"ACE" the Application Process
by Grace Kopp
Putting together an Excellent Application:
RESEARCH RELEVANT INFORMATION
Your time is valuable during your senior year. Decide on those applications whose descriptions most closely match you skills and abilities. If the scholarship program states that all of its applicants can juggle and you have never attempted this activity, then the applications may not be worth your time.
DEADLINES
Give yourself plenty of time for the many applications you will complete. Create personal deadlines and stick to them
ACCURACY
You've been asked to be accurate since you entered 1st grade. This is the time to put that competency into action. Every application is different, READ DIRECTIONS
ATTITUDE
Only you can determine how you will come across on paper. Youare your own best advocate.
PERSONAL SURVEY
Give some time to thinking about who you are. Your job is to get a message across to to a committee who has not met you personally. Make a lisst of 10 to 15 adjectives that pertain to you and use them in your application.
FEEDBACK FROM THOSE WHO KNOW YOU
Ask people who know you will to add to your personal survey. You may not think of yourself as competitive, but if everyone else who describes you uses that word, you need to give this some thought.
SKILLS
How can they set you apart from the other thousands of applicants? This is the time to toot your own horn. BE HONEST but consider that the committee only knows you by reading your application and recommendations.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Ask people to write for you who know you personally. Your choice of recommender also says something about you.
ESSAYS AND SHORT ANSWER
These should provide the scholarship committee with examples of ways in which you have been successful.
PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD
Ask you teachers, parents, counselor to proofread you work and make suggestions.
