Scholarships for College

Many high school students are currently either finishing up their junior year of high school or are waiting for responses from colleges that they have applied to. In lieu of this time period, it is a good opportunity for junior and senior high school students to start seeking out scholarships, in order to minimize the cost of attending college. As a former Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund application reader (one of the largest Asian scholarship organizations in the United States) and a Gates Millennium Scholarship recipient, I wanted to provide a few tips to students as to how to maximize scholarship opportunities to help offset the financial burden of going to college.

TIP #1: Apply to as many scholarships as possible.

While it may seem that I am stating the obvious, students will often fail to maximize their application opportunities either due to procrastination or unwarranted misgivings. Some of the concern that students feel is whether they will even be considered for the scholarship, as many times they believe that they didn’t struggle as much in their personal life in comparison to other people who may have gone through factors such as homelessness. While it may be true to a certain extent, this thought process should not be a delimiting factor as to whether to apply. Let the scholarship funders and readers make that decision.

TIP #2: Be honest and sincere in the scholarship essays.

This is an important factor that scholarship readers are evaluating for. Many times, I have seen essays from students that are short and/or lack the emotional depth needed to capture my attention. It is important for students to talk about their personal background, especially if it is one that clearly details their personal struggles and their triumphs over the difficulties life tosses their way. It is these type of essays that not only tell me that the student is still striving to achieve his or her best (as evident from applying to the scholarship), but also that the student is resilient. Many times, students feel as if scholarships are a measurement for how much one has struggled personally -- that if they did not become homeless, starve, or come from a single parent or foster family background, that their difficulties are trivial. This is not at all the case, as struggles come in different shapes and sizes. It is good that students recognize their personal privileges and opportunities that they received, but students should also recognize that the purpose of scholarships are also to recognize individual’s hard work and achievements. So make sure to write personal essays that show how you grew over the years.

TIP #3: If a scholarship has a multiple essay requirement, use that to your advantage.

Students tend to end up looking at essay requirements for scholarships preemptively give up. Personally when I was applying to the Gates Millennium Scholarship, I remember looking at the 6 essay requirement and automatically thinking about not applying. Already as a high school student with a lot of academic and extracurricular responsibilities, I felt really unmotivated to apply. On top of all this, there is no guarantee that I was going to receive the scholarship. Even though this was the case, I ended up completing the application reasoning that these essays can serve as templates for future essays to other scholarships. A simple strategic choice in hindsight but its a decision that is hugely beneficial in the long run. To my befuddlement, I eventually received the Gates Millennium Scholarship despite my initial reluctance to commit to the immense workload.

In Royal Education, we ground our work through our personal experiences, implementing informed and supportive methods to ensure that all students are successful in their own capacities. We hope that this article was helpful in preparation for applying to scholarships. If you have any questions about our services or want us to write about a particular topic, feel free to reach out to us in the following social media outlets:

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Preparation for the Interview

As a prior Interviewer for Harvard University’s admissions, I have had the privilege of talking to many qualified and brilliant Harvard candidates. In the wake of the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard lawsuit, some of the practices taught to Harvard alumni Interviewers in terms of what they should look for and how applicants are rated have been made public. However, the purpose of today’s article is to not dig into specifics revolving around Harvard University’s particular interview practices or revelations found in the recent court case. Instead, we will be focusing on what high school students should keep in mind when preparing for the college interviews. As many high school students will start receiving interview requests from the many public and private schools that they have applied to, here are some tips and thoughts to help ease students into the interview process and ensure they have as smooth an experience as possible.

Do NOT be scared or nervous.

Even though this may be easier to state than do for many students, this was something that is particularly emphasized to alum interviewers (from my personal experiences and from other interviewers’ accounts that I talked to). The main purpose of these interviews is to get to know the student better in aspects that are not covered in their written application. Students that walk into interviews overly anxious will oftentimes find themselves unable to speak or responding to questions with little elaboration.  As a result of this, interviewers are told to be friendly to help students calm down, so that the student can act and feel natural when responding to the interview questions. Students should realize that most interviewers aren’t there to cast judgement. They are there simply to get to know their applicants better.

Not ALL interviews are important, but some are.

