I remember in the summer between my junior and senior years I made a pact to myself to apply for one scholarship per day. I did. However, the pure amount of disregard for the applicant angered me to no end. I constantly came upon questions prodding me about my illnesses (250 words or less please), my broken childhood (300 words or less), or what some life changing experience meant to me (500 words of less).
How was I supposed to sum up my experiences in so few words. Perhaps there are others who like to leave out large details and just tell you the jist of things. I am not one of those people. Why even tell my story if you don't know everything? I write those things so people will get to know me and when you don't have enough words to tell them, how are they supposed to TRULY know your character?
FOR EXAMPLE!! There was this grade A bitch in highschool, actually I went to school with her for 10+ years. My class was small (44 kids) and near the end of high school we became like a family. However, no one really liked her. Why? Because she acted like she was smarter, like she was better; we were shit. When I tried to committ suicide my friend and her stabbed me in the back, spread rumors about me, and eventually made my best friend pick "her or us." She picked me but ended up going back to her. O.o ANYWAY! It angers me to no end that she gets all of these scholarships because she had some blood disorder back in fourth grade that had her have surgery and blahity blah. But, all of our classmates didn't ridicule her or do anything bad to her. By the way she's perfectly fine. However, she's getting all of these scholarships because of her hardship when her character is horrible and she is harming other people with hardships. She presents an elitist attitude that makes people who have hardships not want to share them. She is standing next to the other recipients thinking that her problem was worse because it was a physical ailment. Mental ailments are real and true and should not be disregarded.
I understand that scholarships cannot get to know people on a personal level but they could at least try a little bit harder. Give us more words, set up interviews if its a local scholarship. Words do not define the person. Their character should be taken into consideration.
I absolutely agree with you on that. My biggest issue with scholarship applications is when they ask you to, in 250 words or less, describe how getting the scholarship will make a difference in your life. Uhm, I have an entire list of reasons why, despite the amount of maoney my dad makes, we can hardly afford to even send me to college, I'm going out-of-state, and thus have to pay more for tuition AND add housing onto that, not to mention if I can't pay for my dream school, I'll end up going to the community college and possibly dropping out because the place creeps me out to no end...
And hen I want to go on to explain that I have to go to this particulr school, not only because it's my dream school, but because it's unique in its curriculum, and is exactly what I need in an education. I can't go to a college that's lik high school but on a larger scale. I won't learn a thing. And it takes way more than 250 words to explain the passion I have for this school, for the fact that I'm going to college to learn HOW to think, not WHAT to think, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera....
Yeah...I'll stop ranting now...
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
this is a great blog. i am a junior in high school and i feel like it is impossible to get any scholarships- i dont have some terrible medical illness and i havent been a girl scout my whole life. but one thing is for sure- i am PASSIONATE about my future and will take full advantage of the college experience. i want to do anything in my power just to pay for the right school for me. this shouldnt be so hard, letting bright students achieve their goals through education. we arent all born with money, and scholarships definatly should consider the character of our person!
great writing- keep speaking your mind.
I know when I was a junior, I was told I could get scholarships for my heritage. I was like, great! I'm a mutt, I can get lots of scholarships....
Nope. My family has been here too many generations. Can't get a cent for my heritage.
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
I would like scholarships with more interesting essay questions, rather than the standard "Tell us about yourself" or whatever. I don't like to beg, so those typically aren't my type.
I thought this blog was going to be geared more towards the inefficiency of FastWebs scholarship search. They say to make a profile so they can narrow down scholarships that fit you, but then you'll get obscure things you can't even apply for!
~ *~
This is a signature, an automated thingy that pops up when I comment, not a demand to see my blog!
Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
Sadly, you get that with every scholarship search site...
The best one I've found so far is schoolsoup.com...the problem with that site is that a lot of the scholarships have deadlines already gone past...
Or don't exist anymore...
I can say that I found ProgressiveU through it!
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
Welcome to the world of condensed writing. You won't always get the chance to tell your life story in as many words as you want, so it's a good thing to learn to eliminate unnecessary words to get your point across. Heck, for my medical school personal statement, I only had 5000 characters to work with. Talk about tough....
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
It's just difficult for me, becausein my AP English class, my teacher is constantly hounding me with, "You need to write more!" And then I get that stuck in my head...bleh...
...
GAH! I JUST REMEMBERED I HAVE THAT EXAM TOMORROW!!!!!!
O.O!!!
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.