परिवार में कॉलेज जाने वाले पहले व्यक्ति? यहाँ से शुरू कीजिए

The order to do things in

1. Get your documents started, especially income, caste and domicile certificates. These take weeks and everything else waits on them.
2. Make sure your Aadhaar is seeded with your bank account, otherwise approved money never arrives.
3. Do your One-Time Registration on the National Scholarship Portal.
4. Find which schemes you qualify for. Use the finder on this site rather than reading every scheme.
5. Apply well before the last date, so there is room to fix a mistake.
6. Tell your college scholarship cell you have applied, and check that they verified it.
7. Note your application number somewhere safe.

Things nobody tells you

- You can usually hold one merit-based scholarship plus welfare-based ones, so do not stop at the first.
- State and central schemes are separate, on separate portals. Apply to both if you qualify.
- Payment often comes months later. That is normal, not a rejection.
- No genuine scholarship asks you for money.

Who can help you locally

Your college scholarship or exam cell handles verification and has seen every mistake before. A Common Service Centre can file the forms for a small published fee. Neither should ever ask for a large payment.