Speaker 1: One of the most stressful questions when it comes to applying for scholarships, and yet also one of the most common questions students see, is why do I deserve this scholarship? Or what makes you think that you deserve this money? Now believe it or not, it might feel like this is just an open-ended question, but judges are actually looking for something pretty specific. Also I know a lot of students feel like they're being maybe a little arrogant or they don't want to sound too needy or too greedy when answering this question, but we also don't want to feel or sound too wishy-washy. So how do we sell scholarship judges whenever they ask the dreaded, why do I deserve this scholarship money? I'm going to give you five specific tips on what your student can do in order to make the most of this question and really sell themselves when it comes to their scholarship essay with this prompt. I'm also going to be giving you specific examples as we go throughout the video, so stick with me till the end so that you can make sure that they really perfect this essay prompt, because again, they will absolutely see this more than once. Now don't forget to hit subscribe because every single week we release a new strategy to help your family work towards a debt-free degree. Hey there, my name is Jocelyn Pearson, founder of The Scholarship System, where we redefined paying for college so that we can help families avoid that dreaded student loan debt primarily by focusing on scholarships. In fact, to date, our families have now secured over $10.5 million in scholarships. So we have seen this essay prompt many, many times. Now let's go ahead and get started. Now perhaps your student, they're unsure of why they deserve the scholarship. Maybe they look at this and they're like, oh gosh, why do I deserve this beyond any other student? Or maybe they're like, I know I deserve this, but they also don't want to sound too arrogant or they want to have a good balance here. No matter which end of the spectrum your student is on, today's video is going to shed some very clear light on how they can answer this prompt regardless of how they feel. Because again, remember that judges are actually looking for something pretty specific here. Now before I dive into the five tips, I do want to let you know that in order to find legitimate scholarships that have less competition and that are often asking this prompt, you can register for our free training at the link somewhere on the screen, also in the description, or you can just go to thescholarshipsystem.com slash free training. And if you go there, you will learn exactly how to uncover these legitimate scholarships that are probably going to ask this prompt, but that also means that the chances of them being legitimate are much higher. Okay, so let's get into it. So the first tip that I really recommend is try to explain how these funds will help your students' future goals. So have your student think future, not just I need this money right now because I don't want to take out student debt, but think bigger than that. How will this impact them in the long run? Maybe this will include educational pursuits or their goals after graduation, or how will they use their degree to better the world or to make a contribution to society. So again, we're thinking a lot bigger than just I literally need this money right now because I have a bill to pay. So one example might be, hey, by you giving me this scholarship, I'm going to be able to pursue a degree in veterinarian school where I hope to not only create my own vet practice, but I also hope to volunteer to spay and neuter animals on the streets, something like that. So this could be an example of, hey, this is the career path I've chosen. You giving me this money means that I can pursue that and do so without worrying about debt and this is how I plan to give back in the future. Now a second tip here is huge, and that is to focus on the purpose of the scholarship. So if this scholarship was created in honor of someone or by a certain organization, say, let's just go back to that vet example, say it's created by the Veterinarian Association of America, I just made that up, but that would mean that animals will probably be important to them. So you can correlate that, you can tie that into this as a prompt. This is a huge tip we share with our scholarship system members inside our online course. So any way that we can relate to the committee or relate to the donors, I think that's always a nice touch and it shows that your student has done their research. Okay. The third tip is to use specific examples. Generalizations just do not stick with readers and they really don't tell a story. So instead of telling them something, have your student show them something. One example would be, I'm kind. Well, why don't you give a specific example of how you're kind? So this is something where your student would want to think, what's a situation, what's a story where I displayed kindness? Maybe that's something that's important to the committee or maybe selfless or maybe they really appreciate community service. How can I not just say I do community service, how can I show that I do community service? So one example could be that right now I'm not a vet, however, I do go to the local animal shelter every Sunday and I volunteer for a couple hours. All I do is help clean up the pens, but I also get to play with the animals and just give them a little bit of joy beyond their little four by four square cage, right? So I show them that I'm giving time, giving back, that I'm kind, that I'm caring, that I'm volunteering. Comment below, what is a story that your student wants to use or what is an experience that your student has that they're not quite sure if they can use it in this essay prompt? Comment below. We're happy to give some feedback on those ideas. Now the fourth tip here when it comes to answering why do I deserve this scholarship is to have your student share how they've overcome obstacles. This is always a great selling point with committees because they're going to come across a lot of obstacles in college and beyond. So if we can show that we're mastering them now, then the chances of them succeeding are much higher and we know that committees like to give money to students that will actually graduate. So this is a big tip here. Now it is a fine balance between sharing past struggles and dwelling on them. So we want to not just share the challenge, but how we overcame them as well. We don't want to just turn this into a pity party. While I understand some people really are in difficult challenges and difficult situations, we still want to show how we're overcoming them. Okay, now the fifth tip here, and this is a big one for us in the scholarship system. Every year we give out an annual scholarship and this is actually something that we have in our grading rubric. So people, students can lose or gain points based on following this very critical tip from our course, and that is to maximize the word count. We do not want to go beyond limits. So if they say 500 words, we do not want to go and do a, and write a 600 word essay, but we also don't want to write just a 400 word essay and miss out on 20% of the space. So we really want to maximize the opportunity we have at hand. So for example, if there is a 500 word limit and a student only uses 300 out of it, then their essay just is not going to be nearly as competitive as someone who maximizes the 500 because you're just, with 500 words, your student will just be able to share so much more detail and examples than someone who cuts it in half. So that said, we don't want to bust beyond the limit, but we also want to make sure we maximize that limit. So there you have it. Those are five quick tips. I can help your student when they're answering that essay prompt of why do they deserve the scholarship. And I really hope that you found this helpful. Now if you did, or if you are maybe wondering where do I find scholarships that ask these questions, make sure that you register for that free training in there. I cover my six steps to securing scholarships. In fact, I use those steps to secure six figures myself and graduate debt free. But again, it will give you specific steps on how to help your student build that list of legitimate scholarships. And also make sure you hit subscribe because every week we're releasing a new strategy for paying for college. All right. I will see you in the next video.