<p>@irlandaise Fair enough. I don’t know why I asked, to be honest. I guess I wanted to see someone confirm what the options were, regardless of what I chose to do in the end.</p>
<p>Thanks for your insight! And yes, I do fit all the other requirements</p>
<p>If you meet the eligibility reqs, I say go for it, as a general rule. You never know, might just be one of the ones to get it.</p>
<p>Okay so I just started the application since it opened today, and I’m quite confused when it comes to listing the employment and community service details. They only have the dates under certain increments of time, but what if I did something longer than the date increments they have? Do I put it more than once under the dates in which I participated? </p>
<p>Should I focus on this application first or college applications first (Questbridge too)?</p>
<p>@ jay2631 - 1) tell a story about how you met challenges, but overcame those challenges; 2) remember your audience, they will be from the same ethnic group you are and want you to succeed; 3) don’t FLUFF up your essays, the reader wants to get to know you; 4) don’t have more than 2 readers review your essays (1 should read for content and 1 should review grammar). Hope this helps.</p>
<p>@irlandaise - My son was not active in school regarding community service, but he was an alter server and was team captain (this showed both leadership and community service); he helped with summer track and relay for life. He didn’t have a lot of variety in terms of community service, but that didn’t mean he didn’t participate. Again, it’s about being being able to express that you are an individual willing to GIVE BACK or PAY IT FORWARD! I believe those are that individuals that this scholarship is looking for. Remember that when writing your essays</p>
<p>Also, from what I read this essays serve as an aptitude test for how well you will do at the next level. Good luck to all of you planning to apply this year!</p>
<p>@ScubaMom9026 Thank you so much for your feedback. I will try my best to make my essays portray me!</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone applying. I won this scholarship last year, and it has been a huge burden lifted from my shoulders! If anyone needs help, advice, concerns, or questions, I would be happy to help. :)</p>
<p>I’ve got a question for you, @Cfletch - for each of the essays, how did you answer them in terms of length? Did you really write an essay (ex. 500-700 words) for each question? Or did you respond with short answers? I’m asking this because the word limit is 1,000 for each essay, and I’m not sure if that’s what we should be aiming for. </p>
<p>I was wondering if I was allowed to write about my passion for profesional wrestling in the last essay because someone said they did and I really like prowrestling and I believe it is a standout essay unlike typical sad stories like death or financial problems or medical history.</p>
<p>Hey guys I’m applying for this scholarship too. I’m Nigerian American (Igbo for the win 
) I’m nervous to see if I’ll actually get the scholarship, but good luck to everyone applying. </p>
<p>@Clfetch If you don’t mind sharing, could you please tell us your stats and also what you felt was your central theme to your application? Thank you </p>
<p>@theluckylinguist For most of my essays I wrote at least 900-1000 words. I’m guessing it is okay to just write short responses, because other people also won the scholarship that way, but I really wanted to tell my story in the most thorough way possible… My advice for writing the essays is to think deeply about who you are as a person now and who you were when you were younger. Think of all of the factors that contributed to the person you are right now, and write about it.</p>
<p>@noodbsallowed I think that would be a great idea!</p>
<p>@emenya I had about 300 hours of community service, 4.0 GPA, varsity soccer and volleyball, JROTC, Robotics… I filled up all of the slots for leadership roles and activities… I had a lot, but I had no work experience. Do you want to know anything in particular? Also, I don’t know if I can think of one central theme to my application because I wrote about so much. But what comes to mind when I think about my application is that it was passionate and sincere. I poured my heart into those essays and tried to let them know my strengths, as well as my weaknesses.</p>
<p>does all questions have to be highschool related?</p>
<p>I’m sorry I mean does every answer you right have to be high school related?</p>
<p>and btw the wrestling I’m talking about is wwe professional wrestling. A scholar who follows me on twitter said he did that and he won it but I need to confirm it to have an essay that will stand out.</p>
<p>@noodbsallowed No, they do not have to be all high school related. I think talking about professional wrestling could stand out it you write about it in a unique way, because any piece of writing can stand out if it is written a certain way. It depends on how you go about writing it, and that goes for any essay you write.</p>
<p>I just feel like writing a sad story is just cheapshotting the readers to gain sympathy so they could win. I want mine to be refreshing and something they rarely get to read.</p>
<p>I don’t think its cheapshotting per say because maybe the situation that they are writing about is something real and central to the applicant, and their situation and overcoming it really is a great essay. It just all depends on the situation :)</p>
<p>Nood, you are making assumptions that in my experience that are not true. I have read countless essays for both Gates and Questbridge apps over the past six years since my D won them both, and I can tell you that most were NOT sob stories to gain sympathy. My daughter had exactly ONE sentence in all her essays combined that touched on a difficult life circumstance. So no, yours won’t be something they rarely get to read.</p>
<p>I think writing a sad story is completely okay and sometimes necessary. I even wrote a few sad stories in my essays that weren’t for sympathy. I wrote them because the stories were central to my identity. It’s important to write these essays on a personal level, whether they are “sad” or “happy.”</p>
<p>I agree Cfletch to write about whatever portrays you and your life. I just didn’t want nood to think that the adcoms would find his not writing about adversity refeshing or rare.</p>