My daughter is dropping journalism because she hates the atmosphere of the class. She is a terrific writer but thinks she wants to go into education and doesn’t want journalism to be her career path. She simply enjoys writing and has won awards for it. What EC could fill the void journalism left and would impress scholarship committees?
I know there are writing contests and I’m sure she will enter those but I’m looking for something that would require longer term commitment. She plays and instrument and volunteers quite a bit through mentoring programs but journalism was a place to showcase her skills. Any ideas?
Writing contests are often a waste. The awards are usually small and only for one year.
If you are looking for merit scholarships that help pay for college, then you need to look at the schools that award them for HER stats. ECs are usually irrelevant or of little impact.
I don’t think the OP is looking for scholarships for writing, but more things to impress broader scholarships (eg, competitive ones from colleges). Honestly, OP, grades & test scores do the most for those. And the competitive ones with interviews, etc. are usually VERY competitive.
Yearbook staff, literary club (or and English Honors group) could provide some writing opportunities. Some drama groups write their own plays or short stories to act out. We had a local community newspaper that was distributed to the homeowners about once a month, and it had one student from each high school who wrote about the activities at the school (plays, art shows, awards). There were also sports stories that appeared, but I’m not sure who wrote them. It was mostly local advertising with a few stories thrown in.
@intparent I realize that she isn’t looking for scholarships for writing. She mentioned that her D will likely enter writing contests and she wants to “impress scholarship committees” with ECs. Writing contests are often a waste of time unless they’d just be happy with putting in a lot of hours and then maybe net a couple of small one-time awards…which do help a bit, but aren’t a way to pay for four years of college.
Most 4 year awards (which are the ones that really help with college costs) care little/none about ECs. Those awards are largely stats driven…test scores primarily, and a high GPA to back it up.
Merit is often misunderstood. Usually there isn’t a “scholarship committee” looking at “whole student” because that doesn’t help the school. The schools that give large merit are usually buying high test scores.
@Rams1971 - One of my kids is an outstanding copy editor and writer. An EC she has enjoyed since middle school is proofreading/editing a community enewsletter. With the popularity of enewsletters, lots of smaller organizations, nonprofits, churches, places of worship, etc. need volunteers to be a part of their Communications team. They need writers, content editors, photographers, etc. She has continued to edit it remotely since she has moved away. It gives her a connection to her hometown.
Most outside scholarships I have seen expect extraordinary volunteerism. My younger kid is a writer and I haven’t seen too much in the way of scholarships for writers. She works on literary magazines and enters contests, some of which have had cash prizes but nothing huge. Look into Scholastic, I think there is a scholarship opportunity open to seniors, and I’m sure it’s highly competitive.
I think if she could start a blog that developed substantial readership and sponsor s(advertisers pay to put their ads on blogs w high number of readers) that would be impressive as well as it could be a lucrative money maker for her. I have a friend whose daughter has a fashion blog and boasts 600,000 readers (clicks/month) she makes approx 36,000k per month for this thru sponsor money… I know food recipe blogs that do similar and even a running blog that makes insane amount of money for very little work… http://www.incomediary.com/top-earning-blogs
2.Having articles published for national magazine or say Huffington Post tying into her area of interest looks good… key is to develop and area of interest and take it (your writing about it) as far as you can go… easy to do with the online world
What does she want to do? Maybe she wants to concentrate on her music or get more involved in volunteering. These are valid options too. But if she’s a writer who wants to write, there are lots of good suggestions here (yearbook, local paper, online blog…)
I do think deep, meaningful ECs can help with even general merit scholarships when you get to those that have a competition element where there is an interview. There you do need a way to stand out from everyone else with equally high stats and GPA.
Maybe she can use her writing skills to help in another area. Interested in education? Maybe volunteer at a school to help with newsletter or to tutor in a writing lab. For instance, journalism/newspaper in elementary schools is sometimes an after school club that might fit into her schedule.
Maybe handle social media, newsletter for a community group she is involved in. Look for groups that need extra volunteers at different points of year - for a festival, etc. Lots of local papers accept submissions from community - maybe write some human interest stories that promote an event or feature local musicians. Maybe a community literacy program - that would be a natural extension if her love of writing means she also loves to read.
My D and her friends started a creative writing club at her HS a few years back. It avoids the need to write for others’ agendas and deadlines. The club would host local authors, run writing workshops, and share their stories. Even though she is a science major, D still writes a bunch of fan fiction, short stories, even a novel.
Former club members get together when they are home at break times.
My D loved being part of her HS literary magazine – she was an editor her senior year. If there is a literary magazine at your D’s HS it may be worth her checking out. My D found the literary magazine to be a very welcoming and creative outlet.
That said, I wouldn’t do any particular EC just to try and craft a college application – your D should seek out ECs that really enjoys doing.