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In the wonderful world of scholarships, there are two kinds of scholarship seekers.
The run-of-the-mill scholarship seeker uses each essay response only one time,
and wastes valuable hours coming up with new ones for each scholarship application.
These types of seekers don’t spend much time thinking ahead about what could
be on future applications, and instead spend too much time racking their brains
for answers and inspiration just minutes before deadline time. The worst trait
of such students is that they never keep any of their application materials.
Then there is another breed of scholarship seeker—someone who is savvy beyond
compare: This type of scholarship hopeful knows the value of creating a suite
of generic reusable materials that can later save massive amounts of time and
energy. The good news is, whether you’re already a savvy seeker, or may
have already committed one of the ill-advised acts we just mentioned, there is
a lot you can do to decrease your workload while increasing your potential for
winning college cash.
When applying for large numbers of scholarships, creating a suite of generic
reusable materials saves a great deal of time an energy. By having this suite
to draw from, you will be able to focus less on just completing application
requirements, and more time on customizing and fine-tuning the material you've
already prepared.
More than just a reduction in your workload, reusing and rethinking old materials
can mean vast improvments as you repeatedly refine and edit the same work. By
employing this strategy, you gain the opportunity to fine-tune your materials
with ever submission. And take it from me—your tenth draft will be far better
than your first.
Creating your own scholarship "suite"
To create this suite of generic materials, first seek to develop standard essay responses to perennial scholarship application themes—such old favorites as
college plans, career goals, and future contributions to society. Survey the
scholarships landscape and isolate common themes and requirements (whether it
is a similar essay question or a comparable extracurricular activity worksheet).
Attempt to bridge multiple applications with ever sentence you write or form
you prepare.
In addition, go back into your archive of old scholarship applications (you'll
develop one quickly) and try to recycle essays and other past materials. Don't
just recopy such passages verbatim; instead, try to rethink, improve, and hone
everything to fit the criteria of each new contest.
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Essay Boot Camp
Learn how to write scholarship essays that bring home the college cash! >>
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