Affordable College Prep's First Time Winners Scholarship

Applying for scholarships is an extensive process that separates the weak from the strong (and the girls from the boys, and the low-income from the high, as well as those who play lacrosse from the other 99% of people – it gets pretty niche). This ordeal costs time, effort, and brain cells, so going into it, you need to be mentally prepared for the suffering you’re about to endure. I’m exaggerating, but you get the point: it’s tough. There are a couple of things that I have learned, however, and it is as follows: the application process is a marathon and not a sprint, you need both quality and quantity, and “rejected” will become your middle name. Firstly, writing essays isn’t really where you’ll spend most of your time. Many people won’t do essays because of the perceived effort they believe the process entails. But in reality, you’ll be looking for scholarships that you even qualify for most of the time. Trying to find your niche can be rough after the first couple of scholarships the website hands you. And a lot of the time, the filters that the site provides don’t do much good. “High School” and “women” don’t tend to lead you to what you want because the scholarships themselves are so much more specific: “High school seniors who have struggled with addiction, but are currently clean, and play sports – specifically, lacrosse” and the like. It gets a little annoying but hang in there – it’s a marathon. “Quality, not quantity”. People throw this saying around all the time to encourage people to put all their chips in and make it count. But with scholarships? You need to put all your chips in at every table in the casino simultaneously (most people applying for scholarships probably aren’t allowed on the casino floor, but you get the metaphor). You need every essay to be your best because… well you want money, right? And you need to apply for every scholarship because you are, more than likely, not going to win every scholarship you apply to (source: me). Try your best, and the effort will eventually be rewarded. You want every step to be your best foot forward, and you need to take a lot of steps (I have a lot more metaphors, call me if you want to waste 3 hours of your life). Lastly, rejection. You check your email the day the scholarship winners are supposed to be announced and: nothing. That’s ok, just check your spam. Still nothing? Maybe check the site, they probably haven’t announced the winners yet. They have! Oh, look: 1st place: not you, 2nd place: still not you, and 3rd? Triple-negative. It gets a little disheartening to see your hard work go unacknowledged, but don’t lose hope. You’ve applied to several others, and there are even more being added every day. You just have to roll with the punches and take life as it comes at you. Not every essay’s a winner, but not every essay’s a loser either. Keep trying and you’ll eventually succeed, just keep applying.