Reusable Materials 4: Typical Questions on Scholarship Applications

Thursdays we discuss how reusable materials WOW committees and save time

Claire started applying for scholarships when she was in the 10th grade. She started her master application when she was in the 9th grade. She included answers to basic personal, educational, and other information. She also started keeping track of the facts for her themes and home run statements.

Questions to Include in Your Master Application

Part A of your master application includes the short answers to the questions on scholarship applications. We reviewed 11 applications to identify these questions:

• Information About You
  • First, middle, last name, address, city, state, and zip code
  • Mobile and home phone, email address, social security, or personal ID
  • Date of birth, age, citizenship, gender, ethnicity, and languages spoken
  • Field of study, possible majors and minors in college
• Information about Parents, Guardians, or Spouse
  • Names of parents, address, state, and zip code
  • Military rank, present station/address, phone
  • Married, single, divorced, and widowed
  • Schools parents attended, current student, ethnic ancestry
• Information about Schools
  • Name of the high school, address, city, state, zip code, and school district
  • Graduation date, dates attended, type of current curriculum, or international diploma
  • Cumulative high school GPA, class rank & size, composite ACT/SAT scores
  • Advanced placement classes and concurrent enrollment classes attended
  • Colleges you wish to attend and desired major, minor, or study
• Post High School Studies
  • Name(s) of post high school, address, city, state, zip code, & district
  • Type of school, dates attended, hours attended or planned to attend
  • Completion date, completion document (certificate, degree, or other)
• Work History (add information for each job)
  • Name of business, address, city, state, zip code, phone, & email address
  • Type of organization, your position/duties, and dates employed
  • Reason for leaving, supervisor’s name
• Volunteer History (add information for each service or organization)
  • Organization name, type of organization, address, city, state, zip
  • Phone number, email address, supervisor’s name,
  • Service performed, type of service, how many people benefited
  • # of people in the group that served, days/hours of service, & who served

Saturday we will share the caution about financial aid for proprietary for-profit schools

Sources of Money 4: Back to College Cash for Non-Traditional Students

On Tuesdays we review a source of financial aid available to help you pay for college

Jayne, in her early 40’s, had to go back to college when her husband left her. They had married young and had the first of their four children within 18 months. Jayne had dropped out of college to raise their children. Her husband’s salary provided nicely for the family, so she had stayed home with the children. Now, with four children ranging from 12-22 she faced going back to school with almost no money to pay for it. She attended one of our workshops, worked with the coaches, and with a community program for single mothers. She obtained enough scholarships and grants to pay tuition, books, fees, and partial housing for all four years in a nursing program.

Good Resource for Adults Returning to College

Back to College (wwwback2college.com) bills itself as “an all-in-one resource for the adult returning to college.” They provide a dazzling, almost overwhelming, amount of information and helps for adults. This web site, offered by WD Communications, offers much more than scholarship searches. They include:

• Ask the Experts and FAQ on all subjects relating to going back to college
• Scholarships for Re-entry students: Grants and Retraining Assistance for Adults Returning to College is a $39.95 downloadable (PDF) “Guide for adult students”
• Their free newsletter “provides news, features, and resource updates (including information on financial aid and new degree programs) each month.”
• Search engine to find a degree program that is right for you
• Advice on choosing what you want to do in your career
• Forums that allow you to connect with other adults returning to college
• Links to sources of discounted textbooks
• Excellent list of books about returning to college later in life

Cautions About Back to College

Be aware of a few challenges when using the site

• The home page is so busy with offers that you may have difficulty discerning ads from legitimate content
• Limited free listings for financial aid (they want you to buy the book)

Thursday we outline some of the questions asked on scholarship applications

Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 3: Careful with Promotions & Contests

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

Promotions Masquerade as Scholarships

I repeat what I’ve said earlier. Most of the scholarship search engines we will share with you do not cost you anything. They receive their funding from banner ads, selling emails, and other sources. Their biggest source of income, however, has become promotions, contests, and surveys.

Promotions appear on your lists of results for many search engines. They typically announce their intent to promote a specific product or service. Frequently, the search engine itself sponsors the contest. You need to read the fined print to determine how safe the promotion is. For example, I copied this phrase from one particular promotion “If you express interest in particular schools or affiliates, College Prowler Inc. may sell or transfer your personal information to those schools or affiliates accordingly.”

