Navigating the world of applying for scholarships

By Fatem Kadhem, Senior at Valley Vista High School

Forty-two. That’s the number of scholarships I was told I would have to apply to before I would win even one - and probably a small one at that. It is difficult to hear such a dejecting statistic and still manage to convince yourself to spend your free time writing seemingly useless essays. However, to me this daunting number became an opportunity to challenge myself and reach my goals.

Forty-two. My goal was to apply to forty-two scholarships by the time I finished my senior year. Due to my type A personality, I even created a log to keep track of the scholarships - a tab for ones I wanted to apply to, a tab for ones I had applied to, and a final tab for the results.

The first piece of advice I could give is one I should’ve taken to heart years ago; start applying soon, and I really do mean soon. I didn’t start focusing on scholarships until the summer before my senior year, and I came across plenty of applications that were open to underclassmen. That scary number would have been much more manageable if I knew I had four years to accomplish it, instead of less than one. But life moves on.

In my search, I was constantly bombarded with “no-essay” scholarships. It’s easy to fall down that rabbit hole as they are a straightforward way to buff up your number of completed applications; however, in my eyes, they were equally as straightforward of a way to waste time. The chances of winning a raffle when there are thousands of other students applying is slim to none, especially when the award is as appealing as $10,000, $20,000, or more. There’s no harm in applying, but I usually scrolled past or didn’t count them in my scholarship count.

Let’s fast forward. You finally found a scholarship worth your while. Now, how do you maximize your chances of winning? Truthfully, I’m not sure. I’m a first-generation college student, so I don’t have access to knowledge from people around me that have gone through this process before. But I managed to be selected as a Flinn Foundation Scholarship Semifinalist - and now Finalist - so here are some things I have learned.

Firstly, you need to spend time recalibrating your perspective on your life. When you’re so engulfed in the experiences you have had, it’s hard to clearly see what is relevant versus what is not. The same idea applies to your application. Look at your life from an outside perspective. What things stand out to you? Do you want them to stand out? What aspects of yourself do you want to emphasize? The advantage of starting your scholarship search early is that you have time to improve your weak points, whether that be extracurriculars, leadership experience, grades, etc. But no matter what, you can always find distinct things you’d like to focus on. Things that make you stand out. Things that are important to you. The beauty of essays is that, despite being a pain to write occasionally, they allow you to express yourself. Don’t be afraid to take risks with metaphors, outlooks on the prompt, and writing styles. Brag about yourself. And above all, don’t be afraid to recycle them.

Besides being good for the environment, recycling essays will just save time. One of the worst parts of the scholarship process will always be the blank, blinking document staring at you. So I have a Google document that tracks all the essays I’ve written. When there are similar prompts between scholarships, I go through the document to see what

I wrote last time and to get renewed inspiration. You don’t have to reuse the essay, but it can prove to be a good starting point.

With all this being said, there are still 42 applications to submit. That’s daunting. But at least that gives you plenty of opportunities - enough to both focus on the nationwide scholarships with an attractive award as well as the local ones. And you will soon learn to favor the latter. Your chances increase dramatically when your competitors are restricted. A key way to lower the applicant pool is to search for scholarships that are only for your state, your county, and even your high school. This advice also applies to scholarships that may not be local but are still confined to a specific group of people. Find those niche groups you apply to and stick to them. Don’t let a scholarship escape you because you overlooked it due to its seemingly small amount. Remember, you can stack scholarships, so anything helps.

I applied to over twenty scholarships before hearing back from one. That is a pretty significant number and a bitter reality of the scholarship process. But when the imposter syndrome starts to set in, and all the work you are putting in seems pointless, remember that until you reach the magic number, you cannot give up. Your future self will thank you for it. Good luck!