Real Advice for Study Abroad: Scholarship Essay Tips and Tricks

Last time on RAFSA, I told you where to find financial aid opportunities to fund your study abroad adventures. Now it’s time to write the essays for all of those applications, but you don’t just want to write, you want to win! While I can’t guarantee you’ll win 100% of what you’ve applied for, I can tell you that a strong essay will personalize your applications and make you stand out to the judges. Here are 8 steps to making your writing rock.

1)     Read The Directions: Don’t miss out on this opportunity to find out what the committee is asking of you. If you don’t read them, you’re doomed from the start. To insure your understanding, summarize them in your own words. Stick this summary and the application deadline right on your master calendar for quick reference. Also, if there’s something you don’t understand about the prompt, don’t be afraid to call and ask the organization that is offering the award. If anything, this will give you a competitive edge on other writers.

2)     Consider Your Audience: Think about who will be reading your paper. What are the ideals and values of the company, association, or program? What do they stand for? Try to reflect these ideals in your writing. If you’re applying for a conservative scholarship, don’t focus your essay on your involvement in the Campus Democrats… Don’t lie or mislead the judges – just try to be tactful.

3)     Create an Outline: Taking word count and/or page length requirements into consideration, map out the skeleton of your essay by writing out main points you want to include. Be sure to include all the criteria from the directions. Your outline may look something like this:

Attention Grabbing Intro

  • Thesis (summarizing sentence. Point you’re trying to make.)

Body Paragraph

  • Opening sentence (smooth transition from par. 1)
  • Detail, point or criteria
  • Detail/point/criteria

Body Paragraph

  • Transition/Opening sentence
  • Detail/point/criteria
  • Detail/point/criteria

Conclusion

  • Reiteration of thesis
  • Thanks

From your outline, you can flesh out the remainder of the essay by elaborating on the points you have made.

4)     Highlight Your Accomplishments: Brainstorm a list of noteworthy things you have done or been involved in, including academic achievements, extra-curricular activities, memberships and volunteer experience. If the prompt leaves room, include one, or some, of these successes and how they make you an ideal candidate for the award. If the prompt is very specific, leave these out or risk sounding insecure or narcissistic.

To go a step further, collaborate your list into an academic resume, and include one with each of your applications. Contact your school’s Career Services department if you need extra help.

5)    Use a Thesaurus: Upgrading your vocabulary can make your paper sound more professional and sincere. Don’t overdo it, though. Keep it realistic and subtle, and let your personal voice shine through your work.

6)     Be Specific, Yet Concise: Adding descriptive details can breathe life into an otherwise bland paper. However, don’t be longwinded. The judges, who will likely have read many essays before yours, will be looking for quality over quantity. Don’t muck up your paper with frivolous or vague information. Include only what is necessary to get your point across in a colorful and convincing way.

7)     Be Honest: Draw from real-life experiences and concentrate on what differentiates you from other applicants. Don’t over embellish and avoid sob stories unless they stem from truth. Guilt-tripping your readers into awarding you a prize isn’t the way to go. When talking about academic achievements, memberships, and the like, keep in mind that the awarders will likely double-check your credentials before paying out.

8)     Edit, Edit, Edit: Don’t just proofread your own essay, as you will likely overlook simple mistakes. Go to a site like Paperrater.com to get the lowdown on your spelling, grammar, and word choice, among other things. Once that’s done, e-mail it to a few qualified people such as:

  • A parent, family member or friend: to ensure your essay gives its readers a good idea of who you are as a person.
  • Your study abroad advisor: to make sure you are addressing the criteria in a satisfactory manner. Chances are she can help you, if it’s SA related, not to mention she has probably served on a scholarship committee.
  • A non-biased person, such as someone in your school’s Writing Center: to tell you if your points make sense without having any knowledge of your back-story, and to give an outsider’s opinion of your writing style.

Of course, whom you send it to is up to you, but be sure to have your work thoroughly proofread before sending it in. Typos are the nemeses of scholarships!

Minding these simple tips can help you conquer your required writings in a captivatingly effective way, to capture judges’ attention and bring you closer to big bucks. Once again, thank you for reading RAFSA. Stay tuned for more tips relating to your dreams of international education!

