Go to financial aid office to find out what scholarships are available every year. Complete this goal by: spring of junior year. 2 months ago

Fingers crossed.. actually I’m not too hopeful. I don’t have “demonstrated” financial need. But my essay was pretty good and so is my GPA, so I should have a fighting chance. Sometime soon, I will start a fresh spreadsheet for the fall/spring scholarship deadlines. My goal is to make senior year practically free! 9 months ago

I recycled a (very good) essay I wrote for a different application. I’m not sure if it’s quite what they’re looking for (it’s not really a tear-jerker), but I already have a good essay, so I didn’t see a reason to not use it. I wish more applications had the same essay topics.. I’m so tired to making up new ones! 11 months ago

I know I was planning on finishing it much earlier, but I finally submitted that essay. I have a draft of the Big Dig waiting to be torn apart (will do tomorrow). Unfortunately, I won’t get to the Proofreading essay, but I am actually really proud of the essay I just finished polishing. I can probably use it as a personal statement, although I may have to shorten it since it’s nearly 1000 words long! 11 months ago

I accidentally wrote a full draft for the essay (oops…) and I sent it to my reviewers too. Oh well! Being faster than my plan is not an issue atm, since I’m a bit short on time for my last planned essay anyway :). 12 months ago

I have 3 scholarships whose deadlines are at the end of this month:

1) Big Dig essay
2) B. Davis essay
3) Proofreading essay

Each requires a fairly substantial essay (1000+ words), but the rewards are decent ($1,000+). The steps for each essay will include:

1) Rough outline
2) Rough draft
3) Submit to at least 2 people for review
4) Optional rewrite
5) First edit
6) Final edit with a read aloud session

I’ve been nibbling on the first two essays for a couple of weeks, but I’ve decided that I will instead focus on ONE essay for steps 1-3 (or 4 depending on how quickly my reviewers get back to me), before I start on another. I’m not very good at multitasking and working on multiple essays at once just gives me an excuse to do ‘nothing’.

Here is my plan:

Tue 5-15 Roughly outline B. Davis essay (since the deadline is
the soonest, on the 28th)
Wed 5-16 Roughly draft for B. Davis essay
Thu 5-17 Roughly draft for B. Davis essay
Fri 5-18 Email B. Davis essay to 2 reviewers; Start
roughly outlining Big Dig essay
Sat 5-19 Roughly draft for Big Dig essay

Sun 5-20 Roughly draft for Big Dig essay
Mon 5-21 Rewrite and/or edit 1 for B. Davis essay
Tue 5-22 Finish edit 1 for B. Davis essay
Wed 5-23 Final edit for B. Davis essay and SUBMIT
Thu 5-24 Email Big Dig essay to reviewers; start outlining
Proofreading essay
Fri 5-25 Roughly draft Proofreading essay
Sat 5-26 Roughly draft Proofreading essay; email to reviewers

Sun 5-27 Rewrite and/or edit 1 for Big Dig essay
Mon 5-28 Finish edit for Big Dig essay; Final edit & SUBMIT
Tue 5-29 Rewrite and/or edit 1 for Proofreading essay
Wed 5-30 Finish editing Proofreading essay
Thu 5-31 Final edit & submit Proofreading essay 12 months ago

I decided against doing the cancer-themed essay scholarship (unclear directions and a snappy, unhelpful response from the lady I emailed). Next, I will focus my efforts on the big dig essay scholarship. I may have found the object that I will talk about, but I will need to collect data on what the projected price in 200 yrs would be. After that, there is an interesting contest that deals with examining public health data and I will work on that. 13 months ago

I applied for the “second chance” scholarship yesterday. I think that it really helps if I just pick a day to do the scholarship and allot time for it in my calendar. Otherwise, I just look at it and forget about it. The results will be announced in late August.

I didn’t win the “courage to grow” again and neither did I win the “frame my future” competition. I’m getting discouraged. I haven’t won anything even though I’ve been searching and applying since November of last year. It’s kind of like winning the lottery. 13 months ago

I wrote a brand new essay for Courage to Grow and submitted it yesterday. I think it’s a little more along the mood of the way the other winning essays sounded, but I remained true to myself. I think every other month they get a really, REALLY good essay whose story I just can’t match, while the others are anywhere from whiney to standard fare. I really need this money, so fingers crossed!

On the other hand, I decided not to do the WyzAnt important lesson essay because the essays aren’t judged by a committee, just any random people who get on the site. I just can’t match the social networking skills some people have to get 2,000+ votes. Just as an example, by facebook friend lists rarely tops 100. Oh well. 13 months ago

To be honest, I didn’t try very hard on my drawing. Plus, I couldn’t use the good camera, so my drawing doesn’t look as good in the picture as it in in person. So, I’m not really expecting to win.. maybe next year. :(

I also just sent an email to our scholarships office with their special student form. Maybe they will suggest more obscure scholarships. 14 months ago

I stalled my progress on this goal while I focused on my internship applications.. but now I will pick it up again. This week, I’m going to be working very hard on the Frame my Future (art piece) scholarship. I’m not really sure exactly what I’m going to do, but I’m thinking that it will be a painting (I’ve been missing the therapeutic qualities of painting) and potentially about my aspiration to go to peace corps. I’m not really sure how I will represent how I’ll combine my personal and professional goals.. since I’m not sure about this in real life.. but I will be putting in a couple hours a day until the 4th, when I will stop painting and start figuring out how to take a picture, take care of any writing to go along with it, etc. It should be fun! 14 months ago

