduate students go almost completely untapped every year. The most important thing is to get your FAFSA paperwork filled out as soon as possible. Many private education scholarships still require this information and almost all public ones do as well. Getting that done early also puts you at the front of the queue for resources. It’s often the case that those who fill out FAFSA late receive less money than those who fill it out early. It’s also important to apply for federal student aid every year, not just your first year.