Often, scholarship opportunities also serve as opportunities for students to think about and respond to pressing issues of the day, and one of the problems weighing most heavily on society in the last year has been the global economic crisis.  While the recession has begun showing signs of abating, it is still creating serious problems in several areas of life, ranging from paying for school to owning a home.

Homeowners have been facing threats of foreclosure due to a combination of factors related to the recession, and this problem could still get worse before it gets better.  The real estate website Foreclosure.com is sponsoring a scholarship essay contest that invites college students to propose solutions to the ongoing spike in foreclosures.  With a $5,000 top prize for the scholarship essay that best explains “how to solve the foreclosure crisis,” the Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program is this week’s Scholarship of the Week.

Prize:

Top prize: $5,000

Four runners-up: $1,000

Eligibility:

Students who are currently enrolled in or have been accepted to an accredited college, university, law school or trade school in the United States.  U.S. citizenship is required.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, essay scholarship, graduate student scholarships, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Sep 14 2009

Unless you’re lucky enough to happen across an extremely obscure and unusual scholarship with only one or two qualified applicants, you are going to have to face some competition to receive a scholarship award. In the case of essay scholarships that are easy to enter or that come with a substantial award, you may be facing quite a lot of competition. In fact, with many scholarship competitions, you may be up against so much competition that there’s no guarantee a reviewer will even have time to completely read and digest each scholarship essay submitted. This makes your essay’s introduction vitally important.

The first sentence of your scholarship application is your first, best and possibly only chance to capture your reader’s attention. To have the best chance at winning scholarships, you need to know how to start your essay off right. The following are some tips to help you craft an eye-catching introduction that gets your foot in the door and gets your application the attention it deserves.

Put it in your own words.
While starting with a quote is a common technique in speaking and some writing, it may not work best in a scholarship application essay. Leading with a quote shows the reviewer that you know how to read, but it doesn’t tell much else about you or your ideas. Use your own words to begin, and if a quote supports or enhances your argument, consider bringing it in later in the essay.

Avoid clichés and tired phrases.
One of your essay’s goals should be to distinguish you from the competition, and it won’t do this if it rehashes the same overused expressions that everyone else employs. Keep in mind that the scholarship reviewer will be reading hundreds or even thousands of applications. What seems clever or cute the first time doesn’t seem that way after the 50th or 100th iteration. A good rule to follow is that if a phrase belongs on a bumper sticker or in an e-mail from your mom, it likely does not belong in your scholarship essay.

Establish a personal connection.
If your experience gives you a unique perspective on the essay’s topic, show your reader this. Most people are suckers for personal anecdotes, provided the stories are interesting and well-told. Make sure the story you tell fits these criteria and actually enriches your essay and contributes to your overall message. Don’t get melodramatic and don’t bog down your introduction in an overly long, detailed or irrelevant narrative, but if you’ve got a good story to tell to frame your essay, use it.

Say something new.
Are you arguing something that falls well outside the typical series of canned responses? Consider leading with your thesis, or at least some of the information or realizations that guided your essay towards its thesis. There’s no better way to stand out from a pile of fairly standard responses than to have something fresh and thought-provoking to contribute with your scholarship application.

With a solid introduction and a thoughtful and well-written response, you’ll be well on your way to writing a scholarship-worthy essay.

Posted: under Scholarship Applications, Scholarships, Tips.
Tags: applications, essay scholarship, Scholarship Applications, Scholarship Search, scholarship tips, Scholarships, Tips, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Sep 11 2009

Many scholarship essay contests have broad and open-ended questions, designed to allow applicants a great deal of leeway in crafting their responses and allowing their writing to shine.  But sometimes it’s nice to have more structure to a writing scholarship, too, especially if you’re skilled at literary analysis and argumentative writing.  Luckily for the English and composition nerds out there, there are scholarship providers who are happy to oblige with contests asking applicants to read a novel and write an essay response.  One of these is this week’s Scholarship of the Week, the Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest, sponsored by the Ayn Rand Institute.  Interested students just need to read the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and write an essay response to one of three prompts for a chance at up to $10,000 in scholarship money.  There’s one catch: the novel is nearly 1200 pages long, so you’d better really like reading.

Prize:

• 1 first prize: $10,000
• 3 second prizes: $2,000
• 5 third prizes: $1,000
• 20 finalists: $100
• 20 semifinalists: $50

Eligibility:

High school seniors and current college students worldwide are eligible to apply.  Applicants must be enrolled in high school or college at the time their applications are submitted.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, essay scholarship, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Aug 10 2009

The fall semester is just around the corner, and in addition to the start of classes, students are also beginning to gear up for scholarship application season, the time from late fall to late spring when the majority of scholarship applications are due.  If you are just starting your scholarship search, there are a number of things to keep in mind when deciding which awards to apply for.  The size of the award, the application deadline, the amount of work required, and your likelihood of winning are all criteria you likely use in evaluating awards.  One other thing to think about before putting together an application, though, is whether there will be any costs associated with the scholarship contest.