Many times, there is contradictory discussions that interviews will make or break a student’s chance for getting into a specific university. This is not at all the case, as the weight of the interview or even the role of the interview is different dependent on the university. Some universities like Harvard see it as another part of the applicant’s admissions portfolio, allowing the Admissions Officers to understand the personality and thoughts of the applicant better. In other universities, the interview process is purely an opportunity for the student to ask questions to the alum (and has no scoring metric or report to the university). In the end, interviews usually will never make or break the student’s application unless there are severe cases that may raise red flags for the interviewer.

Definitely know your scores (GPA, SAT / ACT, AP’s, etc.).

It may come to a surprise to some, but alum interviewers are usually not informed about the students’ records or background. This practice may vary based on each university, but expect that the interviewer will only know the student’s name and high school that they attend. During the interview process, I have seen students who do not know their scores at all. This provides a subtle negative impression to interviewers, as some may assume that students does not focus on their academic performance. It is best if students review and memorize their scores before going into the interviews.

Why do you want to come to our school?

This question is a common essay topic that some of the private schools ask when students are applying for admissions. That being stated, not all of them ask this question in their supplement, and interviewers sometimes ask this question. In particular, the purpose of this question is to screen applicants who are applying purely for the branding of schools, and to also understand the deeper motivations in the student. Even if the answer is not 100% perfect, the student should have a solid answer that should distinguish their specific interest in the university compared to others.  Even a little preparation can go a long way towards helping create a desirable answer.

Trick question(s).

As a prior interviewer, I along with some of the interviewers have the tendency to ask an uncommon question to students. This is not to cause the student to panic or be concerned, but rather to see the student’s true personality. Many times, I am able to tell if students has done a lot preparation before the interview, making students seem disingenuous or systematic in responses. By creating a question such as -- “Tell me one time that you failed, and what did you do to change?” -- it allows me to see the students’ maturity and get more insight into students’ perspectives on life.

In the end of the day, it is important for students to be genuine with their responses and to not overprep. I wish students the best of luck with their interviews and their college decisions.

In Royal Education, we dedicate our college counseling services to build students to be happy and successful in their college path and beyond. Feel free to reach out to us through the following outlets if you have any questions about our services, or if you want us to write articles about a particular topic:

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Common Core and SAT – The Change to Mathematics

In the Spring of 2016, the College Board decided to shift the grading scale of the SAT from 2400 to 1600 and made a significant change in the content of the test. The intention of these changes is to make the exam more accurately reflect the expectations that colleges have for students. In order to do so, the exams were developed by two state consortia that based their curriculum around the Common Core.

In order to understand what this entails, it is best to compare practice problems that exist from the old and new SAT exam.

The problem above comes from the SAT Practice Test #1, published in 2015 on the College Board website. When analyzing standard word problems such as this one from an old SAT exam, it is important to note a few things. The question is a standard algebraic problem in which students must understand how to interpret parts of an equation. Even though the problem has four sentences, it is fast to recognize that only the last two sentences are needed in order to answer the problem. Much of the older SAT math problems, like this one, do not require much depth of understanding nor time in order to solve the problem. Most of the old SAT math problems cover concepts that exist in Geometry and Algebra II.

This sample problem above comes from the new SAT, available on College Board’s website. Simply viewing the question, it is evident that the five sentences in this problem are longer. But, what is more significant is that in this problem, the entire paragraph is needed in order to fully understand the scenario and solve the problem. Also, the problem requires students to conceptually understand a more advanced math concept from statistics called margin of error, and what happens to the margin of error when a sample size becomes bigger or smaller.

In the new SAT, it is similar to the old SAT in that it covers concepts that exist in Geometry and Algebra II. But, the application of Common Core expects students to understand how to apply mathematical concepts into real-life scenarios and understand when to use multiple mathematical concepts at once. Also, the Common Core State Standards have started to put more emphasis on Statistics, a topic that is usually not covered thoroughly in schools, if at all.

Due to these reasons, I recommend the following for students who are in their earlier years of high school and plan to take the new SAT:

1.       Practice on speed reading and reading comprehension. What this means is that students must learn how to read and comprehend many words in an efficient and effective way.

2.       Students should consider taking Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics earlier in their high school years, or at least set time to thoroughly practice on different statistical concepts that are covered on the SAT.

3.       Start practicing the SAT early. The more practice that students get on the SAT, the faster that students can learn from their mistakes and score higher.  This also gives students more time to figure out what concepts that they do not know and address their weaknesses.

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