“Self-proclaimed “Francophile” Jessica Longshore is a sophomore French major at Western Illinois University. On Campus, her involvement includes being a member of NSCS, a Centennial Honors College member, and Vice President of Western’s Ambassadors for Study Abroad (WASA). During her free time, she likes to cook, do her nails, and write. She is also looking forward to studying abroad in Cannes, France this coming fall, and blogging about her travels.”

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3 Tips for Saving Money after Graduation

Make and Keep a Budget. You would be surprised how much faster you spend money when you aren’t keeping track of it as opposed to when you write down every single time you spend $4 for a Starbucks coffee, $5 for a Subway Footlong, $10 for a midnight premiere, $2 for pens,  $35 for gas, $8 for socks…You get the picture.

And although the word “budget” causes many to shudder, it’s really not that hard. You are simply calculating your expenses, calculating your income, and then making sure your income is equal to or greater than your expenses. Ok, ok, it’s a little more complicated than that. But CNN Money makes it super easy for you with their handy dandy automatic budget calculator. Check it out here!

Job Search Effectively and Efficiently. Jobacle.com has several great pieces of advice on job hunting:

  • Make a plan. “Think about which companies you want to work for, what other areas/industries your skills might apply to, and how you’re going to track and follow up with all the contacts you make in the course of your job search (hint: use a spreadsheet).”
  • Prioritize. What kinds of jobs are you genuinely interested in? What jobs will just waste your time by cluttering up your search results? What jobs are you honestly not qualified for and should table until a later and more experienced time in your life?
  • Have several versions of your resume on hand. “Each one should be tailored to an industry or function you’re interested in, so you’ll have a polished, well targeted version of your resume on hand when you find a position you want to apply for.”

Take Advantage of NSCS member discounts. NSCS has a sweet partnership with GEICO. (After all, who can resist the adorable green lizard?) In addition to your membership discount—which could take off as much as 8% from GEICO’s already low rates—you can also get 24-hour service online or by phone, and efficient and fair claims handling. Also, for every NSCS quote, GEICO will contribute $1 to the NSCS Scholarship Fund! Philanthropy and thriftiness—a match made in heaven. If you’re looking for a free quote feel free to click here or call 1-800-368-2734.

Also, if you need to get to job interviews, you can rent a car from Hertz, the world’s largest car rental company. Every time you rent, make sure to use your NSCS discount so you can save your hard-earned money! There’s even a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership available for NSCS Members that lets you avoid lines, earn points every time you rent, and convert points to free rental days.

Kelsey Crow attends Boise State University, is a member of NSCS, the Honors College, and is the Service Representative for the Honors Student Association. Her major is Communications with a Journalism emphasis, she writes weekly opinion pieces for the student newspaper, and in her spare time she dreams of international investigative journalism.

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Categories: biz geek, campus geek

NSCS Alumni Advisory Board

First came the question, “What is NSCS?” Then came the induction.  You saw that your chapter organized a variety of services and social events. You may have participated in them and also may have decided to become an officer.  Graduation came and went.

Now what?

You asked the question and we have the answer!  The National Society of Collegiate Scholars is pleased to launch the NSCS Alumni Advisory Board. The NSCS Alumni Advisory Board is a special opportunity for a select number of NSCS members to serve in an advisory capacity to the NSCS national staff and Board of Directors.  The Alumni Advisory Board consists of NSCS alumni, including former chapter officers, current and former NLC members, as well as active members.

The Alumni Board’s mission is to strategically implement activities/programs for alumni engagement, support initiatives presented by the NSCS national office, serve as a resource to provide feedback from alumni and coordinate funding/scholarship opportunities for NSCS.  The board’s goal is to communicate new initiatives and opportunities available specifically for alumni.

The current board members, which include former National Leadership Council (NLC) President Andrew Bruskin, Former Chapter President Alexander Flowers, former NSCS staff member Ciara Ginyard and former NLC Vice-President Kenneth Wilson, began to build this dynamic group of alumni during their first board meeting in March 2011.  A year later, they launched a special opportunity for alumni to become engaged in NSCS and take their leadership and networking skills to the next level.  ”Being part of the board is a phenomenal experience, especially when it comes to expanding your contacts among other alumni, in both the professional and business world,” Bruskin explained.  ”We are hoping that there are other NSCS members who are excited about taking NSCS to greater heights among its alumni base and are interested in joining the Alumni Board to receive greater recognition, whether that person owns a business or is a full-time professional.”

