Scholarship Hot SeatWORKBOOK

Pre-Submission Checklist

QUICK TIPS

A NOTE FROM US:Essays are one of our greatest opportunites when it comes to increasing our chances of winning a scholarship. Essays are our chance to sell ourselves to judges, grab their attention and leave an impact. Many times students are so busy finding scholarships, they rush through the essay portion and miss out on money due to silly errors. Please do not let this happen to you!Here is a quick checklist to help you avoid those silly mistakes.

Applying for scholarships can be the highest-paying job you will ever have. We will show you some hourly rates later in the course. Mine was 5x what I made after graduating college.

SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY HOT SEAT WORKBOOK | TheScholarshipSystem.com 1

Word count: Am I over the word count? (If so, go back and remove words until you’re within the limit.)

Word count: Did I maximize the word count? While we don’t want fluff, try not to waste precious word count.

Grammatical errors: Did I paste this essay into Grammarly to check for grammatical errors?

Did I list redundant information in my essay like GPA., test scores or other information already listed elsewhere in the app?

If so, can I remove this information from the essay?

Am I overselling another person or am I focused on selling myself? (We don’t want to sell Grandma to get into Yale!)

Did I begin with an attention-grabbing line, quote, story, imagery, etc.?

Did I show versus tell? And after showing, did I explain the insight I gained from the experience?

Is there an opportunity to be clever and show what I know? Can I “get nerdy” to make this fun and creative?

QUICK STRUCTURE GUIDELINE

Applying for scholarships can be the highest-paying job you will ever have. We will show you some hourly rates later in the course. Mine was 5x what I made after graduating college.

1 FIRST: Talk about the situation, challenge, experience, event, obstacle. (Paint a picture)

2 SECOND: Discuss how it impacted you and how you were able to overcome the circumstances. (Be specific!)

3 THIRD: Tie it together with how the experience with translate to further your educational/career goals. (Can you tie it to your values?)

To learn more about using values in essays, watch our guest expert interview with Ethan Sawyer found in The Scholarship System under Bonuses > Expert Interviews and in Debt-Free Degree Lab under Stage 2 > Expert Interviews.

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WRITING ABOUT LIFE CHALLENGES1. THE DIFFICULTY I FACED (CHALLENGE) - 25%

2. WHAT I DID ABOUT IT (EFFORT) - 50%

3. HOW THIS ULTIMATELY MADE ME A BETTER PERSON (RESULT) - 25%

Paragraph 1: My life was forever changed when… *Start in the thick of things (the absolute bottom) and then ask “what MUST they know to understand this?”

Paragraph 2: To make matters worse…

“The toughest part came when..” -> Lowest Point“I realized I had to do something.” -> Turning Point

BRAINSTORM some potential challenges you can talk about:

Paragraph 3: So I started …. (Specific)

Build up what you did – you can also go back and forth – make it seem like you’ve solved it but then show another setback. But then show what you ultimately did to overcome it. Think of movies how they take us through a journey and keep showing setbacks to keep us engaged!

Paragraph 4: I also …. (Specific)

The highest point. -> One concrete example of things changing/impact you’ve made

BRAINSTORM actions you took for each challenge (or choose one challenge and write the actions):

Paragraph 5: Turn each difficulty into a strength (and/or value)

SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY HOT SEAT WORKBOOK | TheScholarshipSystem.com

Helping your child graduate debt-free from college can be one of the most impactful, life-changing decisions you can make. It provides stability, reduces stress, and will deep the relationship you have with your child. However, it’s important to tackle the process

with a proven strategy. Without a proven strategy, you’ll work a lot more, and experience a lot of frustration and stress… and nobody wants that. That’s why we poured so much into

this training.

If you’d like to purchase an essay review, members of The Scholarship System’s online course can go to “Essay Reviews” inside the portal. DFD Lab members can email us at

info@thescholarshipsystem.com.

The biggest thing to remember is that we CAN improve our chances of receiving scholarships (and admission) by putting this time and effort into our essays! These

guidelines will drastically improve the quality of most essays. I can’t wait to see your student’s results!

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FINAL THOUGHTS

ALL MY BESTJOCELYN PAONITA PEARSON

SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY HOT SEAT WORKBOOK | TheScholarshipSystem.com