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Section 1 - Information at Your Fingertips: Local Sources
Section 2 - Scholarships and Grants: Providing the Best Matches and Opportunities to Win
Section 3 - Introductions, Letters, and Applications
Section 4 - Contacting the Scholarship Sources
Section 5 - You, the Essay Contestant
Section 6 - Writing the Essay
Section 7 - Following ( or not ) the Contest Rules
Section 8 - Interviews and Speech Presentation Information
YOU, THE ESSAY CONTESTANT
Section 5
Many scholarships are awarded on the basis of financial need, merit, extracurricular activities, and of course, your essay.
The Scholarship & Grant Guide ™ can show you where to look for these scholarships. Then, you will need to decide on which topic best suits you for your essay. Having picked your essay topic (or at least narrowing it down to three subjects or less), you should have a list of specific factors that will make your application as unique as possible.
They should include at minimum, your goals, significant life occurrences, unusual positive experiences, academic and non-academic achievements and your financial need.
With all this being part of your application/essay, you must keep one thing in perspective: The type of impression you want to make on the selection committee.
Your essay is the key: Selection Committee members may read as many as fifty essays per day. Making an impression on the Selection member if your essay is number forty-nine may not be the easiest task in the world, but one that still can be accomplished.
The obvious question is how to accomplish this task: There is no one simple answer, but a series of steps can make a difference.
Mistakes to avoid in submitting an essay:
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Do not mention academic achievements or test scores if they are part of your application. |
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If you are unable to generate energetic supporting paragraphs your essay will not stand up under scrutiny. |
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Be sure you can demonstrate definite instances with energetic supporting paragraphs. |
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Your topic should not be a ploy, i.e. use of an unusual writing style or trying to make it funny. |
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Be sure your topic does not list information already in your application. |
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Should you be discussing a specific subject requiring substantial data, make sure your motivation is to back up your interest. |
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Make sure you are capable of answering all the questions asked of you. |
If your essay can stand up to every statement above, then you're off to an excellent start. However, if you can't answer yes to all, what follows may help you in developing excellent essay techniques while avoiding the above 'writer's pitfalls?.
Common sense will tell you that:
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Your essay should not be rude... the polite student with a lower GPA than a 4.0 student who is rude will be evaluated, while the other will become 'circular file fodder'.
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Your spelling must be ACCURATE! Simple axiom: You do not take the time to check your spelling, your essay will not be given the time of day to be evaluated.
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If your application misses the grade, it's because you, as the applicant did not completely read or fully comprehend the application's requirements. Of all applications forwarded to the thousands of resources, only between 10 to 12 percent reach the evaluative stage.
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You don't need to mention any personal weakness unless you want to contribute additional 'fodder' to the circular file. Keep your essay positive, display your strengths!
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You need to use an innovative approach that will convince the evaluation officers you are worth their consideration when it comes to spending their college's money for your education.
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Your essay needs to be written as if you are talking to the evaluation officers face to face; let them know who you are and why you are worthy of receiving the scholarship. We can hear the moans: "Sure, but it's far easier said than done." Yes, if you want to take the effort to improve your writing, and no if you don't.
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A sure fire method of writing a great essay is to examine as many winning essays as possible. You can find excellent sites on the Internet that provide various multitudes of essays, even sites that offer essay services.
COLLEGE ADMISSION ESSAYS AND COACHING SERVICES
URL: http://www.lvdi.net/~academic/index.html
ESSAY EDGE
URL: http://www.collegegate.com
ESSAY MAN'S REFERENCE COLLEGE ESSAYS
URL: http://users.ntplx.net/~pfarris/essays/ce/ce2.htm
GRAMMAR AND WRITING
URL: http://www.back2college.com/grammar.htm
HOW TO WRITE A WINNING SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY
URL: http://www.supercollege.com/story.cfm?loc=2&story=30&t=4
THE BEST COLLEGE ADMISSION ESSAYS -INTERNET VERSION
URL: http://www.west.net/~stewart/best.htm#TOC
The URLS above, will provide multitudes of essay examples and techniques. In addition to the Internet sites, consider these books which are available at most large book stores:
"Getting Into Any College" Jim Good and Lisa Lee, 101 Publishing Los Altos CA
"Handbook for College Admissions" Thomas C Hayden, published by Peterson's Guides, Princeton NJ
"The Ultimate College Survival Guide" Janet Farrar & Ronald Farrar, published by Peterson's, Princeton, NJ
"Winning Scholarships for College" Marianne Ragins, published by Henry Holt & Co., NY
These particular books have excellent sections on writing the perfect essay. They also offer many valuable tips: for example, in the book, "Winning Scholarships for College", pages 146 through 152 lists 17 tips alone.
We urge you to borrow this book from your guidance department school or public library or visit your local book store, and browse through the book.
Finally, the last option is to purchase it. No matter what method you decide upon, these books are a great resource, and combined with the links above, you will be well armed to begin writing your essay.
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