Blog

by Radha Jhatakia

I recently lost someone close to me and cannot describe how I felt. The worst part was that it was unexpected and I was nowhere near home. When we are in school, we miss out on things that happen at home and sometimes losing someone is one of these unpleasant things. Often, we cannot go home or it is too late by the time that we get there but for this, all I can say is that it may be better that you have been left with the beautiful memories that you have.

Some things mean more to others than we can comprehend. People, pets and places can all be something that a person values. Losing a family member, friend, pet or home is never easy but remember that you need to go through the natural grieving process or you will never be able to move on. Remember your someone, all the good they’ve done and all the moments you’ve spent together and celebrate their life and the positive way they made you feel. And don’t feel guilty for random moments of happiness: They’re completely natural and the person you lost would not want you to live in sadness.

Loss is one of the most unpleasant things in life and when you experience it, it will be with you forever. Remember that you can rely on friends and family for comfort – they’re grieving, too – and seek professional help if you need it. Know that it is okay to feel the way you do; let it make you a stronger person.

Radha Jhatakia is a communications major at San Jose State University. She's a transfer student who had some ups and downs in school and many obstacles to face; these challenges – plus support from family, friends and cat – have only made Radha stronger and have given her the experience to help others with the same issues. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, reading, cooking, sewing and designing. A social butterfly, Radha hopes to work in public relations and marketing upon graduation.

by Jacquelene Bennett

Whether you are a college or high school senior, you are undoubtedly starting to prepare for graduation and all the pomp and circumstance it entails. One of the many elements to graduation is senior portraits. While these pictures can be elegant and traditional, they can also be boring and unmemorable...or unflattering and downright horrible if they’re not done well.

Unfortunately, my roommate had the latter experience with her senior portraits. Her photos with the university-sanctioned photographer featured poor lighting, unnatural and uncomfortable looking poses and overall bad image quality. Did she want these images in the yearbook? Of course not, so we’re exploring an alternative course of action: taking our own senior portraits.

My roommate, some friends and I are going to take our digital cameras and go around campus taking pictures of ourselves. We plan on taking pictures on the school quad, in the library and at the admin building, among many other places. While these photos may not be traditional, taking our own pictures allows us to get creative and capture fun memories and places that influenced our time at college.

Wouldn’t YOU want your senior portraits to be taken in a place on campus that holds meaning for you, rather than in front of an ugly backdrop in a room that you’ve never been to before? Taking your own senior portraits allows you to do just that. Plus, it’s a great way to have fun and spend time with friends – something you may not get to do much of as graduation draws closer!

Jacquelene Bennett is a senior at the University of Redlands where her areas of study are creative writing, government and religious studies. When she is not studying or working, you can usually find her eating frozen yogurt or blogging about her day. She has a cactus named Kat and believes that Stephen Colbert is a genius. Jacquelene works hard, laughs hard and knows that one day you’ll see her name in lights.

by Suada Kolovic

The Young Naturalist Awards Program hosted by the American Museum of Natural History, invites students in grades 7 through 12 to conduct original research in the areas of biology, earth science or astronomy. Students work independently to make observations, record data and illustrate findings before documenting their research in a written essay. The 12 finalists (two per grade) receive scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,500 and are flown to New York City to meet museum scientists, take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum and attend an awards ceremony.

Winners are further distinguished by having their essays published on the Museum's website. The program is conducted by the American Museum of Natural History and supported by Alcoa Foundation. Entrants must be United States or Canadian citizens or legal residents living within the United States, Canada or U.S. Territories. Submissions are reviewed by a panel of science teachers and by museum scientists.

For more information on this scholarship and other scholarship opportunities, conduct a free scholarship search today!

by Kara Coleman

Are you thinking about joining your school’s newspaper staff? If you’re planning for a career in writing, photography or any kind of journalism, you should be!

The obvious benefit of writing for your university’s newspaper is that it will help you in building your professional portfolio. My school’s newspaper is issued weekly so each week during the academic year, I am able to add at least one more article to the portfolio I am building. Listing the paper as an employer/extracurricular activity will look good on your resume as well.

A perk of being part of student media is that reporters can get admission into school events for free and have unlimited access to interviews with coaches, directors and event organizers. But for me, the most enjoyable part of writing for my university’s paper is getting to meet people and do things that I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. Last semester, I met with members of our robotics team (who knew we had a robotics team?) after they placed second at their national convention and I got to drive the robot around. I also got to interview a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and an English lord who visited our school. As a frequent writer for the arts and entertainment page, I have met many students in the drama and music departments – two places I never set foot before.

