From the category archives:

10 Scholarship Screwups

The $150,000 Scholarships That Aren’t on Fastweb

July 29, 2009

First of all: Bookmark this page! You’ll want to re-read it many times in the near future. And since you opened it, I’m going to assume that you’re at least a tiny bit interested in a scholarship that would pay you $150,000. After all, it’s not like you haven’t thought about this topic before. If [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #10: Act Like You’ll Starve If You Don’t Win

July 27, 2009

Judges know that you would very much like to receive the scholarships that you apply for. It’s natural for you to have some emotional stock in whether you win or not. College costs are serious business, and every dime you can get someone else to pick up for you, the better. But in hundreds of [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #9: Bore Me With Irrelevant Crap

July 26, 2009

I know, I know – that’s an abrasive way of putting it for those of you who are easily wounded. In other words, then, do yourself a favor: exclude any unnecessary information that has nothing to do with your essay. Everything in your essay should be relevant to the topic at hand. We receive bad [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #8: Preach To Me

July 25, 2009

Scholarship essays are certainly about self-expression, and lots of applications ask open-ended questions about how you, the forward-thinking leader of tomorrow, might solve today’s problems. That gives you full license to come out with your ideas on how to change things, and in so doing, you’ll probably find yourself pointing out the flaws of society [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #7: Give No Details

July 24, 2009

Over the past two days, I’ve written about how school activities alone aren’t enough to win you scholarships, and that worried some of you quite a bit. Fear not, friends: today we’re continuing yesterday’s discussion of how to beef up those applications and cash in on the mistakes of your classmates. Here’s a huge but [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #6: Forget About Family

July 23, 2009

Yesterday I wrote about how school activities alone weren’t enough to win you scholarships, and that sent some of you into a panic. Seems many readers have been banking quite heavily on those school activities to win you some money. Not to worry: Today and tomorrow, we’re addressing how to beef up those applications and [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #5: Ignore the World Outside High School

July 22, 2009

The average scholarship applicant lists a truckload of school-sanctioned activities in which he/she has participated over the four years of high school. Sports teams, clubs, projects, competitions, etc. This can only be a good thing, right? After all, that’s what your parents and counselors have been telling you all along — the more stuff you [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #4: Give Us Some Vague, Self-Absorbed Plans for Your Future

July 21, 2009

A rule of thumb in scholarship essays (and life, if you will) is that it’s better to be specific than to be vague. Society is accustomed to using vague labels for people and what they do: student, businessman, housewife, factory worker, etc. These labels are convenient for the normal “small-talk” conversations that fill our daily [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #3: Cry Me a River

July 21, 2009

Hardships: We all have them, right? If you read as many scholarship applications as I do, you’d certainly think so. With college costs spiraling upward every year and families pinched for cash to pay for it all, students are going all-out to make sure the committees understand how rough they have it.  But the truth [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #2: Bore Me With Your GPA

July 21, 2009

Nothing angers the high-ranking students (and their teachers) more than this one, but I’ve some bad news for you, and you’re not going to like it. Are you sitting down? OK, here goes: Your GPA doesn’t really matter that much, {!firstname_fix}. If at all. It’s ok, I’ll give you a minute to let it sink [...]

READ THE WHOLE THING –>

Scholarship Screwup #1: Thrust Your Religion and Politics Upon Me

July 17, 2009

More practically, consider this very basic truth: the more contentious the issue you choose to write about, the more likely it is that one or more committee members will completely disagree with you. Divisive issues divide, and in all likelihood, you’ve got no idea who’s even judging your scholarship application, let alone the personal and political beliefs of those people.

READ THE WHOLE THING –>