Rule #1: Competitors are everywhere, so put your Best Foot Forward at all times.

You’ve probably heard me talk about this website before, but it bears repeating: Thanks to the Web, you now have access to thousands of scholarships you never would’ve known about prior to the Internet age. That’s the good news. The bad news is this: So does everyone else. The competition for scholarship money is more intense now than at any other time in history. And it’s not only your American neighbors who are competing with your kids for scholarship money; it’s over 100 million students worldwide, from India, China, Europe, Africa and every corner of the globe.

Scholarship contests are like any other contest in that the more competition you have, the less room for error you have if you plan to win. If you’re competing against a dozen kids from your own school, you might be able to make a few mistakes, get a little sloppy and still win. If you’re competing against the best in the world, mistakes kill. One mistake and you’re out.

And as we’ve just established, you’re now competing against the best in the world every time you fill out a scholarship application. Even in the case of local or other restricted-entry awards where you’re not competing against the whole world, your odds of winning go way up if you approach the process as if it’s you against the world. For the purposes of this book, we’re going to refer to that process as putting your best foot forward, or BFF for short.

Mistakes and imperfections range from very large and obvious to the tiny, nitpicky details that you probably think no one cares about. This book goes through all of them, and if you want the best chance at bringing home the most scholarship money, you must pay attention to all of them! That’s the essence of putting your best foot forward – the idea that, when you’re facing the world’s toughest competition, no detail is too small or too unimportant. Cover them all, and cover them well. BFF at all times!