Of course, the search engines put a positive spin. Fastweb.com, for example, states

“While it seems that the overachievers eventually get cash from somewhere — be it their school or an independent scholarship donor — the “B” and “C” students are often overlooked.

That’s why promotional scholarships are more important than ever. Let’s face it, promotional awards may not challenge your intellect like writing an essay, but contests like FastWeb’s Why I Deserve a Scholarship video contest, Create Your Own Scholarship and Scholarship BootCamp can still earn you valuable cash for school. Most don’t have strict terms or require essays and there are lots of them out there.”

You read the warnings and find print. You decide.

 

Legitimate and Illegitimate Contests

Contests are a closely related cousin to the promotional scholarships. Some contests legitimately create situations for you to compete against others based on the skills of the applicant. For example,

• Film contests for the student that produces and submits the best video based on a theme
• Piano contests for the person who submits the best tape or live piano performance

Illegitimate contests will ask you to do something or submit something that enters you in a drawing.

Tuesday we will review the scholarship search engine www.backtoschool.com

Reusable Materials 3: Master Application to Save Time & Impress

Thursdays we discuss how reusable materials WOW committees and save time

Nathan worked hard and got good grades. He met with one of our coaches. He learned about the 5 steps to earning scholarship money. He met with a coach and worked hard with his parents. He prepared a master application to save time. His master application allowed him to complete an entire application in less than 60 minutes. More importantly, his master application provided well-conceived and impressive answers that he could copy and paste into actual applications. He earned enough money to pay for all four years of his tuition, books, housing, 2 computers. He also earned enough money to buy some of his food over the 4 years.

Purpose of Your Master Application

You create your master application using a cloud based document such as Google Drive or MS Live. Your application contains answers to all of the questions listed on scholarship applications. A master application:

• Impresses scholarship committees with answers that you prepared, edited, and perfected
• Submits scholarship applications in less than 60 minutes so that you can submit more applications and get more money

Sections of Your Master Application

Master applications contain three major sections. I will briefly review them today and provide more detail in future posts.

• Part A contains all the short answers for questions about
  • Personal information
  • School names, addresses, and contact information
  • Work history, company names, addresses, results, duties, and responsibilities
  • Clubs, association, and other membership information
• Part B highlights special activities like
  • Athletic competitions and championships
  • Music or dance recitals, performances, and competitions
  • Drama performances, roles, and competitions
  • High school and college transcripts (not for official submission, but to use to calculate hours in courses and GPA in courses)
• Part C includes the answers to the longer questions in applications
  • Themes include the activities you love to do. You should select 3-4
  • You illustrate your breadth of experience for each theme by breaking it into three categories
  • You demonstrate depth with three home run statements for each category

Saturday we will share a caution about promotions or contests appearing as scholarships

Sources of Money 3: FastWeb Scholarship Search Engine

On Tuesdays we review a source of financial aid available to help you pay for college

John returned to school when his back prevented him from working in construction anymore. He and Jill, his wife, had three children. Vocational Rehabilitation would pay a very little money, but would not pay for his degree. They had struggled through his first year of school, but money would run out during the second year. They did not see how they could continue. They attended our workshop and went to work. Eight months later Jill visited the center. She excitedly told me that scholarships would now pay for all of his last two years tuition and books. They had even earned enough scholarship money to help pay their rent.

Advantages of Using Fastweb

I visited Fastweb before seeing any other scholarship engines. They really impressed me with the strategy, style, and results. Students regularly qualified for 150-300 scholarships. No scams, contests, promotions, and surveys appeared in their results. I still recommended everyone register on Fastweb and create a profile, but lately the results impress me less.

Like other scholarship search engines, Fastweb requests that you register and complete a profile. The profile will ask you to indicate your past memberships and activities. Each item in the profile indicates someone who is giving money away. So, include all your activities. For example:

• Memberships in clubs and civic organizations
• Participation in sports and athletics
• Leadership experiences and positions
• Creative arts, performances, or writings
• Civic and community service
• Parent's employment and memberships
• Military experience

Fastweb will also notify you of additional scholarships as they find them.

