Comments on: Scholarship Screwup #3: Cry Me a River

By: angie

angie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:33:17 +0000

Pulheeze I wish I had never given u my email w all the spam I get. Who cares what u think a hardship is. U have no idea how real people live. I wouldn’t take ur scholarship even if it meant a free ride u liberal a@@wipe

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:00:44 +0000

From my point of view, I think you could have been a little more specific on the word ‘hardship.’ I live in America and I will admit that I have it better than kids from Third World counties, but hypothetically speaking, I’m from Moss Point, Mississippi and kids in Atlanta, Georgia have it better than I do. Why? Because their city is larger and more money is being made vs. my situation; I live in a small town with fewer businesses meaning lesser monies are being made, so I wouldn’t have a choice but to get out and, for example, pay for my first car. You can’t fault anybody for thinking that their hardships are actually hard to them. Why run seven miles to school when that’s what the bus is made for. Uhhhh hello!!…MY PARENTS DON’T PAY TAXES FOR NOTHING. If you wanted to hear about hardships from kids living in Third countries then make a scholarship for kids only in Third World countries.

By: Sophia

Sophia — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:18:49 +0000

Dear Judge Josh,
I just want to say that everyone faces hardships and defines them differently, depending on their circumstances. For example, I have to travel by road to another country in order to get cheaper education, and then I arrive school very exhausted and homesick and I see this as a struggle while someone who is forced to go to a primitive school because of money problems and still climb hills might see their situation as worse than mine and therefore think they need aid and I do not. So my point is that we all do have hardships. Anyway, I think I must start talking about the struggles I’ve had when writing for a scholarship. Thanks a lot for your advice.
Kind regards,
Sophia.

By: virginia

virginia — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:08:19 +0000

Okay? I have applied to sooo many scholarships. I don’t know what else to do anymore. Every time I return to the website and sEe the winning essay it is from a student who is from another country. A student who had and has to walk ten miles to get school, hunt and gather their food, so they won’t starve, has ten brothers and sisters to care for, has to walk miles to get to a camp where they can get free supplies and toiletries and what ever else they need!! My family believe me is not rich, I’m not even probably considered working class. However, my story will never ever ever ever beat a story of a student from an african country or china or what ever other country outside of the US.It sucks it really does. No scholarships=no financial help=no college education for me. I’ve applied again to several others which I most probably won’t get either because I have no stories like those students. Its not fair Josh. Do you have any advice? Any thing I can do? Maybe other options? I have great grades but that still has gotten me no where. My life nor academic achievement is helping. Makes me just wonder if I will ever get any help.Thanks you.

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 03:09:31 +0000

Just wanted to say, I love it…

By: Bradley

Bradley — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:34:07 +0000

As usual, when I come back to read what I have posted the next day I look like a flaming idiot. I’m sorry. I promised myself I would stop contributing to Internet flame wars, and I have failed. My point is basically that if you are asked to describe the difficulties in your life, I think you should just write about whatever you have. If there was an objective, quantitative scale for how hard your life has been then we wouldn’t need scholarship judges. There would just be a standardized test, scaled from 17-99 points, and the application would say “you must have a score of 83 to apply”. Since there are 6,697,254,041 people in the world, I think it’s safe to say that there will always be at least a few of them that have had it harder than you or I. Nothing positive ever came from comparing my hardship to other people’s hardship in the past. Although I am excited about the idea of winning a prize for it, I would just as soon have gone without it and skipped the prize as well.
The point of scholarships, I thought, was to unlock doors for people who have either little money, or great merit (read: potential to contribute materially to society). I have a decent amount of money, but my hardship does not say anything about how much merit I have. It just explains why I was not an overachieving class president and valedictorian and Amnesty International volunteer and so on (although I did manage to squeeze in an Eagle Scout).
Regards again,
Brad

