It's been nearly two weeks since schools in my area shut down, and things are starting to slow down. After two weeks of uncertainty, my county finally made plans for distance learning and made it official: online learning will begin soon. Cue groans of despair.
Still, online learning doesn't mean the end of all this newfound free time. With all (or most) extracurricular activities canceled in hopes of stopping the spread of COVID-19, only a small portion of my day will be spent on schoolwork. I'll still have time to go on my phone, binge Netflix, and, miracle of miracles, sleep. Or, of course, I can try to be productive—and plan for the future. How, you ask? Simple.
Scholarships.
All students should be taking advantage of this extra free time, and do what I have recently started doing: applying for scholarships. Scholarship.com, just one of the many, many scholarship-finding sites available, boasts thousands of scholarships to choose from. Don't be confused, however. Many of the scholarships listed are extremely specific. A good amount can only be attained by graduate or undergraduate students in college, and many are limited to select minorities.
First, spend time combing through available scholarships and selecting ones you both are eligible for and find interesting. Scholarship.com has a great tool for doing this, but other fantastic sites include Cappex, Fastweb, and Niche. Make sure to be realistic with time constraints—don't try to add scholarships to your to-do list with due dates less than a day or two away.
Once you complete your list, start to fill out scholarship applications. Work on one at a time, and attack the scholarships with the closest due dates first. Most scholarships out there will revolve around writing some type of insightful (or not, see this scholarship which involves writing about ice cream) essay. Here's how I usually approach those:
Daniela's Fail-Safe Plan To Writing Successful Scholarship Essays
1. Open a blank Google Doc and copy-paste the prompt(s) and any relevant information.
2. Brainstorm topics and anecdotes. This is a good time to ready essays from past winners of the scholarship. Think about what winning entries have in common.
3. Type out a rough outline, a couple phrases per line with each line signifying a paragraph of the finished essay.
4. Write a (very) rough draft. All in one sitting. No getting up until it's finished.
5. Fix big picture elements: organization, voice, flow. Think: does it stand out? Is it too cliche? If yes, scrap it and start over.
6. Focus on the little things. Fix spelling, punctuation, etc. Remember that some variation from English conventions works if done deliberately and expertly.
7. Walk away for at least 24 hours (or 15 minutes, if you procrastinated and the deadline is in an hour). Come back with a fresh mind and edit as necessary.
8. Have one or two trusted adults read over the essay and make necessary changes.
9. Submit!
With that said: good luck on your scholarship submissions, and happy quarantining!
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