While the pros certainly outweigh the cons, students must understand that working for the paper is a huge commitment. Sometimes covering stories interferes with class time, homework time or hanging out with friends. Before signing up to become a reporter, make sure you are dedicated to itl you must treat it like a job and meet deadlines, even if you aren’t getting paid...but really, no value can be placed on the experience you will gain as a member of student media at your school!

This summer, Kara Coleman graduated from Gadsden State Community College with an Associate of Arts degree. She is currently studying communications with concentration in print journalism at Jacksonville State University Kara's writing has been featured in Teen Ink magazine and she is a children's author through Big Dif Books.

by Alexis Mattera

It’s finally decision day. You rush to your mailbox – either traditional or electronic – and find a fat envelope from your first-choice school waiting for you. They like you, they really like you...but will you reciprocate those feelings in the fall? According to a new survey, it’s becoming far less probable.

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California Los Angeles study revealed that of the 204,000 college freshmen surveyed at 207 schools, just 58 percent enrolled at their first-choice college. This is the fifth year the percentage has dropped and program director John H. Pryor said financial aid (or lack of it) is a huge factor in students’ decisions. “These students who were accepted and are not attending are much more likely to say they are not going because they did not get the financial aid they wanted.” (Read the survey in its entirety here.)

How many of you were accepted to your first-choice school only to have to give up your spot because of one of the factors cited in the survey?

by Katie Askew

Once in college, students quickly realize that time means nothing. Hours spent not doing homework fly by while hours in the lecture hall merely crawl. You need go to class and you need to work to make some money but you also need to relax with friends. Is it possible to organize work and play time wisely in college? Of course!

Have you ever heard of the rule of three? If you haven’t, it means that for every credit number you’re taking, you’re advised to spend three times that per week outside of the classroom doing work for the class if you want a high grade. For example, under the rule of three, my three-credit convergence journalism class will require at least nine hours of work outside the classroom on a weekly basis; multiply that by a normal 15- or 16-credit schedule and you’re spending at least 45 hours a week on outside homework or studying! (Using the rule of three is, of course, just a suggestion: Some classes may require more or less time.)

Schoolwork is full-time job in itself so who has time for anything else? Well, a lot of college students make time to work to pay for rent, groceries or textbooks. If you want to work, the best bet is to find an on-campus job. The scheduling is usually more suited to student life and managers will work around your class schedule. Sometimes, you will get lucky with a job that lets you do your homework while you’re on the clock! You can find employment off-campus as well but be aware that these jobs usually require more work to schedule around.

If you’re working and attending school, the most important thing to remember is to not overwork yourself! Limit the numbers of hours you work per week – a reasonable amount is anywhere from 8 to 12 hours – and consider practicing the rule of three to keep your school and work lives balanced.

Katie Askew is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota pursuing degrees in journalism and English. At school, Katie can be found reading, drumming or working in the Office of Admissions. Outside of school, she enjoys traveling, teaching and performing music and spending time outdoors with friends and family. Katie loves all things zebra and has a necessary addiction to coffee. Her iPod is perpetually playing Death Cab for Cutie or classical music because she truly believes that when words fail, music speaks.

by Alexis Mattera

The weather in Maine is far from balmy this time of year but did the chilly temps inspire the University of Maine’s approach to college costs? Probably not but it’s kind of fun to think so.

For the first time in 25 years, undergraduate tuition has been frozen at all seven campuses: Augusta, Farmington, Fort Kent, Machias, Orono, Portland and Presque Isle. Vice Chancellor Rebecca Wyke said the decision was not an easy one for the University of Maine System Trustees and though the implementation will be equally difficult, the tuition freeze was necessary. "It's going to challenge the campuses because they're already facing a budget gap that they're going to have to close," Wyke said, but explained, "The board’s action is very consistent with where Maine family income is and it reflects their understanding of the difficult financial times that we're in."

UMaine students in the audience, what do you think of the news? Are you glad to be getting a tuition reprieve or do you think tuition increases – even slight ones – are necessary to maintain campus resources, course quality and the college experience overall?

by Liz Coffin-Karlin

Hi all! I’m Liz, the newest virtual intern here at Scholarships.com. I’m from Sarasota, Florida originally, and then moved way up to Chicago to attend college. I picked Northwestern University for a lot of reasons – it was in a whole new part of the country, it had great academics and it had a lot of student involvement – and I wound up with double majors in Spanish and history and a minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

While academics were important to me, I always felt I expressed myself best through student activities. I worked on our newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, for four years, was an executive board member on the Global Engagement Summit and participated in NU’s huge Dance Marathon. Along the way, I also volunteered at a Chicago soup kitchen, worked as a lifeguard for our sports center and once even sold hot dogs at a football game to raise money for a student group. (It is COLD in those stands!) I also studied abroad in Buenos Aires, where I fell in love with empanadas, tango music and backpacking in the Andes.