By: Bradley Rowe

Bradley Rowe — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:11:29 +0000

Look, I appreciate the idea of this post, but when I got this email, I just had to come here to comment. I understand your position Mr. Josh, but I resent the implication that you have to cross the Atlantic ocean to find hardship.
“Some have led extremely difficult lives and have overcome obstacles so outlandish that Americans can’t even comprehend them. These are the type of stories that scholarship judges are accustomed to reading. By comparison, American student essays sound a little, well, spoiled and whiny.”
I am white, upper middle class, and was raised in a crime free neighborhood with all the benefits of being an an American in the $100,000 – $150,000 tax bracket. I was fine until 8th grade, when I came down with schizoaffective disorder. As a psychotic symptom, I was left unable to speak, write, or even move for over a month. I was fed with a tube and sponge bathed, until an appropriate medicine could be found. I actually did do the freshman and sophomore years of high school from a hospital. After the catatonia lifted, I had pain hallucinations daily that I can best describe as spilling acid over one’s entire body, or like Tabasco sauce, just everywhere conceivable instead of your mouth. My mother did not like to take me out of the house, because when this happened, I would fall to the ground and scream and cry for about an hour. I have attempted suicide three times. Only in the last year or so have I found the will to live and I have decided to go to graduate school. Forget about me for a second. Let me tell you about two of the other people I met in special education, both upper middle class, white, protestant, Anglo-Saxon, suburban Americans with good insurance.
Nichole is bipolar II, and bulemic. Her parents did not intend to have her at all, and let her know on a regular basis. She often showed up to class disheveled and unshowered with bruises and lacerations all over her body, claiming that they were due to various “accidents”. The last I heard of her she was kicked out of her parents house and was living out of her car. Nichole always wanted to go to a liberal arts college to study poetry.
John is bipolar I. John was also homeless for years. As a young child, his father committed a burglary and was imprisoned. He did something to upset the Chicago police department, because they were constantly arresting him, even though he was never actually charged. His mother also kicked him out, on Christmas eve. Whenever he would try to come home after that, she would call the police. The final time they did this they impounded the car he was living in. To escape, he hitchhiked here to Colorado to sleep on the futon of a friend of mine. John is interested in becoming a psychiatric nurse.
I know that rural Africans have it hard. I have seen Slumdog Millionaire and and Blood Diamond, so I get the picture. It took over 13 years to find treatments for me that work well enough that I can go to college, but I guess if I was from Rwanda that I would never have had that option. I confess that I have a 2003 silver Chevy Tahoe and an Xbox and a Motorola android, so I think I am fortunate *enough*.
What I am trying to say is that a hardship is always in the eyes of the beholder, and you don’t have to travel 5,000 miles to see it happen. Since in this case, Josh the scholarship judge is the beholder, I don’t know whether I have actually known hardship, because I am not Josh. However, if in an essay I was asked to describe hardship, I think I would compare well to “didn’t get braces in middle school”.
Regards,
Brad

By: Sonscary

Sonscary — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:54:31 +0000

What do you mean? Going to finishing school in Switzerland then working dead end jobs instead of college isn’t a hardship? Just kidding.

I’m there with you-not crying into my macbook. If I can sit, typing responses in my over-expensive apartment (biding time until evicted, no less) instead of trading my day’s sustenance for a sheet of paper, so I can write requests for financial help then I count myself fortunate. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to try to obtain education funding. Recognizing and appreciating where we are, what we’ve done, and how we’ve lived is important. I don’t buy toys for my child though he stomps like a brat. Welfare doesn’t grant enough to buy ample toiletries, let alone Lego sets. I’ll tell you though, we have food, health coverage and education. Everywhere you are, in the Land of the Free, community support and assistance to meet every demographic, is set up on some level, so that no one has the grounds to expect cheese with their whine.

By: Becky

Becky — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:09:21 +0000

Hello = )

I am so glad I signed up for these updates. They are very entertaining and the sarcasm is completely appreciated! Especially compared to the dry style of my university textbooks (but, that’s another topic…)

I have the same thoughts as Amy. When a scholarship requires you to discuss a “hardship” you are experiencing (or have experienced and overcome) and you don’t have one to discuss what do you write in the space? I have, in the past, described some challenges I have experienced, but I have clearly defined them as “challenges.” Is this a good tactic to answering the question or could I be writing something that is more effective?

Thanks again for these tips and please keep them coming!

By: Renay B

Renay B — Mon, 24 May 2010 18:04:46 +0000

I see what’s the difference between hardships and being busy. I was born a crack baby along with one of my other sisters. My mother was doing many drugs so she lost all 8 of us. Never really tried to get us back or even draw close to us until now. My auntie took me in as a child so i wouldn’t have to go in the system and my grandmother took my sisters in. 4 of my brothers are still lost in the system and I don’t know where they could be but I hope to find them soon. One of my brothers i keep in contact with because he was found by my aunt. He’s a foster kid but it doing well. Still everyday I wish and wonder what could have been if my mother wouldn’t have made some of the biggest, stupidest mistakes in her life.

