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Tips Beasiswa
Winning Scholarship
By Mbaprograms.org
Merit scholarships are typically awarded on the basis of
academic, athletic or artistic merit, in addition to
special interests. Some merit scholarships also consider
financial need, but rewarding talent is the primary
objective.
In most cases the scholarship sponsor has a set of
criteria they use to select the winners from among the
qualified applicants. (This is in contrast to
scholarship lotteries which select winners randomly.) So
a key to winning a scholarship is to identify the
sponsor's criteria and tailor your application to those
criteria.
Sponsors can have a variety of goals in offering a
scholarship.
Some companies offer scholarships as a form of community
development, to invest in the future of the communities
where they are based. Others offer scholarships to help
retain current employees and recruit future employees.
Colleges may offer scholarships to recruit a talented
and diverse student body. Colleges may also offer
scholarships in specific majors to encourage students to
enroll in underrepresented majors (e.g., scholarships
for women and minorities in science and engineering).
Membership organizations tend to offer scholarships to
promote their field or the mission of the organization.
Other scholarships may be established to honor the
memory of someone who has passed away, to provide a
legacy that perpetuates his or her values.
The first step is to make sure you qualify for the
scholarship.
If the application requirements specify that you must
have a 3.7 or higher GPA and you have a 3.6 GPA, don't
bother applying. Most scholarship sponsors receive so
many qualified applications that they do not have the
time to consider applications that fail to satisfy the
requirements. You may be a wonderful and talented
person, but if your application is not qualified, the
selection committee is not going to look at it.
On the other hand, if you barely miss the application
requirements, you should try to improve until you
qualify. For example, if you have a 3.6 GPA and the
award requires a 3.7 GPA to apply, you could try working
hard in school to improve your grades until you achieve
a 3.7 GPA. This is why it is worthwhile to search for
scholarships as soon as possible. Many awards also have
prerequisites, such as requiring a portfolio of your
work or a project report, that can take time to prepare.
The FastWeb scholarship database will only show you
awards that match your profile. FastWeb has the tightest
match of any scholarship database, so you're less likely
to waste time on awards for which you aren't qualified.
As noted previously, all scholarship sponsors receive
more qualified applications than they have awards
available. The most competitive scholarships have a
selection ratio of 1 in 400. The least competitive
awards have a selection ratio of 1 in 10. According to
the 1999-2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study,
6.9% of undergraduate students receive private sector
scholarships, and the average amount received is $2,051.
That means that your raw odds of winning a scholarship
are 1 in 14.5.
But scholarship sponsors aren't going to give you money
simply for breathing. They want to give money to the
most talented qualified applicant. So to maximize your
chances of winning the award, you need to identify the
criteria they will use to select the winner. Sometimes
the sponsor has published the criteria they use.
Sometimes you have to critique your application from the
sponsor's perspective.
It is important to remember that scholarship sponsors
are evaluating applications, not applicants. You need to
ensure that your application and the supporting
materials contain all the relevant information the
committee needs to evaluate your candidacy. The
committee only knows what your application and your
letters of recommendations tell it. Write an application
that highlights the aspects of your background that
match the sponsor's goals.
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