Applying for a Scholarship
Practice: start applying to scholarships for which you are eligible. The more practiced you become at applying, the stronger your future applications will be. When you have located scholarships for which you are eligible and would like to apply, keep in mind some ground rules.
First, learn the application thoroughly. The application description and the questions you’re asked to address will give you many of the clues you’ll need to understand the scholarship program’s evaluation and selection criteria. The scholarship’s Website is another great source of information. Pay attention to their wording, and if they list previous scholarship recipients, read their bios. The Websites will give you valuable inside information.
Pay attention to the details. Selection committees review dozens, if not hundreds of applications for a given scholarship. They will look upon your application favorably if your essays are free of typos and grammatical errors, if you include all and only the materials requested – generally, if you make their lives easier by following instructions.
Applying for a merit-based scholarship will take time. You will likely have to write essays, provide a resume or CV (curriculum vita), transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Each of these materials take time to develop and/or collect.
One final note about application processes: some national scholarships require institutional nomination. For these scholarships, you are not permitted to apply directly to the scholarship program. The scholarship program requires campuses to nominate a specified number of students. To be considered for these scholarships, you must go through a UW campus nomination process. These processes are described on our Website. Some examples of scholarships that require a nomination are: Beinecke; Goldwater; Marshall; Rhodes; Truman.
Essays
Many scholarship applications will require one or more essays, personal statements, statements of academic and career goals, and so on. It will take some time to write your personal story. A strong essay will require multiple drafts, half a dozen or more at least. A strong essay is also one that has been edited and proofread several times by your professors, advisors, and other mentors.
Your final draft will be concise and direct, reveal interesting things about yourself, and describe how your strengths, achievements, and passions make you a strong candidate for the application (that means that you should use the scholarship selection criteria as the framework for developing your essay. Always keep in the forefront of your mind the characteristics of the scholarship.
Resume/CV
Many scholarship applications require you to submit a resume or CV (curriculum vita). If offered an option, submit a CV rather than a resume.
When you develop your resume/CV:
- Start with college; i.e., do not include high school activities and experiences – unless you have continued them through college. For example, if you began playing in an orchestra in high school and continued through college, it is reasonable for you to include that activity. If you stopped after high school, do not include that activity.
- Focus on the activities and experiences that are aligned with the application criteria.
- Focus on activities in which you have had sustained, long-term involvement. If you have limited room and must select a few of many activities, be sure to include those in which you’ve been involved for a long time. Your sustained activities are the ones that will best demonstrate your interests and passions.
Transcripts
You will almost certainly be required to submit a transcript or transcripts with your scholarship application. Here, it is again vital to attend to details:
- Does the application require official transcripts, or will unofficial transcripts suffice?
- How many are required?
- Are you required to submit transcripts from all institutions you’ve attended, or just UW?
- How long will it take for you to receive an official transcript?
- What is the cost?
Make sure you plan accordingly.
Letters of recommendation
Often, scholarship applications will require more than one letter, perhaps two or three (or more). Your supporters may include faculty, staff, community leaders, or employers. Plan to ask for letters of recommendation at least three weeks before the deadline.
When considering whom to ask for letters of recommendation, keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Each letter-writer should have first-hand knowledge of your work
- Your letter-writers should be able to write about you with confidence and enthusiasm
- Taken together, your letter-writers should address different characteristics and strengths of yours. That is, seek letter-writers that know different things about you (and that are related to the scholarship criteria).
There are many, many good reasons for you to develop relationships with at least a few of your professors (you may develop relationships with advisors and TAs, but you should always also talk with professors). One non-trivial reason is that they are the ones who will write your letters of recommendation. Their recommendations carry weight because they have experience in instructing students, supervising student research projects, attending graduate school, conducting research, and applying for fellowships and grants. They therefore understand the characteristics necessary to succeed in a research project, graduate or professional school, study abroad, etc. They also belong to professional associations and other networks that provide them with the latest information about opportunities for undergraduates. If they know about your interests, achievements, and goals, they will be in the best position to write you a strong letter and to open doors to new opportunities for you.
Some students believe that the only reason an undergraduate should “bother” a professor is if they have a question about class material that they cannot get answered through any other means. Of course, those are good reasons to talk to a professor. They’re not the only reasons, though. You can talk to your professor to continue discussing an interesting topic from class (you might do that later in the day with friends; that same conversation you have with friends you can have with your professor, probably with greater depth and excitement); or because their research interests you; or because you hope to carry out a research project under their mentorship; or to seek career or academic advice; or to seek their advice about an internship opportunity you’re considering; or for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with a specific question about class material.