By: Simone

Simone — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:34:41 +0000

I understand the difference between an actual hardship and just being unappreciative now. I use to whine when I was in middle school because at the time my mother could not afford braces for me. I eventually got the braces in high school, but I now realize that having not so perfect teeth is not that big of a deal, it is a petty issue. I also use to whine because my dad was not around for me like he should have been. I learned to be thankful that he at least paid child support, but that still did not excuse his not being a father to me. I have watched plenty of infommercials about starving children who have no clean water, or clean places to sleep. Those kinds of things make me thankful for the luxuries that I have had in my life. I think “my life isn’t so bad” after watching things like that because compared to those kids my life is perfect. I know better than to write a so-called sob story about not being able to afford a car when I got my license because I know that it is not that big of a deal. I still had transportation, food, shelter, and love when I got my license and that was enough.

By: Mehmood Ul Hassan Soomro

Mehmood Ul Hassan Soomro — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:08:46 +0000

What a nonsense if you are unable to pay me scholarship do not wast my time and energy refuse my application clearly.I am not borrowing a single penny from hungary
wolves you are showing me the problems created by your Multinational Companies
in all third world countries do not ask for an application for scholarship you only pay to your blood relations/ neighbors justice is for away fro you go hell bye
.

By: LDreamChick

LDreamChick — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:56:40 +0000

I think that judges should be more exact about what they want. If you have an easy where you want to reward or help people who have had hardships, you should describe that. Then it would make sense to tell the kid with a car who had to work for a change that it’s ridiculous to apply. However, if you’re asking someone to tell you about themselves, and they describe their “growing experiences” as hard, then I think you’re taking their purposes out of context.

Overall, I think this was a good tip and wasn’t meant to be offensive. But I resonate a lot with the students who think it’s unfair to neglect your own country since other countries have it worse. Frankly, if the US doesn’t start paying attention to the way citizens are becoming complacent and dumber, people have to borrow money to make it anywhere, and how easy it is for someone like you to make fun of students mistakes when those students never had anyone to tell them of how judgmental judges can actually be, you can’t be surprised when they try to cater their papers to what they think you want to hear. I mean I’m sure those students answering questions like “tell me why you need/deserve this scholarship” are just trying to give you some reason to take pity, because you’ve just made a question that seems to be implying you think the needy are the ones who should get the scholarship.

I think students try to give the person with the power what they’re looking for, they’re not actually telling you that they think their life is harder than life is for people in third world countries. People describe themselves in comparison to their own environment.

Last but not least, in your comments you said something like most students do not know about other countries and their circumstances. That’s probably very true. But you’re also not acknowledging how other countries typically teach about other nations through their curriculum. America teaches people to be self-righteous, profit-seeking, go home and watch “reality tv,” and if you watch news, it better be tragic, entertaining, and scary. It’s unfortunate that growing up in this country sets you up to fail unless you put yourself in the shoes of someone who is not in this country.

By: faith

faith — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:08:58 +0000

The fact that we Africans are searching for scholarship does not mean we are poor.Why is it that u guys don’nt use US in your examples.Anyway, i am proud to be an African.And i believe the God i am serving we never live us to suffer.SOMEDAY WE AFRICANS WILL SMILE.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:23:48 +0000

To everyone:
I agree with Kelsey. Stop picking on Mr. Barsch because he used stereotypical African names/situations and whiny Americans as examples. That’s not the point. The point is that he’s trying to help scholarship applicants understand what a scholarship judge is thinking about when he/she reads hundreds of these hardship essays. This is extremely useful to me, at least, as I’m looking for how to use his tips as opposed to nit-picking the details in his emails.

To Mr. Barsch:
Thanks for all the advice! But what should I do when a hardship essay is REQUIRED and I’m blessed with a two-loving-parents upbringing in an upper-middle-class area? AND I’m white? I understand that there are people out there who desperately need scholarships more than I do, and the last thing I want to do is disgust judges with a whiny essay, but any little scholarship I could get would help. When a hardship/challenges essay is required, are these examples okay?:

-When I was in middle school, my right eye was deeply scratched right on top of my pupil, and it got ulcerated and infected. The scar covered up my field of vision, and I was temporarily blind in that eye. There was a 50% chance that it would remain blind forever. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, as I had to see not only an eye doctor, but also a cornea specialist every day for 2 weeks, take steroid eye drops, and take another eye drop once every hour (including during the nights, which was terrible.) It was extremely painful. If I wrote an essay about this, I could write about how something that we take for granted and seems so basic to our everyday life, such as seeing, could vanish so quickly and change our lives forever.

