Tips on Locating and Applying for Scholarships*

Locating Scholarships

The search for a scholarship should be understood as a process, one which requires an amount of devoted time. Identifying scholarships appropriate for you, from among the thousands of available scholarships, can be both rewarding and frustrating. A key element of the search is to allow yourself sufficient time to review the range of scholarships that exist and to select from among them those awards that most closely match your background, interests and abilities.

The easiest way to begin a scholarship search is to inspect the awards listed on the Queens College Scholarship webpage. These scholarships have all been reviewed by the Office of Honors and Scholarships and are largely appropriate for Queens College students, given the range of programs and majors offered by the college.

Using the Website

There are two ways to search the Honors and Scholarships website.

By Keyword Search. There is a search engine on the home page of the Honors and Scholarship site. Type keywords about your major, or your interests, etc., into the search engine and review the individual files that your search matches. Start with the broadest possible search terms, such as accounting, or journalism, and narrow your search as needed, depending on the number of scholarships your broad terms retrieve.

By Scholarship Type from the Scholarship Lists. The awards listed on the website are categorized according to various broadly defined criteria. These lists are sometimes subdivided to make these categories more specific. By scanning all the awards on the lists, you may locate additional awards appropriate for you which were not located by your keyword search.

        Fastweb
        College Board
        SRN Express
        FinAid

FinAid is a general financial aid site that provides information about all aspects of the financial aid process. The FinAid site also provides information on other scholarship search engines.

Selecting Scholarships

In selecting scholarships to apply for, students should choose those that most closely meet their needs, goals and interests. As noted above, many scholarships exist, and you could conceivable apply for a good number of them. You may wish to consider the following issues when evaluating the scholarships your search locates.

For whom are the scholarship selectors looking?

Your interests, academic background, extra-curricular activities and long-range goals should all closely match the selection criteria established by the scholarship foundation. If the award specifies that applicants plan to pursue careers in Media Arts, you should be able to demonstrate your career plans through your course work and your extra-curricular activities. If your background and interests do not closely match those established by the scholarship foundation, you are unlikely to win the award they offer.

Can I devote sufficient time to the application?

Applying for scholarships takes time. If you plan to apply for one of the major national awards, the average time that candidates devote to their applications is about sixty hours. For the less-competitive awards, the time commitment is perhaps less extensive but still substantial. In applying for an award, you want to remember that your application must convince the award committee that you are worthy of their investment.

Obtaining Applications

Obtain the application as early as possible. Most scholarship applications are available on-line. If you do not have access to a computer, you can download the applications from the computers in the Office of Honors and Scholarships. Some applications can only be obtained from the Office of Honors and Scholarships. For others, you must write away to the granting agency requesting the application forms. A few scholarship foundations have request deadlines. If you have not requested the application by the date they specify, you cannot apply. Plan your time carefully in advance so you don’t get caught with an incomplete application, or no application at all, when the due date arrives.

Read through the Application

Once you get the application, it is important to read through all parts of it. Make a list of the various requirements on a separate piece of paper that you can refer to easily as the deadline approaches. You do not want to be caught missing any part of the application materials when the deadline arrives.

Internal Due Dates

Queens College has created a scholarship committee that reviews all applications for the major awards. This committee sets an internal due date perhaps a month in advance of the foundation’s deadline. This gives the committee time to review all applications, and to send forward the strongest candidates to the foundations. Applications should be complete when they are submitted at the internal due date.

The Written Portions of the Application

Nearly all scholarships require basic biographical information, and sometimes responses to short-answer questions. These questions are important elements of the application. Your answers to these questions should be well-considered, and should augment or emphasize points you raise in your personal statements.

