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Scholarship Application Rejection – OUCH!!!
What if you knew exactly what to do to avoid it?
If you have spent time on my site or have read my How to Win College Scholarships ebooks, you will know that I absolutely LOVE to pick the brains of scholarship judges and find out what they LIKE and DISLIKE about how students submit applications for their awards.
Today’s advice comes from the owner of Newton Pens.
The application for the Newton Pens Scholarship can be found here. (It is open to high school seniors.)
When scholarship judges receive hundreds (and possibly thousands) of applications, there are definite ways to IMPRESS the judges and unfortunately, there are just as many ways to DISAPPOINT them and cause scholarship rejection.
Learning how to impress the judges before submitting any scholarship applications is just plain SMART.
What scholarship judges look for in their winners is a huge part of my ebooks, How to Win College Scholarships: Guides for Parents and Students in 10 Easy Steps. Have you read it? Click HERE now for more information.
This is an actual quote from a scholarship judge that chose my son as his company’s winner:
“I have never seen a scholarship application packet quite like your son’s. It was amazing!“
Students, listen up and follow this strategic advice straight from a scholarship judge, and thank you to the owner of Newton Pens for granting me permission to share his suggestions:
- Tell us YOUR story. Tell us a little about yourself, what motivates you, and why you want to go to college. Maybe something happened when you were a little younger, somebody told you something, you saw something or did something…
- Try to avoid telling us any religious, race, or gender info so that our volunteers reading the essays can avoid grading bias.
- Don’t tell us how expensive college is. That just feels like filler.
- Don’t tell us how many years you plan to go to school, or about the school you’re planning on attending. I’m not going to Big City State University and don’t need to learn about it. That’s more filler.
- Don’t give us textbook definitions of what a scientist, a lawyer, a doctor (or whatever) is. That’s just filler.
- If you want to thank us for considering your application, keep it to a sentence. We don’t need a paragraph about this – that’s more filler. If you want to write a nice thank-you note on the side, and include it with your application, we do appreciate those.
- GET SOMEBODY TO PROOFREAD YOUR ESSAY! If it’s hard to read for you, it’ll be hard to read for us. There’s no shame in asking for help. I’m not so concerned about typos or bad grammar, but more with structure and clarity of message. If you ramble and go back and forth, or things are out of order, you won’t score as well.
These tips are GOLDEN!!!
Are you or your students applying for scholarships using SMART tips like this?
Be sure to also read: 3 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Applied For Scholarships
Open to High School Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors! APPLY NOW HERE
What are parents saying about the How to Win College Scholarships ebook?
“My son is at a college here in our state and his freshmen year we pulled in $18,000 in scholarships. I paid like $978.00 for his freshmen year. The information is priceless.Thank you so much.” G.G., North Carolina
PIN IT!
Monica Matthews is the author of How to Win College Scholarships. She helped her own son win over $100,000 in college scholarships and now shares her expertise with other parents and their students. She truly has “been there, done that” in regard to helping parents and students navigate the scholarship process.
Her method of helping students in finding college scholarships, writing unique and compelling scholarship essays, creating amazing scholarship application packets, and more have taught desperate parents to help their own students win thousands of scholarship dollars. She teaches them how to apply S.M.A.R.T. with outstanding results.
Monica’s scholarship tips have been featured on many prominent websites, and she has been dubbed the “Go-To” expert on college scholarships.
