Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 26: Understatement & Generalities

Saturdays we share tips or cautions to facilitate getting scholarships or avoid problems

Lucinda tried to find scholarships through a variety of methods. The search engines indicated that she qualified for 157 scholarships. She eliminated the ones that she barely qualified to receive. Her list still included 83 scholarships. She applied for all 83 and did not receive any money. We reviewed her master application and found what we call galloping generalities and understatements.

You Hesitate Saying Good Things About Yourself

You must convince scholarship committees that you deserve the award. You convince them by the answers you include in your scholarship application. Your answers should be specific, detailed explanations of the facts.

Unfortunately, life programs you to understate your accomplishments. Saying nice things about yourself resulted in comments from parents, friends, and co-workers about you being

• Stuck up
• Conceited
• Prideful
• Full-of-yourself

Caution About Understating Your Accomplishments

As a result, you probably tend to understate your accomplishments. Telling scholarship committees the facts about your achievements may make you uncomfortable. Your defensive measures will lead you to resist saying good things about yourself. This personal defense may lead you to understate the facts about why you deserve scholarships. For example:

• One girl resisted adding numbers to her home run statements about how many hygiene kits she prepared for survivors of multiple disasters
• A boy felt uncomfortable giving details about the results of his presidency of a local service organization
• A single mother hesitated sharing the troubles she encountered in a bad marriage, and growing up with alcoholic parents

Problems with Galloping Generalities

Another defensive mechanism may lead you to resist giving specifics or details about your accomplishments. As a result, you may tend to create home-run or value statements filled with generalities. Generalities fail to communicate the impact of your work, service, or leadership.

Instead of giving general descriptions that sound like the scout law: I am trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, etc.;  describe very specific examples of a time your trustworthiness benefited—including numbers or dollars—a company or organization.

Tuesday we share several sources of money for American Indians or native Americans

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