Personal Statement

The personal statement is perhaps the single most important element in the scholarship application. Different types of scholarships will make specific requests of applicants in terms of focusing the personal statement. For example, a travel grant may ask you to contextualize your experiences in terms of how a travel award will help you further your academic goals. Others awards may ask you to discuss your academic and career goals and to describe how the scholarship will enable you to realize these. In writing the statement, consider the audience implied through the application materials and the reading you have done on the granting agency. The personal statement should address this audience directly while creating a full picture of who you are, as a student, an intellectual and an individual. The personal statement should not be a resume in narrative form. You can, however, use the statement to explain or contextualize any gaps or weaknesses in the academic record, and do so in ways that makes these appear either as inevitable or as strengths. A good personal statement will make the committee members want to meet you; it should also induce the scholarship selectors to think of you as the perfect recipient for their award.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation can make or break your scholarship application. In a university like Queens students are often taught by graduate students or adjuncts, rather than by tenured professors. Students often ask if letters from Adjunct Professors are appropriate. According to one foundation, "Letters from people who know you well are far more valuable than letters from well-known people who know you less well and who might write, at best, a form-like letter."

Letters from tenured faculty who are known in their field provide the strongest support for a scholarship application. It is, therefore, important for students to make the effort to establish relationships with the full-time professors in their majors as early as possible. Make a point of attending your faculty members' office hours. Engage in discussions with them outside of class. Participate in extra-curricular activities, or assist in research projects. All of these activities will enable faculty members to know you and to write a personal letter that addresses your academic abilities, your personal interests and background, and the relationship of these to your academic goals.

Good letters of recommendation take time and effort for a professor to write. When asking for a letter make an appointment to meet with the faculty member. In the conference you should discuss your plans and explain what you hope to study and why you have chosen to apply for the award. These discussions may help you clarify your plans and will help reestablish your relationships with your recommenders. Provide the recommender with a written description of the scholarship and copies of your personal statement, proposed academic program, transcripts and activities/honors list. Bring copies of the work you completed in the recommender’s class. These materials will enable the recommender to be more specific in the recommendation. Do not simply leave the forms in the faculty member’s mailbox.

Although recommenders should consider what each scholarship is looking for, they should not feel compelled to address every aspect of the scholarship profile. Recommenders should address only those elements of your application on which they can comment confidently. Effective letters of recommendation are detailed, specific, and contextualize your achievements. It is helpful if the recommender can attest to the appropriateness of the scholarship to your academic and career goals.

Non-academic letters should discuss your volunteer and/or leadership experience. Do not use letters from relatives or family friends.

Transcripts

When an application requires a transcript, you should follow the instructions as to how the transcript should be submitted. Generally, only official transcripts are accepted. Request your transcript from the Registrar’s Office well in advance of the application due date. Transcript requests may take as long as two weeks.

Resume

Some scholarship applications will include a space on the form to list activities and honors. You should list these activities – including dates of involvement – as you would on a resume. Use headings, such as Community Service and Academic Honors, and list entries in chronological order or order of importance (be consistent in your listings). Briefly describe activities that are not self-explanatory, and, where appropriate, describe the impact you made in each role. Your activities should represent your talents and interests outside the classroom; these will help selectors gain a sense of who you are and how your interests reflect your goals. List all significant activities and honors, but be selective. The selectors are looking for sustained commitment (rather than two hours spent on a community clean-up). Also keep in mind that anything in your application may be raised for discussion during the interview. Be completely honest. If you indicate that you speak French fluently, you should be prepared to speak at length with an interviewer in French.

Completing the Process

The last element in applying for a scholarship is getting the application to the foundation. Be aware that some scholarship foundations have postmark deadlines and others have receipt deadlines. A postmark deadline is easier in that you need to get the complete application to the post office by the listed date. When posting your materials, however, it is a good idea to drop the package with a postal clerk, even if this means waiting in line. The clerk will tell you if there is insufficient postage and you are guaranteed to have it postmarked on that date. If you must drop the package into a mailbox, or if you are sending it by courier service, be sure that you have not missed the last pick up for that box or the package will be postmarked for the next business day. If the scholarship has a receipt deadline, be sure to mail your package at least one week in advance of the deadline. You may also want to consider sending it by courier service, particularly one that will guarantee arrival by the receipt date.

Before mailing, be sure to read through everything one more time and check off that you have included everything they have requested.

*This page has been adapted in part from the U.C. Berkeley scholarship page.