Having spent an entire school year applying for scholarships to fund my post-secondary education, I ought to be well-informed about the application process. It almost became a hobby of mine last year and I’m happy to share some things about the whole scholarship hunt.

1. Apply to as many scholarships as you can. Even if you don’t think you’re going to get it, apply. You’ll never know if you’re going to win unless you try, and the time that you put into an application is usually worth the payoff in the end. As long as you fit the criteria, you should be applying. You should also be searching deep—there are lots of places to find possible scholarships i.e. your school counselor and tons of websites.

2. Start applying early. You may have heard this before, so it’s obviously the best thing you can do to get your foot in the door. The first scholarship application is by far the hardest thing you’re going to do during this hunt. It may help to make a list describing all the relevant things you’ve done (activities, achievements, certifications) so that you have a visual of you on paper. After all, that’s what the scholarship committees see too. Most scholarships look for good grades, active involvement in the community and in general, a passionate, well-rounded person. The more times you practice conveying this on paper, the more improvement you will see from one application to the next.
Also, allot yourself plenty of time to write these applications. The more time you spend on an application, the better it will be. Anybody can just whip up a few sentences and mail it off. It takes time to fill them out to the best of your ability.

3. Be detailed and specific when describing yourself. The scholarship committees don’t know who you are. You can’t assume that they’ll know about something you’ve done unless you write it down on your application. For example, there’s a big difference if you write, “Member of the Track and Field team for 2 years”, compared to “Finished 2nd place in the Provincial Championships for Long Jump and Team Sprint for 2 years. Also helped coach junior members and ran practice warm-ups.” The latter explanation gives the committee more to think about and describes positive attributes—i.e. involvement in the school through your sports team, but also that you have persistence in training hard to place 2nd provincially, that you’re a team player because you help other members, that you have leadership skills because you can run warm-ups and have others listen to you, and that you’re a very valued role model. You’re not just a “member”—a lot of people are simply members of lots of different clubs in their schools and randomly show up for meetings. If you’ve done more than that, write it down.

4. Yes, be detailed, but be succinct too. Think of it: the scholarship committee sits down one Thursday afternoon to read through 2000 applications. You don’t want to bore them if you’re just repeating the same things over and over again. Try to vary your writing and try to be creative with your answers.

5. Show them that you care about what you do. If this is a scholarship that values community involvement, show them that you are truly passionate about, for example, improving the environment. You might want to explain exactly what about the environment can be improved, what action you took to help the situation, and describe what happened as a result of your actions.

6. Think of ways you can be different and stand out to the committee. Using statistics work well with this. For instance, I used a lot of numbers in my applications as it shows concrete proof of what I’ve done. There are a lot of “student council presidents” out there, so I had to describe why I was different. I wrote on my applications how much student attendance at dances/spirit events improved during my tenure in this leadership role. I also described what kinds of things I initiated, i.e. a canned food drive that’s going to be continued again the following year. That’s another thing that shows commitment: continuity. Scholarship committees want to see that whatever you’re doing is going to continue after your high school life—if not with you, then who are you passing it down to?

7. A lot of applications just have a line for each of your activities—just enough for the organization’s name and your role. Try cramming as much as you can into this space albeit difficult. I used a lot of dashes, semicolons and brackets just so I could efficiently use the space I was given.

8. Have other people read your applications. Lots of people. I remember asking all my siblings and parents to read the important applications many times that they became sick of me asking. If it doesn’t make sense to other people, it won’t make sense to the scholarship committee. Ask them what they think of your activity—are you getting your messages conveyed?

9. Mail your applications in on time. I can’t stress this enough. A lot of applications have strict deadlines, some even specific to the exact time. If you don’t get in your application in on time, they likely won’t read it. And if they do, you’ve already made a bad first impression—what does that show about your character and time management skills? Also, know when your local post office closes! I remember when my applications needed to be postdated by a certain date, I had to run to the post office and have them stamp the date on it a few minutes before it closed!

10. If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. The chances are that your first scholarship application isn’t as good as your others so you may not have good news when you receive the results. Don’t get down about it. Students just like you, across the country, are applying to the same scholarships you are, so you’ve got to keep applying to remain in the hunt. Only you can force yourself to sit down and write a worthy application.

I wish you all the best in the scholarship hunt—the scholarships are waiting to be found by you!

Click here to see Gilbert's Youth Canada Testimonial.

Click here to see the article about Gilbert in the Vancouver Sun.

GILBERT LAM was the top graduating student from Vancouver Technical Secondary School and is now a first year student at the University of British Columbia in the Coordinated Science Program. During high school, he participated in the BioTrek program and served as student council president. An active member of his community, Gilbert volunteers at many seniors’ homes, community centres and elementary schools. His recognitions include the TD Canada Trust Scholarship and the Premier’s Excellence Award. He is also a recipient of a BC Community Achievement Award and the Gold standard of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Gilbert also enjoys competing in dragon boat and playing tennis.

Image courtesy of user "Mannequin-" at Flickr.com via Creative Commons License.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mannequin-/1579168962/