National Scholarships
Assessing Your Qualifications
If you are a student with an extraordinary record of achievement as an undergraduate, you might consider applying for one or more of the following prestigious national or local scholarships. Before beginning the rigorous application process, evaluate your qualifications carefully. Your academic record is a critical starting point: while the minimum G.P.A. might be stated as 3.5, in most cases, your G.P.A. should be 3.75 or higher. Grades alone are not enough: your academic record needs to reflect distinctive choices: Honors courses, upper-level seminars, study abroad, undergraduate research, independent study, and senior honors project credit all indicate that you have sought academic challenges beyond minimal requirements.In addition to your grades, you need to have excelled at other aspects of undergraduate life. Activities that demonstrate an ongoing commitment to the arts, to leadership, to service, and to athletic endeavor are all critically important. It is not enough to participate in organizations; you need to hold positions of responsibility, and if possible, demonstrate that the organizations met goals that you helped establish.
Remember that you will be competing with students from schools very different than the University of Louisville, and that your experiences need to be comparable. If you have done significant paid work off-campus, and have not had time to devote to campus or community activities, you may not be able to demonstrate the same range of skills as someone who has been able to get involved in many different organizations over four years. Students with developed avocations that will enhance their lives over years have an advantage over students who have not had time to cultivate what they love to do.
Preparing to apply for these scholarships is an ongoing process that begins when you decide to attend college. You need to determine your goals early, and work towards them in a holistic way. The following guidelines may help you cultivate excellence from the start of your undergraduate career:
1. Rise above published minimal expectations. Demonstrate your internal motivation by achieving beyond stated, external requirements.
- Do better than a 3.0 to keep your scholarship.
- Do better than a 3.35 to maintain Honors eligibility
- Take more hours than you need to graduate (without jeopardizing your grades).
- Do an independent study or Honors project even though it's not going to get you into medical school.
- Develop an area of academic interest that complements your major, but don't try to develop several.
- Recognize the validity of your preferences; assume that it will somehow
- Assess your talents and developed skills realistically; be sure your vocational choice will allow you to love, though maybe in a setting you cannot yet imagine.
- Take advantage of opportunities to experiment with different futures. Internships mentoring relationships, cooperative learning situations, overseas study, unusual summer jobs: all of these can reveal something useful about your skills and preferences.
- A career goal which is too modest, or has too limited an outlook, could cause you lots of dissatisfaction in the future. Shoot high, not low, and look for the best match for your capabilities.
- Ideas change, and that's okay. With more knowledge, you may recognize that your original choice or major or career is not what you want to pursue. Fine. Figure out what you like better.
- Go for depth, not breadth. Pursue a few activities extensively rather than spread yourself thinly among several.
- Don't pay something for nothing: campus organizations which require no more from you than a fee to join indicate little about your capabilities.
- View extracurricular activity as an opportunity to learn as well as enjoy yourself; organizations that help you acquire new skills or develop an empathetic outlook are worth your time and energy.
- Don't avoid "tough" teachers in order to protect your GPA. You will have more rigorous classes in graduate school and more difficult bosses in the workplace. Get used to it.
- Except occasional failure: the process of becoming wise about yourself, others, and the world, is not one of unalloyed success, but a system of trial and error, attempt and failure. It's okay to screw up, as long as you learn from the experience.>
- Establish priorities. What must be done this minute, what must be done today, what must be done by tomorrow afternoon?
- Realize that time-management gets tougher as you acquire more responsibility: you will need to learn to micro-manage every hour to be successful in many occupations.
- Competing well at the University of Louisville is not the same as competing well on national, standardized tests. Figure out what national norms are and then prepare to do better than average.
- Study with buddies: what do they do well that you find difficult? Are they employing different learning strategies than you? If so, learn to use them, too.
8.Be pragmatic. Consult resources that inform you about current, realistic options, and cultivate relationships with people who can write you detailed and positive letters of recommendation.
9.Evaluate your performance and your feelings to be sure your goals are realistic, desirable, and come from within.
Writing Application Essays
Application essays present you with an opportunity to give members of a selection committee a sense of who you are and to convince them that your goals and strengths closely match the stated purposes of a specific scholarship. Typically, you have a lot of flexibility about how you organize this essay and which aspects of yourself to emphasize. However, it is imperative that your essay include the following:- Ways in which the scholarship is the best opportunity to further your personal and professional goals. You need to have a life plan that puts the scholarship in a broad context, showing that it builds upon past experience and will contribute to future achievements. Indicating that you will be personally enriched by the experience offered by the scholarship is not adequate.
- Qualifications for the scholarship with some focus on those which are not immediately evident from an academic transcript. Identify the less usual aspects of your academic career and extracurricular life, and explain how these distinctive achievements have prepared you to take advantage of the scholarship.
- Logically organized material that engages your readers' attention and allows them to absorb new information about you quickly. With limited space to write (generally, under 1,000 words), you may find your essay more effective if it focuses on an issue or experience that has helped define who you are, or a significant accomplishment or contribution you have made to your academic discipline or community.
