4 Tips for Writing Scholarship Essays
The majority of scholarships need a scholarship essay to be applicable. This has to do with the fact that essays help scholarship committees get a feel for the kind of person you are. They also make it so students from different backgrounds with different accomplishments are equally applicable to receive a scholarship. So how do you write a fantastic scholarship essay? This article will provide 4 tips to get you started.
1. Determine the Theme
Depending on the essay, you may be required to develop a theme. If not, you’ll have to make sure that your essay fits the theme of the scholarship. For instance, if you’re applying to a sports scholarship, you should write an article that’s relevant to the world of sports.
If the scholarship provides you with no theme, there’s a simple way to decide what your theme should be. The theme needs to be inline with the award, scholarship, or organization. Usually, there’s a reason or a purpose why they’re giving out a scholarship. Your essay needs to be in sync with that reason.
2. Create Goals
In your essay, you should include some of your goals. Why do you need the scholarship? Why do you want to go to College? What for?
When you’re writing about your goals, think broadly, and consider what qualities the scholarship committee is looking for. This section of the essay can show a number of things. Here are some ideas:
- If the scholarship is named after someone, consider the traits of that person, and try to demonstrate those traits in your essay.
- Be optimistic and use present tense.
- Demonstrate balance between academic and family life.
- Talk about the things that contribute to your success.
3. Keep an Eye Out for Underlying Questions
Scholarship essays often have an underlying issue, or question that they’d like you to address. They won’t ask this question up front, they want you to dig deep and find it yourself. It’s important that you answer this question in a unique and interesting way.
Keep in mind that you’re one of many applicants. This is a competition where all the applicants have similar goals. This means the scholarship committee has to thumb through a large number of applications that all look very similar. Use the underlying question as a tool to make yourself stand out from the bunch. Prove to them that you’re the ideal choice.
4. Create an Outline
Before you even begin writing your essay, you should create an outline determining exactly what you’re going to say. Here are some benefits to writing an outline:
- With an outline, your thoughts will be clear, concise, and easy to read.
- The outline will guarantee that you cover all the points you want to cover.
- The points will be in the right order.
- You’ll have the freedom to build the essay in any way that you’d like, which can create a more dramatic and compelling effect.
After the outline is complete, write the essay, and then rewrite it. Do this to make double sure that there are no mistakes.
Guest post by Alexis, who writes on a variety of college and education topics.
I touched on a college essay writing service before, back in 2007. Overwhelmingly, commenters were not on board with using such a service because they were morally against cheating. Cheating only cheats yourself, learning is more important than the grade you get, etc. And that is definitely a popular opinion with students who value learning above all else.
But there are other students who value the destination more than the journey. And for those students is BookwormLab.com. This company is “an academic writing assistance agency that is here to help you out with all aspects of your studies”. Basically, a tutor that does your homework for you. I’ve never used this or any similar service, mostly because I’m way too broke, but it is intriguing.
One of the things that differentiates Bookworm Lab from other companies is they do a lot more than just essay writing. They offer all kinds of writing services like research papers, theses and book reports, but also power point presentations, book and movie reviews, and case studies.
Bookworm Lab also writes a blog that offers helpful writing advice and tips. Their blog is a good resource for college students, even if you don’t partake in their writing services.
Utilizing a service like this is legal in the United States, but is often against your university’s code of conduct. If caught, you might get expelled. But if you aren’t caught, is it okay? That is really the question for most college students – like Lisa Simpson, you will know you cheated. But do you care?
On a semi-related note, Bookworm Lab has a beautifully designed website. As a web designer, I love seeing well designed sites, especially when they’re educational. A lot of educational websites forget about aesthetics.
If you’re looking to do any post-graduate education, the odds are good that you’ll need to take the GRE, a standardized test that can best be approximated as the SATs for grad school. Everybody will have their own way of studying for the exam, but whether you’re looking for a Master degree in healthcare administration or a Master of Arts, there are a few pointers that can help anybody looking to do well and improve their chances of getting into the graduate program they want.