When it comes to networking and professional advancement, Ginyard has this to offer to alumni who may be interested in joining the board: “Networking is crucial and with over half a million alumni, that is a very strong support base to take your business or organization to a national level.”

To apply for this special opportunity, please visit the NSCS website.

About NSCS
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization that recognizes and elevates high achievers. NSCS provides career and graduate school connections, leadership and service opportunities as well as access to over a quarter of a million dollars in scholarships annually. NSCS Members are deeply committed to leadership, service and scholarship and, as a result, are impacting their campus and local communities every day.

Andrew Bruskin was president of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars’ National Leadership Council from 2007-2008 and has been president of its Alumni Advisory Board since 2010.  He is chairman of the board of directors of Ecnaillá Groupe and will be working for a law firm in New York City upon graduating William & Mary Law School. For questions or comments, he can be reached at andrew.bruskin@gmail.com and, of course, on Facebook.

Currently, Ciara Ginyard serves as a National Urban Fellow pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Administration with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Ciara first worked at NSCS serving as a Youth Engaged in Service (Y.E.S.) Ambassador in partnership with the Points of Light Institute. She felt compelled to increase her impact on youth as a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer in Honduras.  Being a Peace Corps volunteer added profound depth to her calling to serve. Ciara holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University. She remains active in her collegiate organizations as a member of the Alumni Advisory Board of the National Society Collegiate Scholars (and founding member of the Syracuse University chapter).

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The Aftermath of the Tassel Hassle: A Crash Course on Post-Graduation Process

It’s that time. All of your education from kindergarten to now has lead to this moment: college graduation! When you approach college as a caterpillar, you weren’t quite sure what was going on or where this journey will take you. Now your initial training is complete, there are still a couple of things you should be aware of before you go out there in the real world!

Don’t Just Jump In

You may need a breather. Technically, you just ran a 10+ year marathon and you just crossed the finished line. You may need to take a break between joining the workforce and college; you are essentially signing up for another marathon. One of my RAs will be traveling in Europe for a couple of weeks before she starts a job. She is looking forward to the moment where she can just enjoy life as opposed to constantly working with an end goal in mind. As my mom said to me, you will have your whole life to be in the workforce, but you will not have this moment again; the feeling like the world is your oyster and that you can go or do anything.

Parental Adjustment

If you are moving back home, it’s going to be an adjustment for both you and your parents. According to a study, 80% of parents do not see their twenty-something as an adult [link]. I know when I graduated it was definitely an adjustment period. Remember, you have been away from your parents from 4-6 years. While you moved home, you have to walk a fine line of knowing how to respectfully deal with your parents and letting them know you can be a grown up!

Money

Your whole educational journey has come to this overall topic of money! Most people think that money will determine overall success, whether this collegiate journey was all worth it. You have to remember a couple of things when it comes to the Benjamin’s. First, you may not make a ton of money at first. You have the few exceptions; I had a friend that had a job within first two years of graduating that paid $50,000/year. Realize their our other benefits, i.e. tuition reimbursement for graduate school, healthcare, etc., that you may can be apart of your overall compensation package.

Lastly, it should be more about the money. It should be about the work you do. At the end of the day, it’s about your personal attachment to your product that will determine whether you want to stay in a position for 10 minutes or 10 years.

Don’t forget about NSCS

NSCS was probably the one things that helped me through my transition from student
to professional. There are tons of opportunities and programs that NSCS let’s you partake in as an alumni. For example, I used the awesome Hertz discount to visit some friends in Georgia before I started my job. The NSCS affiliation doesn’t leave you; it can give you a leg up on the competition!

Hopefully, these little tid bits helped you as you prepare to walk across the stage. If you want to see my personal post-college story, feel free to check it out here. Your life truly begins now! Enjoy it!