I loved my time at NU but most of all, I loved the connections I made and the friends I met. I took a public service fellowship in Chicago right after graduating from college in 2010 and ran a teen internship program last summer at the Adler Planetarium. When that ended, I felt it was time to use my Spanish skills and after studying abroad in Buenos Aires and then getting a research grant to come back before my senior year, I had the language skills and the connections to get an internship at the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information.

Now, I’m excited to be with Scholarships.com, where I'll be sharing travel tips, college tips (make sure you set the microwave timer for two minutes not 20 minutes...unless you want to burn your dorm down) and professional tips for getting that internship or job you wanted. Nice to meet you guys – can’t wait to start writing!

by Alexis Mattera

In addition to talk of the economy and spilled milk, President Obama shared his thoughts on higher education during his third State of the Union address last night. On his to-do list: reduce student loan interest rates, extend a tax credit and continue supporting community colleges.

Ideally, the president would prevent the interest rate increase on federal student loans currently set for July, double the amount of federal work-study jobs in the next five years (moves that would cost $5 billion and $1 billion per year, respectively) and make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent. Obama praised community colleges as he has in the past for their links to job training and their contributions to keeping college affordable but had some harsher words for other institutions: Colleges that continued to hike tuition were put "on notice" and a document accompanying the speech said the president would propose to shift some federal aid away from colleges that don’t provide good value. "It’s not enough for us to increase student aid," Obama said. "We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down."

Did you watch the State of the Union? What did you think of what President Obama had to say?

Contributed by Guest Blogger Derrius L. Quarles, aka the MillionDollarScholar

Did you know that the months of January through April have more scholarship deadlines than all of the other months combined? That means this is the time to get off of your rump and compete for free money for college. If you haven’t started already, the things you should start working on are the four basic components of all scholarship applications:

• Personal information
• Scholarship writing (personal statement/scholarship essay)
• Scholarship resume
• Recommendations

If you have already started creating these components, that’s good...but you are not off the hook that easy! You want to now develop these components to the best possible quality before you submit any of your applications. It is best to start with the component that will take the most time and that is your writing (personal statements/scholarship essays). The greatest piece of advice I could give you in regards to your writing is to go back and check for two things: creativity and authenticity. When I say creativity I am talking about how you relay information to the reader. Have you ever heard someone say, “sometimes it's not what you say, it's how you say it”? That proverb is exactly what creativity in your essays is all about. You want to find small ways to make your writing unique and stand out from the crowd of other essays. I am not going to tell you specifically what you should do to make your essays more creative, because if I did, then it wouldn’t really be you that is being creative. That gets into my next point about writing: make it your own. You want to show the person or people reading your essays who you are. If you are passionate about something, I should be able to know that after reading what you wrote. If you have an idea about what you want to do for the rest of your life, make sure you show that. Lastly, complete three rounds (yes, I said three rounds) of editing where you check and correct small mistakes like missing and unnecessary punctuation or words, run-on sentences and misspelled words in all of your essays and online application content (academic info, activities, etc.). Skip over this last step only if you don’t like winning free money.

For your recommendations, you want to remember three things:

• To give the person you are requesting a recommendation from two weeks in advance from the date you want the recommendation.
• To have your scholarship writing and resume completed before you request the recommendation and give the person recommending you a copy of both
• To request a recommendation from a person that can speak on your personal character as well as other qualities such as academic performance, community involvement, etc.

It takes a lot of time to put together an entire scholarship application and I am sure you may be thinking about all of the other work and activities you may have to do. Not to worry. This season there are some new resources around to assist you with your scholarship writing and resume. You can get free writing feedback at MillionDollarScholar.com, which is a recently released website full of information and tools to help students in the process of winning scholarships. The writing feedback will provide specific advice about how to make your writing better. To help you develop your scholarship resume you can utilize the Million Dollar Scholar Resume Builder. With this tool, you can input information online that can quickly be transferred to a Word document for resume creation. This tool has been specifically set up to help you provide the information and history that most scholarships will require.

Alright scholar, you now know that it is the season of free money. You have the information and you now know about a new resource to make the process less stressful. Do not let this scholarship season pass you by!