Start Early
The earlier you start the more time you have to study. Also, the earlier you start the more time you have to ease into it. As soon as you know that you want to get into a graduate program make sure that the GRE is the exam that they’ll require and then start gathering study materials and begin working on your studying.
Know the Exam
Knowing the parts of the exam will allow you to study in a more effective way. There’s no use in studying biology when it’s not on the test. Math, vocabulary, and analytical writing skills are at a premium to focus your work on those areas of study to maximize your time.
Create a Study Program
There’s no standardized study program you should have, but having some sort of regimented program will definitely help keep you focused on the task at hand. Whether you study in the morning, after dinner, or just on the weekends, create a program that not only works with your study habits, but with your life.
Take Practice Tests
There are numerous practice tests available to those that want them, and it’s best to start taking them as soon as possible. Not only will this get you familiar with the layout of the exam, but you can time yourself to make sure that you’re completing all parts of the exam within the allotted time. Leaving a section blank because you didn’t have time means you don’t even have a chance of being right and getting credit for the question.
Don’t Forget to Rest
Our brains don’t process information as well when we’re tired to be sure to get some rest. Not only will this help you retain the information better, but if you’re well rested you’re more likely to want to study in the first place.
Balance Your Time
This goes hand in hand with starting early and having a study program. Both of those things will allow you to balance your studying with your life and will prevent you from cramming at the very end as you lead up to the exam. We don’t learn as well when we cram so giving yourself enough time to do the studying you want is crucial to learning the material.
Know Your Weaknesses
If your vocabulary is strong you might not need to spend as much time on it as you do your math and analytical writing skills. Be honest with yourself when assessing your weaknesses and adjust your study program accordingly to maximize the time you have to study.
Guest post written by Olivia R Solis, a teacher with a masters in education.
Textbooks are one of the most expensive costs for a college student, especially if you’re going into a major that is heavy on reading. If you’re a broke college student, finding cheap textbooks is a priority. It’s also not hard to do.
Do I need this book?
The first step is to figure out what books you need and how much you actually need them. I haven’t always used my textbooks, which led me to start asking the professor if the book is really needed. Most professors will be honest and tell you how much you need it. Sometimes you can get away with borrowing a classmate’s book if you only need the book a few times.
eBook or real book
Once you know you need a book, decide whether you want to buy a real book or an eBook. The upside to an eBook is obviously price and the downsides are that you have to read it on an electronic device and you can’t resell it at the end of the semester. Depending on your needs, make a decision.
Renting or owning
If you’ve settled on a real book, the next step is to decide if you want to rent or own the book. The upside to renting is it’s cheaper, but the downside is you can’t sell it at the end of the semester. If the book is going to be worthless at the end of the semester and you know this, go with renting. If you can sell it back to Amazon or another online marketplace, own it.
Finding the best price
Throughout your search for a book, you will need to compare textbooks and find the best price…and the Internet is here to help. The easiest way to find cheap college books is to search websites for the ISBN and compare prices. There are tons of websites out there for you to compare prices easily and having the ISBN is the best way to do it.
I went to college a few decades ago, at a large public university, where it was consistently difficult to enroll in the classes I wanted. It may get easier at the graduate level but for this undergrad the “sold out” signs on classes were a consistent disappointment. It’s got to be a lot tougher today at least in the public schools, because the budget crunch/enrollment surge pattern has been repeated over and over, state after state. In my home state of California, it is virtually impossible to graduate in four years from a public university because of the overcrowding.
One of the options that students have today is online classes, from their own or another university. In recent years traditional schools have jumped on the distance learning bandwagon for a number of reasons. Many students are working significant hours and need the convenience of online access; schools can enroll more students in a class than there are seats in the classroom; and the technology has gotten to the point that most traditional universities feel they can deliver a quality educational experience online.
