What documents a scholarship asks for

The five documents to gather first

These five cover most of what a scholarship asks for. Gather them once and keep them, and each new application becomes a form-filling exercise rather than a paperwork one.

A certified copy of your grades

Issued by your school registrar, not printed by you. Ask early: registrars work to their own queue, and the request is slower in enrolment season than at any other time of year.

Proof of what your household earns

This takes one of a few forms depending on the work your parents do — an income tax return, a certificate from an employer, or, where nobody in the household has formal employment, a certificate of indigency from your barangay.

Offices asking for this are checking a threshold, not judging you. The number matters; nothing else about it does.

Your birth certificate

From the civil registry. If you have never ordered one, order it now rather than when a deadline is a week away — this is the single document most likely to be the thing everyone is waiting on.

Proof of where you live

Usually a barangay certificate. Scholarships funded by a local government, or aimed at students from one region, will always ask for this, and the address on it has to agree with the address on your form.

Recommendation letters

One or two, from teachers who actually taught you. Ask at least two weeks ahead and give the teacher something to work from — what the scholarship is, what you are applying to study, and when it is due.

The mismatch that holds applications up

Your name has to read the same way on every document. A middle initial on one and a full middle name on another, a married surname on one and a maiden name on another, a hyphen present in one place and absent in another — any of these can hold up a file while somebody writes to ask which is correct.

Before you send anything, lay the documents side by side and read only the names. Fix the mismatch at the source where you can; where you cannot, say so in the form rather than leaving the office to guess.

Copies, scans and originals

Read what is being asked for. "Certified true copy" means a copy the issuing office has stamped, not a photocopy you made. "Original" means the office intends to keep it, so order a second one if it is a document you will need again.

For anything submitted online, scan rather than photograph where you can. A flat, straight, readable scan is not a formality — a file somebody cannot read is a file somebody sets aside.

Keep them somewhere you can find them again

You will be asked for these documents more than once — by the next scholarship, and again by the same one when it asks you to renew. A folder of current scans is what turns each new application into a form-filling job rather than a paperwork one.

• Keeping your documents in one place — How uploading each paper once, and reusing it, works here.