It may be tempting to start cranking out applications. We actually have a name for the methodology used by students that apply to anything and everything they find it’s called the “shotgun” approach and it never works.
Just because you fi nd an award for which you qualify does not mean that you should immediately apply. You want to focus your energies (and limited time)
only on those awards that you have the best chance of winning.It would save a lot of time if you knew beforehand which scholarships you’d win and which you wouldn’t. With this information, you’d only spend time applying for the scholarships that you knew would result in cash in your pocket. While there is no way to be 100 percent certain that you’ll win any
scholarship, you can do some research and make an educated guess.
Here are the steps you should take with each scholarship to determine if
you have a reasonable chance of winning it. By prioritizing your list based on
these criteria, you’ll be able to focus time on awards that you have the best
odds of winning while not wasting time on the ones where being a match is
a long shot.
Step 1 Learn the Purpose
Nobody, and we mean nobody, gives away money without a reason. Every
sponsor of a scholarship has a concrete reason for giving away their hardearned
cash to students like you. For example, a teachers’ organization might
award a scholarship to encourage students to enter the teaching profession.
An environmental group might sponsor a scholarship with the purpose of
promoting environmental awareness, or it might reward students who have
done environmental work in school. A local bank might give money to a student
who has done a great deal of public service as a way to give back to the
community in which it does business.
Your job is to uncover the purpose of every scholarship on your list. If
you’re lucky, it will be stated in the description of the award. Look at the
eligibility requirements to see what kind of questions the scholarship spon
sors are asking. Is there a GPA requirement? If there is and it’s relatively high,
academic achievement is probably important. If the GPA requirement is low,
then grades are probably not important. Does the application ask for a list of
extracurricular activities? If so, they are probably a signifi cant part of the selection
criteria. Do you need to submit an essay on a specifi c topic or a project
to demonstrate profi ciency in a fi eld of study? All these requirements are clues
about what the scholarship judges think will (and won’t) be important.
For example, the sole purpose of a public service scholarship may be to
reward a student’s philanthropic acts. If that is the case, the application will
most likely be focused on descriptions of a student’s selfl ess deeds. On the
other hand, a scholarship given by a major corporation may be based on a
combination of grades, leadership and character.
If you cannot determine the purpose of the scholarship by reading its description
and eligibility requirements, then you need to look for the purpose
of the group that sponsors the award. For example, even if the scholarship
description does not directly state it, you can be sure that an award given
by an organization that is composed of local physicians will probably prefer
that the winner have a connection with medicine or an intention to enter the
medical fi eld.
The membership of the organization can be a big clue. Just as your friends
are a refl ection of who you are, most clubs and organizations want to reach
students who are similar to their membership. If you don’t know much about
the organization, contact them to learn background information regarding
the history, purpose or contributions of the group. Visit the organization’s
website. Read their brochures or publications. The more you know about
why the organization is giving the award, the better you’ll understand how
you may or may not fi t.
Somewhere on your list of potential scholarships, note in a few words its
purpose. You’ll be using this information in the next step which is to determine
if you can make a case that you are the type of person the scholarship
committee is looking for.
Step 2 Think Like a Judge
Once you know the purpose of the scholarship, you need to see if you are
a match for the organization that sponsors it. At this point students often
make one of two mistakes. Either they 1) overestimate how well they fi t the
purpose or, more commonly, 2) underestimate their qualifi cations and don’t
apply. After working with thousands of students, we have learned that students
more often underestimate their abilities than overestimate. Try to be
realistic, but also don’t sell yourself short. Remember that scholarship judges
are not looking for the perfect match. There are a lot of factors that will infl uence
their decision, and many of these things—like personality, character and
motivation—are diffi cult to measure.
Let’s look at an example. If you are your school’s star journalist, naturally
you should apply for journalism scholarships. But if all you have done is write
a single letter to the editor, then spend your time applying to scholarships
that better match what you have accomplished. You can still apply for a journalism
scholarship, especially if you only recently realized that you want to
become a journalist, but you will be at a disadvantage compared to the other
applicants and therefore should prioritize this award below other awards on
your to-do list.
As you go through your list of scholarships, move to the bottom those
which are the weakest matches to the goal of the scholarships. Make those
awards that fi t you best your highest priority. These are the ones that you
want to focus on first.
Step 3 Take a Reality Check
Scholarship deadlines are not like tax deadlines, where there is a single day
when all forms are due. The deadlines for scholarships vary. Be aware of
these crucial dates. Unless you plan carefully, you may miss out on a scholarship
simply because you don’t have the time to create a decent application.
Sandwiched among studying, sleeping and everything else in your busy life,
there is limited time to spend on applying for scholarships. If you fi nd a
great scholarship that is due next week but requires a yet to-be-written original
composition that would take a month, you should probably pass on the
competition. If you know that, given the amount of time available, you won’t
be able to do an acceptable job, it’s better to pass and move on to awards in
which you have the time to put together a winning application. Remember
too that you may be able to apply for the award next year.
Review Your List Daily
After you prioritize your scholarships with the ones you feel fi t you best at the
top of the list, push yourself to apply to as many as you can, working from
top to bottom. You probably won’t get to the end. This is okay since you have
the least chance of winning the awards at the bottom anyway. By prioritizing
and working methodically down your list, you will have hedged your bets by
making sure that your fi rst applications are for the scholarships that you have
the best chance of winning while also not limiting yourself to only a handful
of awards.
Read More : Prioritize the Scholarships You Find
