Money, money, money… for college

Posted by Rachel

I believe that you should apply for as many scholarships as are applicable for your situation and time. For instance, if you are Asian, then don’t apply for the scholarship for African American students, and if you only love math, then don’t apply for the art scholarship.

I applied for seven scholarships, and got five of them. One of them required an interview and others were just an essay or just the application. My advice is be truthful and personal. Everyone told me that since I was unique and individual then I will have no trouble finding things to write about, but if you find it hard to fill out an application, just stick to who you are and what you do. DON’T LIE. I at least believe that you should never lie about your activities and qualities; plus, I think it always works better in the end when you’re true to who you actually are. For instance, for the scholarship that required an essay, the question was “is leadership inate or taught?” I was dumbfounded by such a broad question, but I ended up writing an essay that the funder for the scholarship loved and the VP of the sponsor company emailed to all his employees as an example of how they should think about leadership. I tried my best with what they asked of me, was honest with who I was and what I thought, and got the scholarship.

If you apply to as many scholarships as you can, you have the biggest possibility of getting money for college. Give yourself the most opportunity, but don’t overload yourself or make it come at the expense of the college application itself.