That gives students in many state universities the option of enrolling in classes that aren’t available on campus. The University of North Carolina, for instance, offers 240 programs of study in 22 academic disciplines, with classes drawn from all of its 16 constituent campuses. Many of the courses are intended for students enrolled on the campus offering the course, but there is also a roster of Carolina Courses Online open to all students who are academically eligible.
The State University of New York (SUNY) offers the SUNY Learning Network which is a virtual campus offering online courses, degrees, and certificates from 32 member schools, including both doctoral universities and community colleges. You can be attending college at one campus and enroll in courses from other schools.
Both Florida State University and the University of Florida have selected degree programs available; from FSU there are both undergraduate and graduate degrees and from University of Florida there are undergraduate completion programs and graduate degrees. One of the impressive efforts from the University of Florida is the online graduate level options in engineering, with over fifteen degrees and specializations ranging from aerospace engineering to industrial systems engineering to computer engineering.
Three states with three different approaches to online education from their public universities. If you are struggling with course access at your current school, public or private, you should take a look at the online options for classes that meet your needs. With a little legwork on the issue of transferability, you may be able to round out your college experience with an attractive distance learning option from your state university.
This post was submitted by Bob Hartzell, who writes on the changes in undergraduate education and on accredited online graduate programs for several websites.
With the current economic downturn, one industry that has not suffered as hard as the others is the healthcare industry. People get sick and injured even when the stock market is down, so there is still a strong need for medical professionals to take care of people. With the relative stability of the field, it’s no wonder that many college students are choosing to pursue health-related majors. Healthcare, however, is a broad term that encompasses everything from CNAs to nurses to medical doctors. With so many choices, it is interesting to take a look at which health careers are most popular among today’s students.
According to the 2011 Princeton Review, the ten most popular majors on college campuses today include three health-related fields of study: psychology at number two, nursing at number three and biology at number four (business administration/management was number one). These three health care majors have appeared in the top ten for several years and do not appear to be going away anytime soon. Many women business leaders have emerged and made a large impact on the healthcare industries within the last ten years or so.
- Psychology is a versatile field that can encompass a number of different titles and positions. To be a clinical psychologist, social psychologist, or developmental psychologist, one usually requires advanced training or even a doctoral degree, but there are many research and teaching jobs that one can take with just an undergraduate psychology degree. One-third of all psychologists enter private practice or have independent research firms. As of 2008, the average starting salary for a psychologist was $46,153 per year.
- Nursing is the biggest field in healthcare, and nurses still continue to be in high demand across the country. There are several different levels of nursing, including licensed practical nurse, registered nurse, and nurse practitioner. The LPN and RN levels, while important and relatively high-paying positions require only an associate’s degree and the successful completion of professional exams to be certified. The specific areas of practice available to nurses are virtually limitless. Some of the more popular areas of specialty include medical/surgical nursing, geriatric nursing, hospice nursing, home health nursing and emergency room nursing. There has been a well-documented shortage of nurses in the United States for over a decade and it will become more pronounced as women in leadership emerge from the crowd and help in hospitals and nursing homes around the nation. Retirement and assisted living establishments are common places for nurses to work, as are hospitals, but there are also many nurses who work in schools or corporations or travel to take care of people in their homes. The average starting salary for a newly-graduated nurse in 2008 was $41,173 a year.
- Biology is another broad field that includes several disciplines, such as genetics, medical research and biotechnology, to name a few. Biology is a popular pre-med degree for those who wish to go on and study to become a medical doctor. To qualify for a job in microbiology, biotechnology or research and development, it is helpful to have a graduate degree in biology. In 2008, the starting salary for a general biologist was $38,896 annually, while a biochemist received a higher compensation of $43,961 per year.
