<p>Phrased that way, your question seems thoughtful. You might wait until toward the end of the year and ask for an appointment with the people who awarded the scholarship to a) thank them, and b) ask the question the way you just posed it. Now it doesn’t sound like “Tell me why I’m so great.” I’d be interested in what they say.</p>
<p>Another reason to try to find out would be if you mentor young people. If being an Eagle Scout and working 20 hours a week is what tipped the scale in your favor, it would be a great story to tell. (If it’s just super high stats and grades, the HS kids have heard that all before.)</p>
<p>When I was in college, In order to keep my scholarship, I had to go to the FA office every year to declare that I had not registered for the draft because I was–still–female. Once, the secretary left my file sitting open when she stepped away from her desk, so I picked it up and looked at it. </p>
<p>I found out that I was “3rd alternate” for the scholarship I received.
So I wasn’t that great! The students ahead of me chose to attend other (better?) schools.</p>
<p>OP, I’m thinking that the reasons should be obvious.<br>
A thank-you note is a good idea.</p>
<p>I was waiting tables for a living in Nashville and had been married like five minutes to a graduate student there when I got word that I was admitted to a public local masters level program with zero financial aid offered. </p>
<p>I called the office the next day to decline attendance due to having zero money for tuition, and said perhaps I would reapply in a year or two. The secretary put me on hold. About five minutes later, she came back on and said I had a full graduate assistantship free ride as long as I worked for 10 hours a week for a professor. My conclusion? Not that I was special at all (although I did have a good record), but that the awarding of graduate assistantships was random, capricious, thoughtlessly done and bizarre…if in my favor that day. As I expected, the professor I was assigned to didn’t have much going on and seemed to drink in the afternoons and standards were pretty middling to disappointing compared to my undergraduate college (Furman) which had a demanding and very ethical hard working faculty.<br>
Nevertheless, I did find Nashville itself to be both a laboratory in life for a 23 year old and to be full of ways to expand my reality base and experience. Sometimes college is more about your field work, and this became true for me.</p>