Applying For College Scholarships- Painting A Portrait Of Yourself

Article Index

Paint a Portrait of Yourself

One of the things Kaplan has done is to interview many scholarship winners besides himself and find out from them what worked for them.  Just about every one of the thousands of merit scholarships that can be applied for will require an essay submission.  He says he can tell immediately the essays that will be winners.  After reading those essays he feels he knows the applicant personally.  The author has done a great job of essentially painting a portrait of themselves: what drives them, what they are passionate about, what they want to accomplish in the future, what activities they participate in that address their beliefs.  Kaplan himself said that when he won scholarships and went to award ceremonies, sometimes the judges would say something like “Ben, I feel like I already know you well”, and even ask about some of the projects he had mentioned in his scholarship application materials. 

How To Paint A Self-Portrait When Applying for College Scholarships

Painting a self portrait of yourself in writing when applying for college scholarships may be easy to talk about, but pulling it off successfully is another matter.  Kaplan does provide guidelines, however, that make the process manageable.  He suggests that scholarship applicants emphasize a particular theme or two at the most.  If two themes are chosen then one should be the main theme, the main reason the person is applying for this particular scholarship.  One example of a theme might be “public service”.  A lot of scholarships emphasize public service.  The student in this case will probably have one or two favorite public service projects that he or she participates in, and specific goals of the public service efforts should be discussed, and personal stories recounted about successes, for example.  It is always a good idea to tell personal stories throughout any scholarship application.  Doing so makes the application unique and individually compelling and gives the judges a chance to get to know you well, even though you have never met personally.  It is those kinds of applications that get remembered by judges after they have gone through a large stack of submissions which after a while all begin to sound the same.  One can contrast this approach to that used by many scholarship applications which are just laundry lists of activities or achievements.

Other Themes For Scholarship Applications

Some scholarships might emphasize scientific ability and interest, or perhaps emphasize the arts or entrepreneurial activities.  Students who have backgrounds in those areas can use them as themes.  In all Kaplan lists nine themes that have been used successfully to win scholarship money, but there is no limit to the themes an applicant can use, and the person who can come up with an individual theme approach that effectively allows him to paint an accurate portrait will probably do well.  Although a specific theme should be emphasized, the applicant should take the opportunity where possible to mention other activities and awards so as to appear well-rounded, such as participation in sports for example.

Essentially a person needs to know how to look at himself or herself critically and understand real strengths and weaknesses when applying for college scholarships.  Discussing this with family and friends is a good idea.  It is not easy to be a good self-judge at any stage in life, much less in teenage years.  These skills will be useful throughout life and are not just important for scholarship applications.  They will help with getting into the college of choice, and will also be beneficial for finding jobs and job applications later on in life.