Archive for the ‘Scholarship’ Category

Aug

8 Basic Tips for Writing an Effective Scholarship Essay

Author: Sally Croft

Your scholarship essay is one of the single most important things you will do prior to entering college. The effectiveness of your scholarship essay will determine if you will have to endure an extended period of debt due to student loan after graduation or you will have a free ride by getting a scholarship to pay for your college education.

A successful scholarship essay takes technique and organization. Remember your scholarship essay will be competing with millions of other entries from other students also seeking scholarships. Therefore, students should take the issue of scholarship essay serious. Below, we will suggest a couple of tips that will help you to construct a scholarship essay that will help to propel you scholarship essay to the top of the list.

Best Tips for Writing an Effective Scholarship Essay

Scholarship Essay Tips

To construct a successful scholarship essay, students should:

1. Understand the Purpose:

Ensure you have a clear understanding of the topic and purpose of the essay. This includes the reason behind the judges picking the particular topic. This will enable you to stick to the point or do targeted writing.

2. Analysis:

Not all essays will require research. Make an analysis of the topic and determine if the topic requires research or it requires an answer from life experiences. Remember, most scholarship essays are designed to know more about each applicant.

3. Know your Deadline:

Meeting your scholarship deadline is critical to your scholarship essay being selected. A deadline is set to test student’s skills of organization and meeting deadlines. This deadline is very rigid and is strictly maintained by scholarship sponsors.

4. Goals:

Before you begin your scholarship essay, set yourself goals. This includes knowing the purpose of the essay and the various steps you will take during its construction. All of this is time-based so a day for research, a day for analyzing data, a day for writing and a day for content reviews. Stuff like that will help you to go through the process smoothly and eliminate the rush as the due date draws near.

5. Create an Outline:

An outline of your scholarship essay makes the process of construction ten times easier. By using an outline, students are able to identify and hit the main points of the essay. Outlines also prevent you from veering off into areas that are not important and many decrease the effectiveness of your scholarship essay.

6. Opening Paragraph:

Your opening paragraph must grab the attention of the scholarship judge. Not all times scholarship judges will read the entire contents of your scholarship essay. Therefore, they should be able to get the gist of your essay from the first paragraph.

7. Interesting:

Avoid making your scholarship essay dull and boring. However, do not go overboard trying to make it funny, strike a balance by being straight-up professional. Be honest if you are asked to write about something personal, as the panel will certainly conduct their own investigation to verify the information.

8. Review:

Before sending off your scholarship essay, review it at least twice. Then get someone to review it again. Lookout for the flow of the information, grammatical and spelling errors and the general esthetics of the essay.

Tags: Scholarship Essay
Posted in College Expense, Scholarship | 2 Comments »

Jul

How to find Engineering Scholarships

Author: Sally Croft

So how do you find that engineering scholarship that will suit you and your needs? The engineering field is a diverse field that has many division, focuses and specialties. This is just a small sampling of fields of study in engineering.

Aerospace
Civil
Petroleum
Computer
Materials
Plastics
Environmental
Construction
Electrical
Mechanical

This really helps out a student looking for funding for college.

Starting Your Search

A quick online search will let you know of the opportunities out there. Under represented minorities will see a real benefit in pursuing an engineering scholarship in almost any area of engineer. But the opportunities for all are many and variant. The variety just staggers the mind and you do not need an engineering degree to see why. The best sources for engineering scholarships are;

associations
organizations
governmental
Colleges and universities
industrial
private businesses

Engineers Are Needed by the Nation

Engineering is a field that feeds a nations growth and is needed by the economy at large. The need in this field in the nation is so large that businesses are being forced to look off shore for candidates. This makes scholarship hunting easier for the right types of students.

Government Offered Engineering Scholarships

The United States Government offers a myriad of scholarships and grants for engineering students.

Department of Energy
Department of Agriculture
NOAA
EPA
Federal Aviation Administration
NASA

All have engineering scholarships that they offer to many different engineering focuses and disciplines at all degree levels. Your engineering field will determine your qualification for scholarship at each agency.

Goldwater Scholarship

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship fund is provided by the national government to award scholarships to the top students in fields ranging from arithmetic to engineering.

Corporate Scholarships

Corporations also provide engineering scholarship at an increasing level to help meet the demand in each field. Major industries are continually seeking out engineering talent to tap into at graduation time.

Google Engineering Scholarship

Some search engines themselves make scholarships available for worthy candidates. One the best program is Bill Gates Scholarship Program which is also very popular and very competitive.

Industry Professional Engineering Scholarships

Virtually all industries have professional organizations and groups that have students and those currently working in that industry together, and engineering has more than most. Almost every one of these organization and groups provide scholarship opportunities for those involved with the association. These should be looked into and searched out by the one looking for engineering scholarships. They may offer grants and scholarships for undergraduates and travel and research scholarships for graduates and engineering professionals. SAE International’s engineering association chooses a few student every year from it organization to sponsor and fund their studies in the field of engineering sciences.

Qualifying and Applying For Engineering Scholarships

Make sure you check with thesehttp://www.studentloaninfo.org/blog/wp-admin/post-new.php# groups yourself to check on applying and qualifying they all have very detailed requirements and you would not want your application rejected for missing out on a detail. To get more info on aerospace, civil, chemical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering specifically check the archive of this site or check back with us for future articles. Leave a comment if you feel I left out some good information

Tags: grants, scholarships
Posted in Scholarship, Scholarship and Grant | 1 Comment »

Jul

College Scholarships – How to make the most of them?

Author: Sally Croft

Most college scholarships and grants are dispersed the same way. There are two different ways, by checking directly to the student and money sent to your college. When the money is sent to your college and there is money left over from your college scholarship, they will send you what is left over. When the cash comes you get to use it for whatever you want.

How Handle Your College Scholarship Money

If you are the type that does not handle money well then it is better for you to save the money. Keep it for the next term if somehow your financing comes up short. Spending the money they send you could be a mistake. The money should be used for unexpected expenses in the next term like books or you may want to take an extra course in the future. Don’t blow it on new computer (unless you really need it) or a new game console.

Some College Scholarship Are not Guaranteed

There are no scholarships that are guaranteed. Some full scholarships go from semester to semester They must be renewed every semester. Sometimes books are not covered in full scholarships there are always something that is not covered in a full scholarship. So it is highly suggested that you fully understand your scholarship and the fine print when you sign. The moral to the story is when you have some money left over from your scholarship keep it and use it for college expenses.

Hang On To Your College Bills

Try to keep bills that you receive that is not covered by your scholarship. When you enroll in a course you will receive a bill for the cost and any extra fees. Keep the tuition invoices saying that college scholarship money can be used to pay for certain things. After registering for courses, the student will get an invoice sent for tuition and other cost. The student could have the expenses charge to their scholarship.

Charges From Books Can Be Charged Directly To College Scholarships

Cost from books can be charged to a scholarship. College students can buy books from the bookstore and charge the entire amount to a scholarship. Sometimes purchases from an online college bookstore can be sent directly to the students scholarship account.

Save Refunded College Scholarship Money

Do not forget to put away any money you receive from refund checks because some scholarship only disbursed for two semesters. So if you want to attend a third semester, you must save money to pay for it. So make sure you figure out the cost of all everything, like tuition, books and other fees so you know how you need to save.

Understand Your College Scholarship

Also check to see if your scholarship is tax-free if you used part of it for non-college expenses, this could be the case so understand as much as possible about your scholarship.

Tags: College Scholarships, grants
Posted in Scholarship, Scholarship and Grant | 1 Comment »