- Connections between your academic and personal pursuits and a sense of how your accomplishments reflect who you are. You need to express your personality without appearing overly pedantic or humorous; neither will it do to be too modest about your achievements.
- A strong sense of individuality and personality. This is a difficult quality to achieve, but one of the most important. You want your readers to look forward to meeting you in person, to get to know you better. Your application as a whole should be a comprehensive, honest portrayal of who you are at this moment in your life, but only the essay gives you the opportunity to speak directly to the selection committee. Use your voice.
Other tips for writing effective essays:
- Start early; consider the production of a plausible essay the project of a semester, not of a week. The time and effort you invest in this process will never be wasted, because you will clarify your goals and gain confidence in your ability to reach them.
- Research thoroughly. Learn everything there is to know about the scholarship for which you are applying. Consult published sources in the library, check the web, find other people who have applied for or held the scholarship previously. If the scholarship takes you to a specific institution, learn about the history and significance of the institution as well.
- Revise often. Expect to throw away three or four drafts before showing your essay to anyone else. Once you have consulted others, expect to continue revising the essay to achieve a polished and convincing presentation. You will be more objective about critiquing your own work if you let some time pass between drafts (another reason to start early).
- Seek others' opinions. Ask readers to be rigorous in their evaluations, and be prepared to respond to constructive criticism with additional revisions.
- Replace abstraction with specific information that is not available from other portions of your application. Avoid the temptation to repeat a simple list of your achievements. Instead, elaborate upon one or two of the most meaningful.
- Eliminate errors of spelling, grammar, fact, and thought.
Project Proposal
Some fellowships or scholarships may require a project proposal or plan of study as part of the application. This is generally the case when a fellowship allows you flexibility about how and where to spend an award. In order to convince a selection committee that you are a candidate who will make excellent use of an award, you need to prepare a proposal that includes the following elements:- A specific plan of study or research that demonstrates knowledge of current activity in your chosen field.
- A statement of your goals that relates your plans for the fellowship to your long-term professional development, and reflects the stated purposes of the award.
- Permission to spend time at the facilities or participate in the program that will provide you with the means to pursue your goals.
- Evidence of how qualified you are to achieve your goals.
Appearance Matters
- Type, rather than write, responses to questions on the application form.
- Submit the maximum number of letters of recommendation.
- Enclose a copy of your current semester's classes with your transcript.
- Anticipate deadlines; mail applications early.
- Address applications accurately, using professional titles appropriately.
Requesting Letters of Recommendation
When applying for a prestigious scholarship, graduate program, or employment opportunity, you will discover that you need letters of recommendation from people who have observed your academic performance and your interactions with others. It is extremely important that you choose your recommenders carefully, and you should make an appointment to speak with each of them about your applications before you solicit letters. Ask your recommender if he or she thinks that you are a qualified candidate for the opportunity you seek. Find out what he or she perceives to be your strengths and weaknesses. Not only will this help you craft a stronger application, it will give you the opportunity to assess the willingness of someone to serve as a reference.Preparing For Interviews
If you enter into competition for a highly prestigious scholarship or fellowship, you need to prepare for rigorous interviews which can take several different forms: you may face an internal selection committee composed of faculty members whom you know; you may be meeting an external selection committee at an informal social gathering where your ability to mingle and put others at ease is being observed carefully; you may be asked to prepare a formal presentation to a group followed by questions. None of these is the kind of interview that you can prepare for overnight. You will need to draw on knowledge, interests, and values that reflect experience accumulated throughout your high school and college years. You will need to exude confidence in yourself and be able to communicate your individual achievements and talents. It will not be enough to have a stellar academic record; you must have some distinctive achievements to offer the interviewing committee.Many questions will test your understanding of the scholarship or fellowship for which you are applying. To prepare, do your research. Find others who may have held these positions before you and ask them to tell you everything they know. Read everything you can about the history of the scholarship and fellowship and the original intent of the founders of these opportunities. You will need to demonstrate that your goals in seeking this award closely match the goals of the funding foundation or academic institution. Further, since many prestigious awards offer you the choice of academic institution at which to study, you need to know why you have chosen a specific university and country in which to pursue your work. Learn as much as you can about the institution you wish to attend, including the names and academic strengths of future professors. You will need to demonstrate that you understand the culture of the environment you wish to enter in all its dimensions: political, social, economic, geographical, and historical.
You will find an interview of this nature mentally challenging, and need to be prepared to think on your feet. You may be asked to formulate workable solutions to difficult problems or advocate positions involving ethical or political perspectives different than your own. You will be tested with questions that ask you to apply knowledge from one arena to something less familiar. You may occasionally be asked to comment on a topic completely outside your range of experience; in such cases, it is not a shortcoming to admit ignorance. None of us is an expert on everything.
