"During the summer, parents can put their high school students to work searching for scholarships and writing applications," The Chicago Tribune reports. "Some of the sweetest scholarships - ones that pay $5,000 or even $25,000 - are awarded early in the high school years. But families often miss them because parents aren't thinking about college when their children haven't even passed driver's training. Others assume erroneously that it's futile to seek a scholarship if a child isn't an A student or a star athlete."