TIPS ON GETTING A SCHOLARSHIP and basically standing out in ANY competition!!! (Pt. 1)

After spending sooo much time on writing 9 essays for the Gates Millenium Scholarship and NOT getting the scholarship I was REALLY pissed off one day. Seriously. BUT...when it comes to scholarships, you CAN NOT hold on to the past. You gotta keep moving forward! Thats key. So I went straight to Barnes and Nobles that day to get some tips, and after concentrating and reading, here's some tips I have for you:

1) Pursue the interests you love. One of the thingswe see is students who just care so much about what they are doing. If you do that, the awards will come.

2) Sell us on things that you have done outside of the academic area. You need to let us know why we should fund YOU over 30 or 40 other candidates in our district.

3) The bottom line is we WANT to give you the money! It's up to you to give us a reason to say "yes." Please, please, please give us reasons to say "yes." - Laura DiFiore

4) If you are an average student and know that other applicants will have better academic acheivements, you can use the opportunity the essay provides to make yourself stand out. In many cases you will actually be able to beat applicants who have higher GPAs and test scores!

5) Regardless of your accomplishments and acheivements, you need to write a powerful essay if you want to win a scholarsip.

6) When you think about the essay, consider it within the context of the entire application. You want to present a cohesive message with the essay as the centerpiece. Each piece of the application should add to this unified message.

7) The theme of your essay and application is is almost always determined by the goal of the award or why the organization is giving away the money. Once you know the goal of the organization, use that knowledge to choose which aspect of your life to highlight as the general theme of the essay.

8) Think about what makes you.....well ...YOU!!! =D

9) Instead of rocking your brains to come up with a 100% original topic, take an ordinary topic and approach it in an original way. If your essay is going to have any chance of winning, it NEEDS to be different from those written by other competitors.

Spend time thinking, not writing - about your mother. (for example) What specifically that she has done or said that has been so influential? Can you cite a concrete example? Maybe your mother has a secret recipe for meatloaf that she has shared with no one except you. Perhaps the moment that she revealed to you her treasured secret recipe was was a milestone in your relationship. Focusing on this event and examining and analyzing it may yield a powerful and and certainly original essay. The truth is that we ALL have experiences and people that make us unique, and the key is to zero in on these and use them in your scholarship essays.

10) An organization might ask " Why do you want to study business?" but they're really asking "Why do you want to study business, and why are you the BEST future business personwe should gift with oue hard earned money?"

11) Why do you DESERVE to win??? Your answer should not be "because I need the money." lol

12) The farmer's association asks about the future of farming. The historical society wants an analysis of the importance of history. While at first these two questions seem unrelated, they are both driving at the same thing: Tell us why you deserve to win.

13) Don't try to explain everything. Just focus on one aspect of your life.

14) What motivated you to get involved with this activity? How do you personally benefit from participating? How do you stay motivated during challenging times? Is there a person you have met through this activity who has inspired you? How?

15) What accomplishment are you MOST proud of? Why? Have you ever considered quitting this activity? Why didn't you? What is one thing you've learned from being involved?

16) The last common feature of all winning essays is that they are written on subjects about which the author is TRULY PASSIONATE. It is very difficult to fake passion for a subject.