A blog entry I haven't pre-written or edited. Here goes nothing.
I've heard about how ProgressiveU started as a smaller community, and looking at the near-constant activity of the site now, I wonder what it was like in the yesteryears of Progressive U. Right now, we've recently begun the latest Blogging For Progress Scholarship Contest, so that means many new users and many new blogs popping up all over the place. Sometimes it's a little frustrating to wade through entry after entry, hardly finding anything worth reading completely. I always try to comment and/or rate the posts that I read, because I understand the appeal of receiving a rating or a comment. However, sometimes I can't think of anything nice to say. Sometimes the blog entries are that stupid or boring or that much a waste of my time.
So I wonder what Progressive U (and the contest) was like years ago when the site began. There would have been fewer users, so...less competition. Now we have...jeez, I can' t even guess how many users. Blogs are being posted every couple minutes...or every couple seconds depending on who's on when.
It feels like a little much. There is a "me against all of you" mentality that takes hold. I know there's so many people out there, so many better bloggers, that I wonder if too much competition can be a bad thing. Competition is supposed to encourage improvement (just look at competing companies prices, for example). But with this much competition...heck, I'll just say it: This is FastWeb.com all over again.
Everyone knows about FastWeb. Everyone is getting info on the same scholarships, and the database is so widely used that scholarships are getting harder to obtain. You could put your heart and soul into an essay competition, only to be bested by some random person in South Carolina.
Everyone who deserves an education deserves a chance at these opportunites, in my opinion. Maybe that's why it's can be frustrating to spend hours and hours each week on Progressive U to not even gain an honorable mention.
But then, if you're lucky, you'll still have the spirit to plug on and continue. You'll keep trying. You'll relish the challenge. You become better for it.
And you thought this entry would all be negative!
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"Everyone who deserves an education deserves a chance at these opportunities, in my opinion."
Ya I believe so too, and you are right, I found out about this scholarship from fastweb and have been entering different contest and sending in essays and doing volunteer work since the summer after sophomore year, as I'm sure most college bound students who can't afford college have been. Yet I have yet to win a single scholarship. You know the schools keep telling us that if you work hard and put enough effort into everything that you do, you are guarantied to get scholarships of all sorts, but in reality that's not happening.
A wise man once said "I don't know ask a girl."
*Emily*
Don't give up yet. Keep trying.
Unfortunately, I have not found the truth in "There is a scholarship for everyone" quote. I decided to avoid national competition and only applied to local scholarships. I did about 15. Good grades, multiple extracurriculars, etc. I didn't get any scholarships. That was quite depressing.
But please, don't give up. Maybe my mistake was trying to stay local. Keep trying, and please prove me wrong! :)
How did you go about finding local scholarships, because I can't find any. Maybe I'm just looking the wrong way.
My school's guidance office had this newsletter type thing they would print out and put in a box outside the door. The newsletter would contain info about both local and national scholarships. Check out your guidance department and see if they have anything similar. If not, just ask them. They usually don't bite.
Both of you... try going through your parent's work. That's where my big scholarship came from last year. My mom's division was giving a $4000 scholarship away. About 30 people entered for 4 scholarships. I talked to one person who decided who won, and apparently half of them didn't even follow the directions in filling out the application. And I had a really unique take on the essay, since I want to go into medicine and they're a space and missile defense organization, so that made me stand way out above the rest of the competition.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
well when i finally got to school and began stressing out over a deposit I couldn't afford to make, I talked with the lovely ladies in the financial aid office who helped me tremondously and helped me get the grants I needed.
...damnit, I love fastweb. Do you know of any better scholarship-searching websites?
http://progressiveu.org/links
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
Out of 16 scholarship matches, this was only one of two that I could apply for. I even went back to make sure my answers about me were correct, because I could not believe what matches I received.
I chose this one because I really feel like I have a chance at it. I am sure everyone feels that way, but when the other scholarships are "write an essay on this specific topic," well this one is more for me!
Shameless plug
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/almostdone
"A library is a hospital for the mind." Anonymous
Um, how on earth did you only get 16 scholarship choices? I got over 100, and am applying to about 20 of them (though I could apply to about 80% if I wanted, possibly even up to 90%). Perhaps you're making your search too narrow? Though, I made mine quite narrow and still got 60 results, nearly all of which were appropriate. If you'd like help with it, PM me and I can get your info and do the search for you, I have quite a bit of spare time at the moment and don't mind helping fellow students, especially cool progressive ones. XD
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Please see my recent blog post, "Genocide and Student Activism": http://www.progressiveu.org/041447-genocide-and-student-activism
I found ProgressiveU the same way, and I'm glad I found it, scholarship or not.