Every scholarship application will have some degree of cost associated with it, whether it’s postage, time, or the costs involved in creating your application materials (for example, printing an essay or filming and editing a video).  However, some scholarship applications are going to be more costly than others, and when a scholarship charges an application fee on top of the time, energy, and money you’re already putting into it, it should be cause for some careful thought.

Scholarship opportunities are generally seen as altruistic offers made by organizations that want to help students succeed in college.  Sure, many scholarships have a promotional nature, as there are few better ways to attract interest in a company than by giving something away for free.  However, some companies actually charge students to apply for scholarships.  For example, we came across one scholarship essay contest that offered a $500 award and charged a $15 application fee.  The scholarship provider boasted of receiving 10,000 applications in a year, meaning they hauled in $15,000 and only gave away $500.  Unless they’re spending over $14,000 promoting the contest and paying people to judge the essays, it’s reasonable to believe they’re profiting off the scholarship in more ways than just boosting traffic to their site.  Not necessarily the most altruistic endeavor, huh?

This isn’t the only example of a scholarship contest charging a seemingly unnecessary application fee.  Offers like this aren’t necessarily scholarship scams, as legitimate awards are offered to people who apply.  However, why would you pay money for something when there are so many other ways to get it for free?

Posted: under Scholarship Applications, Scholarships, Tips.
Tags: applications, essay scholarship, scholarship information, Scholarship Search, scholarship tips, Scholarships, Tips, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Aug 05 2009

This week’s Scholarship of the Week is a scholarship essay contest that offers a $10,000 reward to students who are actively engaged in fighting poverty.  The In The River They Swim essay competition asks participants to reflect upon an experience living or working in a poor country or a poor region of a developed nation and tell a story about a personal journey they’ve had doing enterprise solutions to poverty.

What makes this competition unique is that it asks for students to go beyond the traditional response elicited by community service scholarships and other essay scholarships and to reflect on both successes and failures, as well as people encountered and lessons learned along the way.  Rather than simply recounting experiences in a matter-of-fact way, a winning essay will tell a story in an engaging and illuminating manner.  Most importantly, the essay should teach the reader something, and presents an opportunity to think both critically and creatively about your work, your attitudes, and your assumptions for a chance at a substantial cash prize and possible publication.

Prize:

$10,000

Eligibility:

Anyone is eligible to participate, regardless of age, level of education, or area of study.

Posted: under Graduate School, High School, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, community service scholarships, essay scholarship, graduate student scholarships, high school student scholarships, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, undergraduate scholarships, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Jul 27 2009

This weekend is San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest event of the year for fans of comic books, graphic novels, online comics, and virtually anything else related to comics or the surrounding culture.  While no one in the Scholarships.com office is making the trek to Comic-Con this year, we are looking at ways to help students who love comics pay for school.  If you’re looking for something to do while all your favorite webcomics are on hiatus, consider applying for some of these scholarship awards.

If you’re interested in reading comics, you may also be interested in writing or drawing them, and creative writing and art scholarships are both widely available.  Even if you’re less interested in art and more interested in science fiction (comic conventions are nerd meccas, after all), there are scholarship opportunities for you.  We encourage you to take a few moments to do a free college scholarship search and check out our information page on unusual scholarships, which features some interesting awards that may work for you.  To give you an idea of some of the scholarship opportunities available for comics enthusiasts, here are a few examples.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Aspiring artists and writers are asked to submit portfolios of three to eight pieces in this annual scholarship contest.  Winners receive up to $10,000 in college scholarships.

L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests

Amateur illustrators and writers participating in the quarterly L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest can receive awards of up to $5,000 for creating an original illustration or short story with a science fiction theme.

Starfleet Academy Scholarships

Any active member of Starfleet, the official Star Trek fan club, is eligible for a Starfleet Scholarship. Members can be attending community colleges, four-year colleges, most technical schools, junior colleges and universities or graduate school.

Scholarships.com College Art Scholarship

Planning to pursue a career in art?  Write an essay discussion your influences for a chance to win $1,000.

Posted: under Just for Fun, Scholarships.
Tags: Area of Study Scholarships, art scholarship, high school student scholarships, Scholarship Search, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Jul 23 2009