Cautions

Fastweb requires fewer cautions than most of the sources we recommend. However, you still need to:

• Click "No thank you" every time you see it (in very small font)
• Very few contests, promotions, and surveys appear on Fastweb (that's good)
• Delete them if you see them, unless they are legitimate contests for videos, performances, or similar situations
• You may wish to create a separate email address for all scholarship searches

Thursday we review the sections of a reusable master application

Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 2: Discard and Avoid Surveys

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

Renee attended one of our workshops in July and sent us this email in October “I am going to school at BYU-Idaho and am majoring in Vocal Performance. I have been awarded $7,068 is scholarship and grant money! Thank you so much for helping me! My schooling is paid for for both semesters and I even had money left over to pay for my housing. Thanks again!”

The Growth of Surveys on Scholarship Search Engines

In the last few years we’ve seen a significant surge in the number surveys appearing in scholarship searches. Marketers discovered the Internet to provide unprecedented and inexpensive access to targeted markets. High school and college students represent a coveted buying public with access to parent’s cash. As a result, surveys constitute 40-60% of the results listed by some scholarship search engines.

After you complete a profile, scholarship search engines will generate a list of scholarships that your profile indicated you qualified for. Many of the lists will tell you whether that scholarship is a scholarship, essay, survey, competition, or promotion.

Scholarship surveys typically ask you to complete a certain number of surveys a week for a specified number of weeks. At the end of the designated time period the recipient “will be entered into a drawing for $10,000” (or whatever the award amount).

Problems with Surveys

Unfortunately, scholarship surveys also pose problems:

• Each survey gathers information for the marketing needs of several companies
• Most surveys solicit your agreement to allow them to share your information
• Companies typically send survey respondents several emails soliciting
• Completing all of the surveys does not guarantee that you will receive any money
• Respondents names become part of a drawing with thousands to millions of others

Most search engines allow you to save, favorite, discard or delete offerings that you will not submit applications. We recommend that you discard all surveys, rather than wasting time while receiving unwanted solicitations or emails for a lottery.

Tuesday we will spotlight how Scholarship.com can provide you with lists of scholarships

Reusable Materials 2: Sources of Letters of Recommendation

Thursday we discuss how reusable materials WOW committees & Save time applying
Renee attended one of our workshops in July and sent us this email in October :“I am going to school at BYU-Idaho  and am majoring in Vocal Performance. I have been awarded $7,068 in scholarship and grant money! Thank you so much for helping me! My schooling is paid for for both semesters and I even had money left over to pay for my housing. Thanks again!”

Identify People to Write Letters of Recommendation

Most scholarship applications require that you submit several letters of recommendation. Many students, both youth and adult, gather letters of recommendation as they prepare the application. This can cause delays and reduce the number of applications you submit.
Sometimes students struggle to find people to write letters of recommendation. We offer these ideas to help you select appropriate letter writers. First, pick a person who knows you well. Pick one person from each of the groups listed below:

• School Leaders
  • School teachers from your favorite or best classes
  • Coaches that worked with you in athletics, academic, or drama
  • Principals, vice-principals, or guidance counselors
• Community leaders
  • Directors of community organizations that received your service or finances
  • Leaders of civic clubs or institutions you belong to
  • Elected legislators, mayors, city Councils, department heads
• Church Leaders
  • Pastor, Reverend, Priest, Bishop, Deacon, Mullah, Rabbi
  • Sunday School teacher, advisors, youth leaders
  • Church sports’ coaches
• Employers
  • Supervisor, manager, or director
  • Co-workers, colleagues, peers
  • Clients, customers, vendors, suppliers
• Others
  • Influential civic, business, and charitable leaders
  • Prestigious family and friends that the committee may know

Preparing the Letter Writers

Letters of recommendation provide scholarship committees with validation to the character and achievements of the applicant. Letters, therefore, become more influential when they confirm things you submitted in your application. You can prepare the letter writer by:

• Offering to draft the letter for their review and editing
• Provide them with your home run statements applicable to what you did for them
• Ask for an electronic and hardcopy

Saturday we will share a caution about responding to surveys listed in scholarships