high school

Common high school activities: Don’t talk solely about participation in them.

March 26, 2008

This is an important tip that you’ll rarely hear, but it’s true. Common, high school activities are not going to set your essay apart from the competition. The Internet has opened scholarship opportunities up to thousands of applicants who wouldn’t have been there 10 years ago. And that means the less unique your essay is, [...]

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Show some industry.

March 26, 2008

Talk about what you’ve actually done – not just the groups you’ve joined. Sure, you were in your church’s youth group. And you can put “Four years in my church youth group” in your application if you want. But if you do that, you’re not telling me much. Since I haven’t been to your church, [...]

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Don’t forget what you do out of school.

March 26, 2008

This is closely related to the above item about family responsibilities, but a little different. Here, we don’t mean taking care of your family or working to do so; rather, we’re talking about outside interests of any kind. Maybe you’re interested in cars or nature or the environment or politics — something they don’t have [...]

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