Like many other aspects of the transition from high school to university, applying for scholarships is another way it can be easy for students to become overwhelmed and easily discouraged. Unfortunately, many of us have the tendency to ignore anything which involves more thinking and paperwork that isn’t mandatory, despite our teacher’s and parent’s best efforts to install the importance of applying for scholarships into us. Although the attitude of, “why bother,” takes less time and effort than dedicating yourself to create an outstanding essay and application package, the possible reward for this small price is more than worth the risk. After all, the only way to eventually stand out is by taking the first steps to apply. How To Stand Out? - Don’t Give Up Before my English teacher directly handed me the information for an undergraduate scholarship worth $75,000, I had completely tuned out the idea of applying for such a prestigious award, thinking only unrealistic overachievers won scholarships of such value. I figured the only money I had a chance at winning was through the smaller local scholarships available through the school, which all involved a much easier application. I asked how could I stand out on such a large stage. It wasn’t until after reading more about the incredible history and other opportunities that came with the financial aspect of this award that the idea of even having the chance to win eventually motivated me to apply. Half way through my application, I reached a point of frustration trying to properly gather my ideas and words that made me decide it wasn’t worth the trouble and call it quits. After taking a long break from the process and getting encouragement and input from others (hence the importance of starting weeks before deadlines) I was able to push myself through the final steps and ended up receiving more than I could have ever hoped for! As it turns out, these scholarships aren’t only for the magical people you only read about, but for normal people like me as well! Although there are so many factors which play into whether or not you receive different scholarships, I believe these are some of the major things I did right throughout the process. Anyone can follow these steps to better their chances of ending up with the same amazing opportunity! Start Early When most people think of starting the scholarship process early, they are probably picturing applying for scholarships during the beginning months of their grade twelve year; however, my definition of starting early begins the moment you enter high school. Of course this does not literally mean begin searching and writing for scholarships in grade nine (although this probably wouldn’t hurt) the idea of starting early involves beginning to build skills through extracurricular involvement and academics as early as possible. The lessons you take away from volunteer and extracurricular involvement are priceless, regardless of whether you are lucky enough to receive financial reward for your contributions. Welcome a Challenge While [...]
How to Stand Out in the Scholarship Process
Change Your Answer Not Your Taste In Music
Picture this: You’re in college. It’s 9:00 in the morning. Your brain isn’t fully functioning just yet because your roommate had some friends over night. Perfect scapegoat. It has nothing to do with the fact that you were up until 4:00 in the morning reading what you should have read a month ago. As soon as this Red Bull kicks in, you’ll be good to go. The Professor greets everybody with a “Good Morning” and a “Best of Luck” before he hands out the exam. “Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, there’s vomit on his sweater already, ma’s spaghetti.” That actually has nothing to do with anything; I’ve just always wanted to quote Eminem in one of my articles… forgive me. After reading the first question on the test, the answer doesn’t immediately come to you. So you skip it; you have to ease yourself in. Now you’re glancing over the next few questions, hoping to find that quick one – one that can get the ball rolling, give you some momentum. Oh, here’s the one. The brevity you’ve been looking for. You read it quickly. So quick that before you even finish reading the question in its entirety, you see the correct answer. Ahh…that feels good. Go With Your Gut Forty minutes later, you revisit the question you answered so quickly. Upon rereading the question, you second-guess yourself. Should you switch? “Of course not. Go with you gut! Never change your answer!” How many times have you heard this? How many times, while you have been taking a test, have you run this advice through your head? Well, I guess since I answered it this way initially, I can’t change it. I’m locked in. Suck In Your Gut Your gut sucks. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you with an elementary question. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? When answered quickly, I’m assuming the automatic part of your brain was shouting “TEN CENTS!” Upon further review, the reflective part of your brain can figure out that the correct answer is actually FIVE CENTS! $1.05 + $.05 = $1.10. If this question were on your test, would you have wanted to change your answer? Remember Regret Aversion? Remember when we talked about radio stations and regret aversion? That same idea is actually to blame for most test-takers being afraid to change their answer! Psychologists Justin Kruger and Derrick Wirtz studied this phenomenon – the idea that you shouldn’t change a doubted answer because “your first instinct is usually correct.” What they found was that more often than not, student that changed their answer made the right move. Half the time the first answer was wrong and the second answer was correct and only in 25% of switches did student go from correct answer to incorrect answer. Here is how they explain it: “Kruger and colleagues showed that students felt [...]
What Makes A Good Student?