-This isn’t so much of a “hardship” as it is a “setback”. I seem to always try my best to win, and then I just barely lose. Making the last cut of the team… but then not making the team. Running for the highest position a student could have in the 142,000-student county, the Student Member of the Board of Education, putting in hours of work, becoming preoccupied with school system politics, letting myself be known to thousands of students… and then barely losing. Every loss in the lacrosse season being a loss by 1… and taking the blame as the goalie. Running for President of the Countywide Student Government… and then barely losing. Somewhere in that essay, I would come up with an uplifting positive outcome, like how Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team yet became an NBA all-star.

Any thoughts?
Thank you!
Amy

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:04:08 +0000

Dude, fuck you. Dont give me the scholarship. I could not care any less. Scholarship screwup #1. Profanity and too many simple sentences.

By: Debra Peturson

Debra Peturson — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:39:25 +0000

Hello,

You said not to feel frustrated about these e-mails and I do understand that you are trying to be helpful but please let me understand why it is that I am taking about 2-3 hrs everynight of my time looking up Scholarships for my two daughters?
A little about myself, I have a college degree and work at a Full-time job in the Medical Field where I make a decent wage.
In order too get where I am I have had to be diagnosed with MS 10 years ago and have almost lost my house etc due to an addiction of compulsive gambling that my husband of 25 yrs came out and told our family 5 yrs ago.
You talk about hardships, and no I don’t live in a 3rd world country, but please try to live in my shoes and see how you wake up everyday and wonder will “I” be able to walk to work today in order to be able to put my daughters through University. Putting the girls through University has been financially draining but it is something that we choose to do for them yet “winning” a Scholarship would help out tremendously.

I am finding it very frustrating as I am being constantly reminded that there are alot of Scholarships out there and granted there are. But if you are not a minority, disabled, brilliant academically or a “nerd” that has all the time in the world for volunteering you just don’t meet the criteria for these awards.
I have two average daughters who go to University full-time and work 1-2 jobs (because of the financial position their Dad has put us in). My one daughter has been on the honor roll with Distinction has done some volunteering and even this past year was the team Captain for the MS Walk to raise money for MS Research. Yet we are constantly turned down.
Yes, I put in the work for them by finding the Scholarships, but they actually do the work as far as essays go.
Am I waisting my time or do I suck it up and perservere?

Frustrated Mom in Calgary

By: Landen

Landen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:38:37 +0000

Do you just send all ten to everybody? If so, why not just say, “Hey, check out this site that will help you.” I have gotten emails for the first three Scholarship Screwups and in my essays I did not mention anything pertaining to religion or politics or my opinion on any topic of interest; I did not mention my GPA at all or my grades or how well or poor I perform academically; and I did not write about any hardships that I may have growing up in “suburbia.” Do you randomize who gets what? Do you actually read these? Are you a real person or a computer program?

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:27:10 +0000

Only Africa has orphans,hunger? You won’t have to travel far out of your town to see hunger,orphans etc. You don’t have to go over seas for that.Yes I have hardships,not so much as others and for that I am thankfull and stronger as a person.I have overcome adversity as a single mom,and head of house hold providing for my ciblings without a father or husband.the point Im trying to get across is that I am a strong woman that can overcome any obstacle!! With a helping hand anyone can!

By: L

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:15:00 +0000

So, we’re all pretty much aware that we come from an extremely “spoiled” or more politically correct, “privileged,” country, but can we please resist the urge to continuously reward those who come from third world countries?! I know, we should be so happy that everyone wants to come to college in the United States.. blah, blah, blah.. but I’m tired of seeing scholarship money that’s rightfully OURS go to everyone else. We don’t go to school for 12 years studying to get into college to be denied for scholarship money because a poor Ethiopian applied, also. Don’t they have colleges over in their own countries? Or can we at least establish scholarship funds especially for students native to the United States? It’s great that people who truly come from communties/countries that are plagued with what this article refers to as “hardships,” but I think it’s extremely important to continue to stimulate the youth of our own country, because chances are, that middle-class college student will take that scholarship money, earn a useful degree, and implement their new-found knowledge for the good of our economy and country.
Good for those students who overcame obstacles such as poverty to come to college, but I think it’s important to reward the students of our own country sometimes, too, regardless of how insignificant and “whiny” their hardships may seem. American students work just as hard as those from other countries.. whether it be in different ways or not.