VaNessa Thompson is a graduate student at Lawrence Technological University majoring in Technical and Professional Communication.  She graduated with a BA in Communication from Michigan State University where she was a NSCS member.  Also at Michigan State, she was an RA for 3.5 years.  Currently, she is one of NSCS’s Social Media Ambassadors (tweets, posts, and everything in between) as well as an employee for LTU’s University Housing.  She hopes to get her PhD in Communication and become a professor.

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Let’s Recruit Stephen Colbert to Help Us #FixYoungAmerica

Our government is deadlocked by partisan politics. Youth employment is at a 60-year low—the lowest level recorded in U.S. history since 1948. Student loan debt just topped $1 trillion (and default rates are rising quickly).

And even though we’re paying top-dollar for college, college isn’t necessarily giving us the tools we need to create our own jobs.

In the 2011 Young Entrepreneur Council/Buzz Marketing Group annual youth entrepreneurship survey, 88 percent of young people said that entrepreneurship education is vitally important given the new economy—and yet 74 percent of college students had no access at all to entrepreneurship education on campus. When resources were available, most young people felt they were inadequate.

At first glance, it looks like we’re screwed. But we young Americans are optimistic in spite of all the negativity—and we’re showing older generations that we can and will succeed, regardless of the job market, by creating jobs for ourselves. According to the 2011 Young Entrepreneur Council/Buzz Marketing Group annual youth entrepreneurship survey, 23 percent of young people started a business as a result of being unemployed. Fifteen percent started a business in college. And let’s not forget our veterans, who are twice as likely as other Americans to own businesses.

It’s high time our nation’s leaders pitched in to make it easier for young Americans to thrive—which is why the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), and partners like Junior Achievement, Babson College, Codecademy, Venture for America and College Hunks Hauling Junk, have identified a handful of solutions that are already successfully fostering business creation by young people as part of our #FixYoungAmerica movement. Some of the solutions we’re already proposing include:

  • Student loan forgiveness or deferral for young entrepreneurs, using the precedent set by Income-Based Repayment (IBR);
  • Franchise ownership as a viable alternative path to self-sufficiency (in lieu of college or MBAs) for aspiring entrepreneurs and veterans;
  • Graduating more entrepreneurs from our K-12 schools, community colleges and four-year colleges through entrepreneurship education, integrated entrepreneurship programs, technology education initiatives and nonprofit partnerships;
  • Encouraging all 50 states to adopt Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) programs, so unemployed young people can use their UI benefits to fund a new venture;
  • Fostering innovation, new company creation, and new “Silicon Valleys” in regions across the U.S., including underserved regions and cities in economic decline.

But this is more than a conversation or a set of recommendations from leaders—it’s a movement. And we need young Americans (who will become the leaders of tomorrow) to be involved in making this happen and sharing their own solutions to unemployment.

In order to take the campaign to the next level, we teamed up with The National Society of Collegiate Scholars to launch a nationwide #FixYoungAmerica rally on April 19th, 2012 on 300+ college campuses across the United States.

With your help, we can make real young Americans’ voices and solutions heard—and reach our goal to get the attention and support of the great American hero, Stephen Colbert.

We Must Rally to #FixYoungAmerica

If you’re tired of being told you won’t make as much money as your parents—or that the job market is the worst any generation has faced in 60 years—then you are #FixYoungAmerica. And this rally is your opportunity to make that crystal-clear to the decision makers in this country.

Here are four ways you can help right now:

From the Arab Spring to the Tea Party, from Occupy Wall Street to the SOPA and PIPA protests, we’ve seen the power of what like-minded individuals can achieve. We invite you to join us as we band together to tell our nation’s leaders that it’s time to #FixYoungAmerica.

Scott Gerber is a serial entrepreneur, internationally syndicated columnist and TV host, and the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council. He is also an active angel investor and author of the book Never Get a “Real” Job. He has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, TIME, CNN, Reuters, CBS Evening News, MSNBC, US News & World Report, Fox News, Inc. and Entrepreneur.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC leads #FixYoungAmerica, a solutions-based movement that aims to end youth unemployment and put young Americans back to work.

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about us

The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization that recognizes and elevates high achievers. NSCS provides career and graduate school connections, leadership and service experiences, access to discounts and savings as well as $250,000 in scholarships annually. NSCS members are deeply committed to service, integrity and scholarship and, as a result, are impacting their campus and local communities every day. Read more...

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