Make This Cheat Sheet Before Applying for Scholarships

Every college scholarship application seems to ask the same questions, or at least variations on the same themes. Why do you deserve this honor? What obstacles have you overcome? What's your birthdate?

Remembering your birthday is easy enough, but when you sit down to fill these things out and the stakes are high, it can be hard to remember everything you want to convey, and harder to restate it over and over again. So you should make an application cheat sheet to make sure you don't leave anything out.

How to create a scholarship cheat sheet

Start by opening a new text document and making two lists: one of your best qualities/accomplishments, and another of what you hope to accomplish in the future. Then, sort both lists into subcategories--if the former indicates that you've overcome a particular hardship or that you volunteer a lot, turn those into subheadings. If the latter indicates that you want to get your degree so you can work to help others, that' another subheading.

From there, draft a few sentences about each characteristic on your revised lists. Devote a paragraph to the story of adversity you overcame or work you accomplished that helped you discover your direction in life. By writing all this out before application crunch time, you'll have more time to think and brainstorm. One idea will remind you of another. Get them all down in paragraph form.

Above each paragraph, type a string of words related to the content: VOLUNTEERING, COMMUNITY, PRIOR EXPERIENCE, etc. Think of these like tags that you can later use CTRL+F to search for when you need to cite that exact passage in an application.

What to include

Filling out multiple applications can be tedious. Fortunately, that's because they all tend to ask the same things over and over, which is where your cheat sheet comes in. Pierce College and The Scholarship System have collected examples of what the people controlling the pursestrings are usually looking for, and with their advice in mind, here's a shortlist of what you should prepare in advance, since the chances are good every application will be looking for it:

A paragraph about your upbringing that outlines lessons you've learned and the key moments you realized your passions and what you wanted to do with your life.A paragraph each for any hardships, struggles, or issues you've overcome, with details on how you did it and what lessons you learned for the future.A paragraph about what you want to do with your degree--plus exactly how the money will help you do it.A paragraph about a time you failed or disappointed yourself or others, and what you took away from the experience.A separate paragraph about each contribution you've made to your community--whether it's your town, your church, your neighborhood, your family, or anything else.A paragraph about a time you demonstrated leadership skills (or a time you were a valuable team player).A paragraph for each hero, inspiration, or mentor you have, whether in school, your ideal career, or your personal life, and what they've taught you that is applicable to your plan.A paragraph on your current financial situation and how it is impacting your future plans.

Some scholarship applications ask you to input one paragraph at a time, and others want a fully-formed essay, but having the bones of the material written out in advance will help you breeze through customizing the final product to each committee or organization's specifications.
Also, you should create your cheat sheet in advance, but it should be a living document. Add to it any time you think of a new example or encounter a surprising question on an application.