Some applicants have said they knew that my grandfather would approve of me if I gave them the scholarship (thanks, weirdo, but you have no idea if that’s true), and others even said they felt a spiritual connection to him beyond the grave (if so, then please ask him if he’s got a message for my grandma, who is still alive and I’m certain would love to hear from him!).
I write about scholarships because it’s what I know, but let’s be honest — not everyone can bring ’em home. On the other hand, however, everyone has access to the federal financial aid system, and everyone’s school has a financial aid office, so everyone should pay close attention to how they can best extract the …
10 Tips on Getting the Best College Financial Aid Package Read More »
“OMG I want this schol soooooooobad! J/K, its all good!” Now, I’m no curmudgeon. I understand that language, both written and spoken, is constantly changing and that it’s young people of every generation who drive a lot of that change. However, most of you realize that the style of communication you use for email, IM …
Don’t use email smiley faces or any other sort of text-messaging language. Read More »
This happens dozens of times a day, so pay close attention here. A committee may love your essay, but you’d be surprised how their impression of you may change once they realize it was sent from demonicsoulslayer420@yahoo.com or gettinmydrinkon@hotmail.com or sexndrugs4ever@gmail.com. If it’s not obvious to you that sending email from addresses such as those …
We now do a lot of our scholarships via email, and despite our warnings, students still do this occasionally. Here’s the problem: if a scholarship program is accepting submissions via email, that means the email address you’re supposed to send to is probably sitting on a web page somewhere for you to look at. If …
They don’t have to be smarter than you, or better spellers than you, or anything like that. But you should never send in an essay that hasn’t had at least two or three sets of eyes other than your own look over it. They will help you catch errors and other imperfections like the ones …
Have two or more people read your essay before you send it in. Read More »
We don’t mean to sound elitist here, but the rules of the English language have already been invented; you can’t just make them up as you go along. I could use any of 100 examples here, but one of the most recent examples to cross our desks is this one: “Another importance in my life …
Remember how we said that you’d be ahead of 90% of applicants if you just turned in an error-free paper? Well, if you learn these three, you can probably bump it up to 95%. These three distinctions are a) very basic and easy to learn, and b) seemingly screwed up by almost everyone, almost all …
Going into detail about all the rules of punctuation would take forever, and frankly, writing a punctuation book would bore me straight into the grave. To be honest, the rules of punctuation are far less well-known that those of spelling and grammar. But if you run your essay by a few people, including an English …
Just like punctuation, this isn’t the place to list all of the rules of grammar. It’d fill a book five times longer than this one. But the more people to whom you show your essay before you send it – and ideally that list includes one English teacher or other grammar wizard – the less …
I’m borrowing here from our forthcoming sister site, givemearesume.com, because the advice applies to the scholarship application process just as much as the job-hunting process. When describing the things you’ve done, use as many strong action verbs as you can. Don’t say that you just “went” somewhere, “signed up” for something or “participated” in an …
Your introduction should be completed in a paragraph, maybe two. Not four or five. Long-form, scene-setting openings are for novels, not scholarship essays. Get to the point quickly and begin to develop the “meat” of your essay right away.
Redundant language is one particular way of writing badly that wastes your writing space and annoys the committee at the same time. There are a lot of commonly used redundant phrases, but some of the most common are “actively involved” (if you’re not active, you’re not involved) “past history” (all history is in the past) …
In a nutshell, this simply means making sure your paragraphs flow well from one to the next. There’s no magic formula for doing it, but you’ll know you’ve done it when the last sentence of one paragraph seems to lead nicely into the first sentence of the next paragraph. Without good transitions, an essay is …
It’s disappointing when an applicant is rolling along with an excellent essay, and then all of a sudden, bang! It’s over. Or at least, we think it’s over. We don’t see a next page, so we assume it must be over. The reason for our confusion is the writer’s lack of a closing. A closing …
That’s cheating. It’s also the equivalent of starting your introduction with “I deserve this award because” – it’s not creative at all. Your closing should speak for itself, without a need to say “in closing” or “listen up, committee, here comes my closing.” It’s a challenge, but you can do it.
Your name should be on the page elsewhere, eliminating any need for you to waste the all-important first sentence of your essay by simply stating your name.
You may know what FBLA or JA or AYBWA is, but that doesn’t mean your committee members do. There are hundreds of student organizations out there these days, and not even the most up-to-date scholarship judge is going to know all of them. Spell out the words of the acronym the first time you refer …
Don’t use acronyms without explaining them first. Read More »
Psychological studies indicate that people tend to recall items at the beginning of a list and the end of a list far better than they do those in the middle of the list. Try it yourself — go look at 20 items in your kitchen, 20 books in your bookcase, or any set of 20 …
Send in your essay near the beginning or the end of the application period. Read More »
Lots and lots of students do this, and you may be one of them. Every now and then, students get the idea that they’ve written one essay that’s so perfect in every way that it can be used to win not only one scholarship, but multiple scholarships. So they submit this essay for each scholarship …
Don’t write the same essay for all the scholarships you apply for. Read More »
About once a day, someone calls our office asking about our scholarships. “What do you mean by this question?” they ask. “How should I write this? What are you looking for me to say here?” The answer is always the same: Write it however you like. The company or institution giving the scholarship is going …
Students who actually do go the extra mile and show their essay to a teacher before sending it often go straight to their favorite teacher, or at least one who likes them a lot. That’s natural, but if that person is your favorite teacher, then he/she probably likes you, too, and may be likely to …
Show your essay to a teacher who doesn’t like you – or at least doesn’t know you. Read More »
Students rarely do this – for now, it seems to be mostly the domain of the high-level business executive who doesn’t like typing. But the technology is beginning to get more sophisticated, and we know that more of you will be using it in the future. Already, we’ll occasionally get an essay that a student …
So many essay introductions are poorly done (see the next item) that the rare creative introduction stands out a great deal. Challenge yourself to start your essay in a way that grabs the attention of a committee member who has been shuffling through more than 100 essays before looking at yours.
Even if the essay question is “Why do you deserve this award?” it’s still a weak introduction. Take your time and introduce yourself and your ideas to the committee in a creative way.
There are people out there, lots of them, in all fields and walks of life, who will give you a great many variations on this theme: If you want to stand out in life (or break through certain barriers, or win the big contest, or get that big job, etc.), then you’ve got to be …
Use creativity in your writing, but not your format. Read More »