In addition to the depth and breadth of your knowledge and experience, a good interview will allow you to communicate a lot about your character. Interviewers will be able to judge whether you are stimulated or overwhelmed by new situations depending on the way you respond to questions. Your ability to keep and use a sense of humor will be observed. If you are invited for an interview, you can assume that your interviewers are disposed to think well of you. Remembering this will help you convey confidence and enthusiasm in an energetic, impressive way. You will be more at ease if you have practiced ahead of time. You can rehearse out loud, with a friend, or with faculty members willing to give you a mock interview. You can tape a mock interview to critique later. Often, this will provide you with objective insight about your conversational habits that may need to be adjusted in a formal interview.
Following are some general suggestions about how to prepare for competitive interviews. Remember that these are long-term strategies which must employed long before you apply for a prestigious scholarship, fellowship, or career opportunity if they are to have the most beneficial effect.
- Understand the expectations and the limitations of the scholarship or position for which you are applying.
- Be able to articulate your goals in a way that relates what you've done so far to the scholarship or position you desire and to your long-range plans.
- Be able to explain your educational choices in the context of society's current needs. Demonstrate relevance and the ability to turn theory into practice.
- Know thyself. Be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses and discuss how you will build upon the first and minimize or eliminate the latter.
- Demonstrate concern for others and the future of the planet.
- Get engaged in extracurricular activities that inform you about social, economic, ecological, and political issues.
- Be able to articulate your opinions about social problems fully, placing the focus on practical solutions, rather than idealistic hopes for improvement.
- Recognize your insularity. Think about how you have been defined by your geographical location (as a Kentuckian, as an American) in both positive and negative ways.
- Learn enough about other cultures to appreciate their strengths and their differences.
- Be conversant with current events.
- Read a news magazine weekly.
- Listen to NPR and watch the national news routinely.
- Know where in the world major events are occurring.
- Form opinions that you can support with specific facts.
- Demonstrate a commitment to life-long learning.
- Engage in extracurricular activities or hobbies that help you acquire new skills or refine old ones.
- Participate routinely in physical activities that promote long-term health.
- Find ways to experience and appreciate the natural world.
- Construct a vision of your future that keeps your immediate and long-range goals in sight; be able to explain the appeal of this vision to others.
Practical Interviewing Tips
- Practice introducing yourself with a firm handshake and clear enunciation.
- Eliminate heavy scents like musk perfumes or after-shave lotions. If you smoke, avoid doing so before and during the interview.
- Do not chew gum.
- Dress appropriately and somewhat conservatively, but try to wear something that will stay in an interviewer's memory later. Men might wear a tie with an unusual pattern; women might wear a small piece of hand-designed jewelry. Be boring: no leather, spiked heels, green hair, or nose rings.
- During an interview, try to use the name of the person with whom you are speaking.
- Sit tall and try to minimize nervous movements with your hands and feet.
- Maintain eye contact, and concentrate on what people are saying to you. Nervousness can impair your ability to hear and understand others. If necessary, ask someone politely to repeat a question, and take the time to answer thoughtfully.
- If you do not know, or haven't thought about, the answer to an interviewer's question, admit it and move on. You will make up with honesty what you may lose by ignorance.
- Be yourself, as courteous, friendly, humorous and confident a self as possible. Some nervousness is unavoidable and will be forgiven. Remember that you have gotten to an interview because you are qualified. What an interviewer is assessing are your less obvious attributes--how you handle mild stress, how you respond to persistent questioning, how you relate to strangers, how articulate you are, how at ease you are in unfamiliar surroundings, how assertive you are. It helps to remember that most interviewers want to like you and make a good impression themselves.
- Remember the interview is your opportunity to seek information, too. Be prepared with questions that reveal your understanding of the scholarship or position you are seeking and your desire to be offered that opportunity.
- After an interview, be sure that you send an appreciative note to whoever interviewed you, using his or her correct title and address.
Three Types of Interviews
Directive Interview: This interview follows a definite pattern and is used mostly by professional interviewers in Personnel Departments. The interviewer works from an outline, asks a specific set of questions, and keeps a checklist and response sheet. It tends to be very structured and too impersonal to get at the personality of the candidate. It is used mostly to screen out unqualified applicants.Nondirective Interview: This interview has a loosely structured format, where the questions are broad and general and the interviewee is allowed to talk about what she or he wishes. This type of interview invites the interviewee to take control and is an excellent way to get at the interviewee's personality.
Stress Interview: This kind of interview generally consists of long periods of silence, challenging of your opinions, seeming to be unfriendly or brusque and other attitudes directed toward making you uncomfortable. Most interviews contain some stress, but the introduction of intentional stress will be something you will notice if you are alert. Variations on stress interviews are the group or board interviews. The group interview involves many interviewees and one or several interviewers. This kind of interview is normally presented as a group discussion. The purpose, though, is not to study what is said, but to determine some characteristics of how each interviewee interacts with other members of the group. Usually this type of interview is used as a way to identify "natural leaders." Board interviews have one interviewee and many interviewers. How you should handle yourself in this kind of interview does not differ greatly from a normal one-on-one interview. It is just harder to concentrate on establishing rapport with more than one person. In this situation where several people will be questioning you, do not look only at the person who asked the question you are answering. The whole group is interested in your answer, so use eye contact with each individual, but center it on the individual who asked the question.
