People who actually win scholarships

<p>I would like to beleive that I have goot stats that serve as evidence for my ambition and hard work for the past four years. I thought and still believe that these stats along with my financial need would allow me to win scholarships...LOTS OF THEM! And recently...let's just say that what I thought would be a scholaship I had a good "chance" was aperently won by lots of other people (it was based by region so there were lots of winners throughout the nation). I have applied to numerous scholarships..I stopped counting in October. It is true that I am still waiting to hear from most but I just want to ask....who are the people who win most scholarships? What are they stats? I realize scholarships are different..with different requirements and criteria but I am 5th in my class of 450, IB student, who works for a local prestigious CPA firm...Please tell me there is hope! </p>

<p>So if you won a scholarship, please tell us about it, so we can put into perspective things. Thanks and good luck to you all in the pursuit of money for college!</p>

<p>The real question here might be: what are the statistics for # of scholarships filled out to # received. I imagine this would also be influenced by # of national vs. # local scholarships.</p>

<p>I talk about this to my D each time she gets a rejection in the mail. Yes, she has awesome grades, EC's, personality - but truthfully so do many others. We are pretty middle-middle class so surely there are those who have more fin aid needs than us and others who have less need.</p>

<p>So what do the "scholarship committees" (powers that be...!) really look for? If you have many talented people before you (in the form of an app) and many great essays to go along with them, how do they really choose???</p>

<p>Sometimes I have wondered (for my D for instance) if they look at her stats - top 3 in class, very good ACT's etc. and say "oh she'll get plenty of aid elsewhere". Makes you wonder...</p>

<p>That being said, she has received one for sure so far...a one time $1500. My hopes are that we can at least get one more of these....</p>

<p>Good luck to you BGjeez - have you received any positives yet? I hope you get to experience that joy of an accepted application!</p>

<p>One thing to consider when looking at the large national scholarships from coke, target and such is to remember it's part of their advertising. I have always found these winners to be those whom overcome these great ecomonic or family problems, kid of a single parent, lived in a shelter. The more dramatic the situation, the more they like it. And this is not a knock on those kids, it's just an observation that with these enitities it's like auditioning for a commerical, because it very possibly will be. </p>

<p>You might have better luck with fraternal organizations like elks, moose, knights of columbus, masons, etc.. service groups.</p>

<p>look for scholarship at your parents jobs. corporations give out alot of money but they may not advertise the scholarships. i remember going to my mom's human resource office to inquire about them and the ppl there were completely clueless. my friend told me about the scholarship and we both applied and received $1,000. research obscure and local scholarships</p>

<p>PM me if you'd like...I was a pogue, ingram, mcnair, and robertson finalist. idk why they picked me and idk how i got so lucky!! i did work very hard in high school and tried to be really involved. honestly, it's a lot of luck. :-P but ill give u my stats if u want to message me. :) im sure ull start hearing lotsss of good news soon!!! hard work does pay off! i promise</p>

<p>Well, I got finalist for Best Buy and won American Ideal Scholarship. Although I also applied to others, I guess some of the reason why I was able to get some of these was because of my Extra cirricular and semi fair SAT score and grades. My GPA is not 4.0, but rather, 3.6, so that might tell them that it is harder to receive financial aid. If you want to know my extra cirricular i can list them for you later.</p>

<p>delirious - </p>

<p>One thing that seems to help is having someone else look over your applications and essays for spelling errors and obvious mistakes. This was good advice my guidance counselor gave me when I was really upset last year about not getting a scholarship. I am kinda spelling challenged. He pointed out that the committees get piles of applications. They don't have time to put a lot of thought into the initial screening and it is easy just to toss the ones that look sloppy, aren't signed, have bad spelling or w/e.</p>

<p>Also I think I am getting better at doing the apps as I get more practice with them. I wish I had done more of them as a junior because my college apps would have been easier and better and I might be doing better at winning scholarships now. I'm sure I could do them a lot faster so that I could enter more senior year contests. It's gotta be a decent life skill to learn.</p>

<p>Some of the Coke and other big winners were not financially challenged or experiencing hardships; you also find NMFs and kids who have designed really awesome community service projects that affect hundreds of local kids. You probably won't win those big scholarships by just helping out with a service but rather coming up with something different on your own, developing it and then organizing it into a worthwhile project. D won Best Buy, Comcast, and Harrington for a project she designed and carried out for two years, and was a honorable mention for Prudential.</p>

<p>Thanks guys for sharing your own experiences. My post came after I realized I wasn't even a semi-finalist for a local scholarship I thought I had a pretty good shot at. Today, I applied for one local one and tomorrow I am sending in the mail two more. I am still trying and I hope I'll get a positive reply very soon!</p>