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Craft A Winning Scholarship Application
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By Gen Tanabe
, SuperCollege.com
Craft A Winning Scholarship Application
Crafting a winning scholarship application requires a strategic approach.
Scholarships are awards by organizations with a specific goal in mind. Perhaps
they want to encourage study in a certain field or encourage participation in a
particular hobby. This means that for each scholarship you apply for you need to
present yourself as the perfect applicant for the award by displaying how you
meet the criteria. In each application you may in fact present different aspects
of you.
For a sports scholarship you may focus on your abilities on the court and get
your coach to write your recommendations. For a science award you might focus on
your winning science project on earthworms and submit your results.
Whatever the scholarship, the key is to determine what values and qualities the
scholarship committee is looking for in the winner and construct every facet of
your application (essay, recommendations, interview, etc.) to demonstrate how
you meet these objectives.
Here’s how:
Give Them What They Want To Hear
Politicians are notorious for telling their constituents what they want to hear.
Good politicians never lie, but they do put a flattering spin on their speeches
depending on who they’re addressing. We are not suggesting that you lie on
your applications-—NEVER lie-—but we are recommending that you present
yourself in the best possible way to appeal to your audience. In short, never
lie on an application, but do employ a little spin.
To be able to spin effectively you need to know your audience. To determine who
your audience is, ask the following questions:
- What is the mission of the organization giving the scholarship?
- Who is reading your application?
- Who is your competition?
Go For The Gusto - Quickly
In movies, the most daredevil-ish car chase, the most harrowing showdown between
good and evil, and the most poignant romantic revelations are usually saved
until the end. While this works for Hollywood, it does not for scholarship
applications. Since selection committees pore through so many applications and
often the space on the form is limited, you need to feature your most impressive
points first.
If you have listed four extracurricular activities, assume that some judges
won’t even read beyond the first two. This doesn’t mean that all judges will
be this lazy, but there are always some who are. Therefore, it’s extremely
important for you to prioritize the information that you present, and rank your
accomplishments according to the following:
Fit with scholarship organization’s goal. The most important factor in
prioritizing your achievements is how they fit with the goal of the scholarship.
Scope. Prioritize your accomplishments by their scope, or how much of an
impact they have made.
Uniqueness. Since your application will be compared to that of perhaps
thousands of others, include accomplishments that are uncommon.
Recentness. This is the least important criterion, but if you get stuck,
put the more recent achievements first.
Write To Impress
Delivery of your application is very important. You must present your
information in a compelling way.
Use Your Smarts. As you are completing your applications, keep in mind
that while you may be applying for a public service scholarship you should also
include at least a few academic achievements. For example, it does not hurt to
list in an athletic scholarship that you also came in second place at the
science fair. This should not be the first thing you list but it certainly
should be included to show the committee that you have brains in addition to
brawn.
Leadership Is Always Better Than Membership. If you’ve ever tried to
motivate a group of peers to do anything without taking the easy way
out—bribery—you know that it takes courage, intelligence, and creativity to
be a leader. Because of this, many scholarships give extra points to reward
leadership. Regardless of the subject, scholarship judges want to know that the
dollars will be awarded to someone who will not only make a difference in the
future but who will also be a leader and motivate others to do so as well.
Extracurricular Activities & Hobbies. If the only activity you did
were study, your life would be severely lacking in the neighborhood of
excitement. Scholarship organizers recognize this and thus the criteria for some
scholarships include extracurricular activities or hobbies. Scholarship
committees want to see evidence that you do more than read textbooks and take
exams. They want to know that you have a variety of interests and that at least
some of these transcend studying.
Honors & Awards. There’s a reason why all trophies are gold and
gaudy: they shout to the world in a deafening roar, “Yes, this glittery gold
miniature man means I am the best!” For applications that ask for your honors
and awards, impart some of that victorious roar and attitude. In no way are we
recommending that you ship your golden statuettes off with your applications. We
are suggesting that you highlight honors and awards in a way that gets the
scholarship committee to pay attention to your application.
Make Sure The Pants Fit
You’d never buy a pair of pants without trying them on to make sure they fit.
Treat your applications the same way. You have limited space in which to cram a
lot of information. You will need to do a lot of editing and may even have to
omit many of your accomplishments.
As you fill out the application, you may find that you are trying to squeeze in
too many details or that you have more room and can expand on your most
impressive achievements. Don’t forget to adjust font sizes and line spacing if
necessary—just don’t sacrifice readability. (i.e., Don’t venture below 10
point fonts).
Final Application Tips
An official Mom canon from childhood is: If you don’t have anything nice to
say, don’t say it. While this is a good lesson on self-restraint, it does not
always hold true for scholarship applications. In general, it is not a good idea
to leave any area blank. You don’t need to fill the entire space, but you
should make an effort to list something in every section. However, before you
try to explain how the handmade certificate that your mom presented you for
being Offspring of the Year qualifies as an “award,” recognize that there
are limits. If you’ve never held a job, then don’t list anything under work
experience. If, however, you painted your grandmother’s house one summer and
got paid for it, consider listing it if you don’t have any other options.
Ask yourself if what you are including will strengthen or weaken your
application. Think like a judge. Is the information relevant? Or, does it seem
like a stretch? If you cannot convince yourself that what you are listing is
justified, then it will certainly not go over well with the actual judges.
Recall Mom’s advice, leave it blank, and move on to the areas where you have
something great to say.
Crafting a winning application takes time. Make sure you give yourself plenty of
it. However, you also need to balance quality with quantity. Because each
scholarship is judged on different criteria, it is not always easy to know if
you will win. With time as the limiting factor, apply to as many scholarships
that match your talents, goals, and achievements as you can find.
CampusNut Note:
We actually do not know how good their book is (we never read it). But
that's because the CampusNut staff members don't read that many books.
Heck, we are still stuck on page 1 of "Where's Waldo?" That
being said, Gen and Kelly Tanabe (the last name has a nice rhythmic pattern)
claimed that they won over $100,000 in scholarship to fund their Harvard
education. We're sure that they are speaking from experience.
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