Beyond the “big three,” there are a number of other popular majors to help students become masters of public health. Radiology is very popular, as are some of the new and growing fields of study, including holistic health, environmental health, sports medicine and medical administration. The study of radiology provides graduates with the potential to get jobs performing x-rays or, with special certification, working as a CRT or MRI technician. Holistic health focuses on the psychological, spiritual, social and environmental health of a patient as well as the physical. Environmental health study is a path that leads to a career in the occupational health sector or in epidemiology. A degree in sports medicine can lead to a job with a professional or school sports team or a position in a specialty sports medicine clinic. Those who study medical administration are well prepared for a management job in a variety of healthcare arenas. They could also work in medical law or consulting.
Healthcare is a wonderful and rewarding field, perfect for those who wish to help people. The career choices are abundant, and many of them are in high demand. One of the greatest things about the field of healthcare is the wide variety of majors available for students. Whether they choose the more popular majors of psychology, nursing or biology or one of the new and developing fields like holistic health or environmental health, there are plenty of opportunities for students in the medical field.
This guest post article was written and provided by Marissa Krause who finished her Business degree this last fall and has begun working for a soon coming fortune 500 company.
College is the perfect intersection of freedom and young adulthood: Never again will you be allowed to have that much fun while being responsible for so little. But as generations of students have learned the hard way, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by that freedom and go, well, a little overboard. Students who’d never had a problem doing homework find themselves tanking tests when there’s no one around to push them to attend class. People who’d always managed to have a thriving social life discover they’re about to become hermits. It’s a fun but intimidating time, and the best way to get the most out of freshman year is to remember a few key things.
Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan
Spoiler alert: You can’t do it all. Not even close. There will always be one more party, one more trip, one more event, one more night out, one more friend who needs a favor. College is about learning to prioritize and tell the difference between what you can do, what you want to do, and what you need to do. The biggest mistake freshmen make is taking on too much, whether in terms of course load or social commitments. If you want to get ahead, you’ll have to scale back.
Set up a schedule to follow each week and stick with it. (That’s the important part.) It doesn’t have to overly detailed or break down your life into 10-minute chunks. But you should be able to look ahead each week and know basically what you’re going to be doing every day and every night, from attending class to studying or just taking some time off to be with friends. If high school is juggling, then college is juggling chainsaws while riding a unicycle: It can be done, but it takes a lot more planning.
You should also plan for free time, too. That might sound counter-intuitive or just plain impossible, but it’s not, and it’s absolutely worth it. It’s a bad idea to skip through college without any kind of planning or time management, but it’s equally as bad to overschedule yourself. College is work, yes, but it’s also supposed to be a fun time of exploration and self-discovery and all those other fuzzy terms that basically mean “figure out what kind of person you want to be.” As you build time for study and class, leave open chunks for hanging out, eating, wandering the dorms, or just seeing what comes up. Seriously. That way you maintain a schedule and your sanity.
Avoid Credit Cards
Bankers have sent their own kids to college on the fees they collect from freshmen who make the mistake of signing up for credit cards without understanding the responsibility required. Every incoming freshman finds his or her mailbox clogged with seemingly awesome offers from lending agencies dangling the promise of easy credit and a life of luxury. What a lot of freshmen forget is that they don’t have any money, or jobs, or the ability to do anything other than buy a cheap sandwich in the cafeteria. That makes getting a credit card an almost suicidal risk.
Building credit is important in the long run. It shows banks that you’re trustworthy, it gives you access to better interest rates on loans, and it generally makes you feel like an adult. But it takes years of controlled work to do that, and college isn’t the time to start. Managing credit means using cards wisely, and only to make purchases you could buy with cash at that moment. Credit cards aren’t for making big buys that aren’t in your budget; they’re for showing banks you’ve got enough cash and maturity to pay your debts in full. Getting into credit card debt while you’re still in college means you’ll be under the thumb of major lenders before you’ve even gotten your degree, let alone found a job that will give you the money to start paying those cards off.
There’s plenty of time to be an adult and work with the complicated payment structures that come with credit cards. College is not that time.