I scheduled some time today to find 20+ scholarships that I can apply to for the next school year. These are the ones I will be working on:

1. 300-500 word death penalty essay (due Feb 29) $500
2. political activism essay (due April 1)* need to join some kind of activism club, which I was planning on to anyway; up to $10,000
3. 500-1,000 word essay about burying something (due June 1) $3,000
4. recycling awareness scholarship (due March 31) $1,000
5. submit to the monthly no-essay scholarship at College Prowler- maybe I’ll get lucky $2,000
DONE 6. abacus scholarship (due Dec 15 an June 15) $1,234
7. 500-1,000 word essay about a difficult time $1,000
8. FB post for education-portal.com (Due April 1) $500
9. 300 word essay on important lesson (Due April 1) $5-2,000
10. 800-1,600 word essay about Atlas Shrugged (Due Sept 17) $10,000-$50
11. Alternative cancer treatment essay (Due ??) $5,000-$75
12. 6-8 pg 2x spaced essay about Jane Austen novel $250-$1000 – I’ve read one of her novels before, it should be fun
13. ?

Unfortunately this is all I could come up with in 4 hours. I’m going to try looking in books at the uni library to see if I can find more scholarships. I also didn’t include any uni-specific scholarships here because I’m not sure what I’m eligible for yet. But hey, so far that’s $40,000+ worth. 16 months ago

I was thinking that I would create two separate essays, but I ended up writing just one and using it for both since the required word count was the same and the topic choices overlapped. It’s a good feeling. I might actually win something! I got 2 more to go, for my goal of finishing 4 scholarships with winter break. I get to read a book and paint something next! 16 months ago

Since I deleted my savings goal, I have no where else to put my budget but here.. So here it is, for January – August. Basically I’ll be fine without a job until the summer, when I’ll have to somehow earn $4,600 for the next year’s tuition. Which could happen if I get a paid internship. Or be aided by some scholarships. Which I will surely get to very soon!

4,200 in savings

tuition & fees = 2,300
payment plan fee = 40

gas = 540 (60/mo)
allowance = 1080 (30/week) 17 months ago

...that I applied to 2 years ago. They are inviting me to transfer this Spring (where do they get this information? so creepy) and are offering to re-evaluate my portfolio for scholarships. *sigh. If only I still wanted to major in art. Why isn’t any other university pursuing me this way? I didn’t even tell them I was planning to transfer this spring. I guess it’s an ego-booster, but also a very strange deja vu feeling. I could technically submit a new portfolio just fine. But I’ve moved on in terms of my academics. So it’s irrelevant. I guess sometimes things don’t line up at the right time. Maybe if they offered me more money 2 years ago, I would have become an artist. 17 months ago

My goal is to finish and submit for these scholarships:

- Frame my Future (art piece)
- Gen and Kelly Tanabe (250 word essay) – Due Dec 31st!
- Courage to Grow (250 word essay) – Due Dec 31st!
- Failure to Promise (read book and write 1000 word essay)

There was one other essay from the Elie Wiesel foundation that I wanted to do, but the deadline has passed for this year’s application. There’s always the Ayn Rand scholarship I guess, if I can ever make myself read that massive novel. There really aren’t a lot of options for students like me :/. I hope that I win one of the ones that are due this month so I can get some money this semester before I take out thousands in loans. But I guess it could happen that I lose all of them. It’ll be easier for the fall because I’ll be student at a 4 year and qualify for more scholarships, both private and my own college.

I’ve been seriously thinking about how private loans would affect me this past week, since one of my profs talked about it. Banks offer those loans not for students’ benefit, but for their own. They won’t care about what I need or want, they just want to pump as much cash out of me as possible before I either pay it off or leave the country. Plus, I can’t use any kind of loan forgiveness perks (a la peace corps or public service) on them. It’s basically credit card debt. That just seems irresponsible to me. I mean, it’s not MY fault that I don’t have the money to go to college, in my opinion it should be either free or heavily subsidized. However, it’s my responsibility to not make foolish decisions. Especially since I don’t plan on making “big bucks” after my bachelor’s. Even more so, since I’ll have to do “something” for a year before I head off to the PC. I just can’t afford private loans. I’ll end up not being able to pay…

Anyway, my point is that I changed my mind, again, about working during college. I certainly don’t want to do it, but I don’t want to be irresponsible about my finances. It’ll only come back and bite me, when I want to travel or something, but I have debts holding me back. I’m going to start looking for some kind of part time job so I can cover that 10k gap that I’ll have every year. I can always quit if I find a paid research opportunity or a job that relates to what I want to do. 17 months ago

I am sick of worrying about money. Why can’t I just focus on academics? The system is twisted. 19 months ago

Even though I want to get scholarships, I can for sure move to Chicago if I can get a 20hr/wk job there to cover my room&board. Plus, if I keep the job, when I move into an apartment my living expenses will drop from 10->6k and I will probably be able to live in some kind of comfort with the extra money. Or at least keep my loans in check. 19 months ago