So last week we took a look at what makes a good professor or teacher. Perhaps equally relevant is the question of what makes a good student. Now obviously there is a difference between knowing what makes a good student, and being willing to put in the time in order to become one. Personally, I would say that in high school I was about 65-70% of the way to reaching my full potential as a student, and I would say in university it climbed a little higher to about 80%-85%. I’ve been on both sides of the student/teacher ledge at this point and so I think I can speak with some degree of authority on the topic. Being a “good student” and having a “good professor/teacher” often to hand-in-hand and is definitely a symbiotic relationship. A Good Student Has Passion In my opinion the number one factor in creating a good student is to teach someone something that they are interested in and that they believe is relevant to their educational and/or career goals. If a topic is either relevant or interesting to them, most students can get by; however, if students are forced to sit in on classes that they don’t believe are relevant, nor do they find intrinsically interesting, this is where all kinds of bad stuff starts to happen. I’ve tried to make courses interesting for students who really hate them and have had some limited success, and I’ve also been forced to take courses I absolutely hated (and was right in assuming they were actually counterproductive to my goals as an educator) in order to “jump through the hoops” to get a degree. Ultimately, we are at our best when we are pursuing something we are passionate about. I’m definitely not the first person to break ground on that subject. Motivation A good student should be motivated. This can be accomplished in a large variety of ways. In fact, as a high school teacher, I find one of the most underrated parts of my job is keying in on the specific “motivational buttons” for each student. Some people are motivated by potential earnings, others are motivated simply by their need to please authority figures, while still other people simply love learning for the pure sake of interacting with new information. Regardless of why someone is motivated to be learning, it is important that they feel compelled to push themselves to some degree. A Good Student Has Focus One of the biggest obstacles we face in today’s world is the distraction potential that occurs all around us on a daily basis. Technology has provided us with many great tools, but go take a look at an undergraduate course and you’ll see it has provided with just as many (if not more) ways to waste our precious educational brain power as well. Focus is subsequently very important to getting the most out of your time as a student. I don’t assume these obstacles are going to lessen much [...]
What Makes A Good Teacher/Professor
So after the considerable amount of controversy my Rate My Professor article stirred up, I decided to start a mini-series (that sounds so much cooler than saying, “two articles”) on what it takes to be considered a good teacher/professor, and on the flip side, what makes a good student? I took a considerable amount of flack for suggesting that teachers should have certain attributes in the RMP article, and so naturally I feel I should illustrate just why those flack-givers are absolutely wrong (or possibly show just how dumb my argument is). Starting On Your Professor All-Stars… For me, the perfect case study of a great professor is George MacLean at the University of Manitoba. This guy intimidates me with how great he actually is. Some day, I honestly hope someone writes a book about him in order to do his accomplishments justice, but until then, this underappreciated blog entry will have to do! Maclean is a political studies professor, and before you take my word that he is qualified (what do I really know) have a look at his CV. Now that would be an incredible resume for a retired professor, I mean Department Head, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, etc. The guys has published 6 books, been a contributing author to a couple dozen more, and has penned so many journal articles it makes my head hurt (I have one published journal article… it is not easy). The greatest part about that CV is that I figure MacLean is about 40-43. He got his BA in 1990. Anyone want to say he took more than 3 years to get it? He was a full Ph.D by the time most people are starting to figure out what they really want to do in life. He has accomplished more before middle age than most academics will accomplish in their careers! When I took a couple of Professor MacLean’s courses at the U of M, he would casually mention how he had “helped out” on this UN study, or had been a part of a team that went to some war-torn place. It was all mentioned very modestly, but one could tell this guy was for real. The Difference Between Good and Great Now you want to know the best part? That is only the very base of what makes him a good teacher. Clearly, to be seen as an authority on a topic you should have a considerable level of expertise. G-Mac (as we affectionately called the man) obviously has that in spades; but, what made him a truly great professor was that he loved being a teacher and took pride EVERY DAY in not just being smart, but in communicating. Just about any professor with a CV like Professor MacLean’s is never seen by undergrads. Many of them view undergrads as a necessary evil, and that it is beneath their lofty standards to talk to these peons. Many more simply enjoy working with graduate students and doing administrative work at [...]
Afraid of Life? Grad School Isn’t the Answer
As I begin my slow descent away from the nostalgic highs of my undergrad yesteryear it has become very interesting to me to see what paths many of my old peers are taking. Many have of course moved on to jobs, others to careers, and still others are pursuing leisure travel or other whims. One option I am seeing taken more and more is to go back to grad school. Now for some people this can be a great idea (at least I hope so… since technically I’m going back to become a grad student, albeit while working full time), but for others, I’m fairly certain it is simply a way to put off “the real world.” I Could Quit Grad School Any Time I Want! It’s easy to become addicted to the student lifestyle. There are a lot of reasons why being a student rules. I thoroughly miss the atmosphere of learning and debate. There is the obvious fact that you’re surrounded by thousands of eligible singles who are around your age and share your interests, but there are many less obvious and less admit-able reasons that many of us feel compelled to be students. Many of us get used to the nice little cocoon of learning and structure that post-secondary instruction provides, especially those students that have learned how to do very well in their academic field. The positive reinforcement combined with the familiar structure and patterns can seem so comfortable when juxtaposed against the hypercompetitive working world. Sure you don’t have much money, but in return you can hold yourself up on your ivory tower pedestal in the belief that your pursuit of knowledge is much nobler than work is anyway. If The Undergrad Sees Their Shadow – 4 More Years Of School If you’re one of these people (and admittedly I was pretty close to being an addict myself), I can see the attraction to piking your head out of the proverbial gopher hole that is your university/college, being terrified of the chaos around you, and diving right back into safer surroundings in the form of a graduate degree. This will definitely extend your period of youthful bliss and allow you to feel intellectually superior to man around you; HOWEVER, it is probably not what is best for you in the long-term, at least not from a personal finance perspective. There are many masters and graduate programs that do make sense for certain people, but more and more I see people pursuing masters degrees without any work experience and I think would I ever hire that person? The answer a vast majority of the time is no. Most fields require you to learn on the job, a master’s degree might help polish your resume for an eventual promotion, but in terms of landing an entry-level job out of school it is much more likely to make your overqualified. As an added negative, more and more management and HR types out there are realizing that 25 year [...]
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