Establish Your Independence
In other words: Don’t go home too often. College is a crucial part of the development process as students make the often rocky transition from childhood to young adulthood, and it’s tempting to make frequent trips home in an attempt to recapture the safety of the nest. It’s understandable, too. Many freshmen spent 18 years in a perfectly welcoming environment (typical dramas notwithstanding), and after only knowing one home environment, it’s a shock to be placed in a world with thousands of other students all going through the same basic emotional crises. You want to escape to a place where you know the rules.
Unfortunately, that’s detrimental to your long-term success as a student and a rounded human being. Independence is usually hard-earned, and that means getting used to being bored or rejected or even alone on campus. It means meeting people and making friends. It means shaking up your established routines and coming up with new ones. It means staying away from home.
Need to get your laundry done? Look for change. Hungry for a home-cooked meal? Organize a get-together with students at a professor’s house. Your parents are going to be there to support you as you work through the challenges of college, but you actually have to do the work on your own this time. (And if they’re like most parents, they’re probably happy to help you as much as possible but reluctant to have you extend your childhood. They’re ready for you to start growing up.) College teaches resourcefulness and problem-solving, but you won’t be able to learn those skills without first relying on yourself.
Don’t Rush the Big Choices
Freshman year can feel like a barrage of life-or-death questions: What’s your major? What do you want to do? Where do you want to live? Do you want to go out sometime?
Those are all, to be sure, pretty big decisions, but the good news is that you’ve got more time than you’d think to figure out how to make them. For instance, you don’t have to commit to a major when you begin your freshman year, and many schools don’t push you to declare until you start your sophomore run. That doesn’t mean you can slack off your freshman year — you should still take your school’s required courses, usually speech, English, math, an elective, etc. — but it does mean you’re free to explore topics that interest you and get a feel for where you fit in at school.
Your major will be a guiding force in your education and career, and it’s not a choice to be made lightly. One of the worst things you can do is select a major because you don’t want to weigh any other options, or if it’s something you don’t like but are betting you will come to love in time. (The odds are slim.) Take your time on this one. Take a month, a semester, a year. Don’t just leap; look carefully. This is a great opportunity to get to know your guidance and career counselors, as well as professors in fields that grab your interest, to find out what’s required by students in your prospective major. Check out employment prospects with seniors or counselors. Do some Googling.
The real lesson in picking a major is to learn how to examine yourself and figure out what you want, then take the steps to get it. That’s not something you can knock out overnight.
Get Some Sleep
Really, do it. Get some good sleep as much as you can. Your mental and physical health depend on it. A 2009 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that only 30% of college students surveyed got more than 8 hours of sleep a night, while more than 68% percent (!) had trouble sleeping because of stress related to their academic or personal lives. As a result, students with poor sleep habits turn in greater numbers to over-the-counter drugs to regulate their sleep cycles and moods. This, if you were wondering, is not good.
Robbing yourself of sleep means relying more heavily on medical cheats to get some rest, and it also has a negative affect on your performance during waking hours. Sleep-deprived students tend to perform worse in class and on tests than their more rested counterparts. Your body becomes sluggish, your brain has to operate through a thick fog, and your moods become more erratic. Basically, depriving yourself of sleep is a shortcut to having a terrible time at college.
So what do you do? It’s related to the time management issue that confronts so many freshmen. A lot of students stay up too late the night before an 8 a.m. class, or they simply try to live on less sleep out of a fear they’ll miss something amazing if they go back to their dorm to rack out. The “fear of missing out” is a real one, and it leads to some hectic and damaging hours. Don’t cheat yourself out of some healthy sleep. It’s one of the best things you can do to stay healthy.
Moderation
If there’s one overriding piece of advice freshman should heed, one thing that feeds everything else, it’s this: Strive for moderation in all things. Party, but party responsibly. Work hard, but leave time to relax. Make new friends, but give yourself time to recuperate. Don’t shy away from big choices, but don’t rush into them, either. Lean on your folks, but not too much. Freshman year is like nothing else. If you do it right, you’ll never forget it.
Article supplied by the writing team from AccreditedOnlineColleges.com.
