As students apply for college, they find themselves searching for ways to pay for college tuition and general cost of living. The last thing they want is an overwhelming amount of student debt. When making web searches and browsing the internet, you are thrown with new information and opportunities, but what’s next? Many get stumped at the application process and the types of scholarships offered. Students often feel uncertain about which scholarships to apply for and what the scholarship review committee is looking for. So here are some tips and a few things to take into consideration when applying.
There are a variety of scholarships, such as merit scholarships, which are based on academic merit, high test scores, and GPA, and then there are need-based scholarships, which are based on financial need, and writing scholarships. Written scholarships are based on the prompt provided; participants use creative writing to answer, with a word count that can be as short as 500 words and can be as long as 1,000 words. This can all depend on the requirements. Some scholarships will ask about your volunteering and community service.
When applying for different scholarships, you want to find one that best fits your wants and needs. “You’re applying to receive money, you shouldn’t have to pay for any sort of service to get a scholarship, and also… stay organized with all of your documents, because some of those things, you could use that same response for maybe another scholarship. So it’ll save you that time instead of having to, like, redo all of your essays geared toward different [scholarships],” said Claire Contreras, Mt. SAC Early College Academy’s counselor
The most reputable sources for scholarships are Scholarship.com, Fastweb, CollegeBoard, and Niche. Each website offers students an authentic scholarship opportunity with a large database of information. They have search engines to help sort the information and help narrow down the amount for which you are more eligible to apply. These websites have a long-standing history and have helped a multitude of students. Scholarship.com, for example, has been officially recognized by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and experts such as U.S News and World Report. It has upheld its standards of trust, which are to gain trust, honesty, privacy, and more.
Angelina Te, a senior here at MECA, applied and won the Alexander Hamilton Scholarship. The mission of the Alexander Hamilton Scholarship Foundation is to provide students with financial needs a chance to pursue higher education. “If you struggled a lot going up, and you also based it on your entrepreneurship, [I know] a lot of people who were selected had their own organizations,” said Te.
In her freshman year, Te created the Legacy Club, a club dedicated to Asian advocacy, and played the euphonium competitively from freshman to sophomore year. She did workshops at Disney and California State University, Fullerton. During her sophomore year, she created Golden Student Bears because she was suffering from an undiagnosed illness, which caused her to lose parts of her vision, made it hard to walk, and she became very sick. This caused her to miss school, and she felt that many students were looked down upon as horrible students.
“I come from, like the Long Beach Compton area, and, like a lot of people from the outside…, look down at those students, think that they work less and so, so I made that organization to promote… extracurriculars, …internships, jobs, even advice as well and … volunteer opportunities, through my organization, to… help students like who are in the same situation as me and like [live in] marginalized areas, to close the opportunity gap and give opportunities and stuff,” said Te.
The requirement for the Alexander Hamilton Scholarship is to have a minimum GPA of 3.0, and your family income has to be below $100,000. You have to apply as a Junior, and the application process includes 2-3 supplements, leadership roles, and a list of extracurricular activities. [bg on how it was common] “entrepreneurship and then, like, leadership, kindness, [he had] qualities, like, of the former president, Alexander Hamilton”, said Te. She remembers the prompt being based on the quote “And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean. By providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?. The lyrics from the Alexander Hamilton play. They wanted her to talk about her proudest achievement, struggles she overcame, and the big picture she saw from all of this.
Adam Nguyen, another senior at MECA, participated in taking the PSAT and was recognized for his score, which he was able to enroll in the National Merit Scholarship. Then received a Letter of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Committee. Once you receive your score, the app will send you a notification about the scholarship. But to make it to the semi-finals, you need to meet the requirements for the Selection Index score. To calculate your score, you need to add your reading and writing scores to your math score, then multiply it by two and divide the score by ten. The cutoff will depend on your state and population score; the maximum index score was 228 for this year.
“Before doing the test, I tried reading more nonfiction stuff, because I know on the PSAT they have you analyze like non nonfiction sources as well as fiction ones. But the nonfiction ones, they give you like data too, and then it asks you to like, interpret, interpret it,’’ said Nguyen. He intends to take the SAT and major in computer science and mathematics.
Senior Katelynn Lee also has her personal experiences with applying for scholarships. Currently, she has applied for the Coca-Cola scholarship, Gates, and the Questbridge National College Match.
“[Make sure to] have people look over your application… you’re gonna be like, spending like a week on your application, and you’re gonna be like crazy,” said Lee. “So whatever you read is gonna be what you wanted to read, not what it actually says, especially because I had a problem with that. I did too many metaphors. You gotta like, bump it down.”
Another piece of advice about the application process from Lee is to take advantage of the opening dates for scholarships and plan. She said, “…especially because we’re a small school, everybody’s gonna be asking the same teachers, and like, these teachers are gonna be backed up with all the recommendations. So it’s better just like, ask them early and be the first on their list, so you won’t have to stress about [it].” Lee senior at MECA.
Tara Phapornchai, another MECA senior, also shares some of her experiences and advice she has to offer others. She said,”[It was] hard for me navigating which scholarships, because I fall into that middle category where it’s like, college is expensive, but a lot of the universities don’t see that.’’ Phapornchai. Finding scholarships she was eligible for was difficult, and she recommends reaching out for help if you don’t know where to start.
Parapornchai also applied to other scholarships, including the Coca-Cola scholarship: “You know, getting my transcript, being my grades, applying, like, finding every little bit and piece about my life and who I am is just a lot of crazy. Just to have someone sit down with you and hold you accountable to doing your work is really helpful, because a lot of these applications [are] really tedious and … just having someone to sit there, help guide you, and just, like, encourage you, is really helpful. And also just having, like, a timeline in general, of like, when things are due.” She hopes her tips will help students with their applications to scholarships.
Senior Ethan Tran is the president of the Scholarship Club. He started the club after he got back from his summer program called the Young Leaders Summit (YLS) at Princeton University, which has 3% acceptance rate. There, he learned of programs such as Questbridge, Gates, and Posse. He said,” I was just thinking to keep educating everyone, about…, how to apply for [scholarships]. And like, how to, you know, write a compelling essay to persuade you know, admissions officers that.. you are like worthy of getting into, and I also want people to know that they’re capable of like going to the Ivy Leagues.” Tran senior here at MECA. He hopes his club will provide guidance and will continue after he graduates.
Andrea Pedroarias teaches College Readiness and Senior Seminar at MECA. She said, “I always tell this anecdote. I never thought I would get any scholarships, but I applied to one in high school. And I don’t know how many applicants there are, but I just shot in the dark. I was like, You know what? Just let me try one, and I got it.” Pedroarias teacher at MECA. She wants students to know that applying to scholarships may seem very daunting and overwhelming. They should apply and give it their best because she doesn´t want their fears of rejection to stop them from applying and earning financial aid. They deserve to feel the enjoyment that comes with their hard work.
