Increase your chances, be neat and thorough

Page 14

It is no secret that the cost of education can leave students with a debt burden that is into the tens of thousands of dollars. People pursuing a post-secondary education, therefore, are looking for all the financial help they can get. Sweetgrass contacted several people with professional experience in academic institutions to find out how students can prepare for and acquire a scholarship or bursary.

The Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund was at the top of everyone's list for students in Alberta. The fund publishes a brochure that lists 40 scholarships administered by them. Stewart Dunn, assistant to the manager at Edmonton Advanced Education and Career Development, which manages the fund, had some advice for students wanting to increase their chances of getting a scholarship.

Dunn stressed the need to take time to proofread and revise your scholarship application before submitting it.

"Do a rough draft first," he said. "Edit it and then put it down. There are simple little mistakes I'll see on scholarships and I know the committee will get this and think, well this person's illiterate, in spite of the fact that the transcript may say they're the most wonderful person in the world. If people spell things wrong, or miss words or something like that, it makes them look like they aren't scholarship material. You know the people are a lot smarter than this, but we can't tell the committee 'Assume the person is smarter than the application.' There are things you can't affect," Dunn continued; "[for] most of our scholarships we look at transcripts and that is set. You've gone to school, you've earned your marks; there's nothing you can do at the point of applying for a scholarship that's going to affect your transcript.

"Some of the scholarships ask for reference letters . . . . It's really up to you to make sure you choose a good reference, somebody who'll give you a good letter. Encourage them to say as much as they possibly can. We have a lot of people who will say this is a wonderful kid, but if you say that in one or two sentences on a reference letter, it's not that strong. What I really like to encourage students [to do] is sell yourself; tell the committee why, if they have to choose between people, why they would choose you over somebody else."

It's not enough, though, to include everything about yourself you can think of.

"Some people, " Dunn said, "go on and on forever, and that's not going to work either. At some point, whoever is reading it, whether it be a job reference or a scholarship one, they're going to get tired of reading about you. Hit the details, but do it right, do it nice - legible, clean.

"Most of our scholarships, we ask them to send in a photocopy or several photocopies of the application. We keep the original and we mail the photocopies off to committee members. Some people send in photocopies that I can't read - if we catch that, we'll re-photocopy, but they shouldn't rely on that. They should make sure that they print, don't write, make it legible. Go out of your way, because those are the little things you can influence the committee with."

Asked if there was a general rule as to how much marks count as compared to other factors, Dunn said it was difficult to be specific about percentages.

"It does vary so much from scholarship to scholarship. The scholarship we give out the most, the Alexander Rutherford, is solely based on marks; the only way they can mess it up on the application form is, you know, we still get people who don't even know their own address and things like that, and even that doesn't disqualify them; it just means we can't get money out to them. For most other competitions where it's beyond marks, it usually becomes a question of where they will rate marks into it. One third of it may be marks; one third of it may be other accomplishments; and one third of it going on to an essay or something like that. In all of these things, what I find consistently is that [in] theessay-type questions, the students could do a lot better than they do.

(see Scholarship page 15

(Continued from page 14.) "At the higher level of scholarships we ask them if they've ever had publications, other awards . . . they can't change that [either]. What they can change, though, is illegibility, the whole tone of their application. They can make that neat and crisp."

Dunn sums up his advice by saying students should consult their high school counsellors or the awards office in their university or college for the latest information about availability of scholarships and how to apply.

Corey Crewe, a placement testing co-ordinator at Alberta College, agrees that the institution you are attending is the best place to start. He asked some students what they thought about seeking scholarships. They told him that every school should have a display board for scholarships and that educators should remind the students to review it frequently for new information. As do most schools, Alberta College keeps a list of scholarship sources known to them - the government ones and many private ones. They urge students to ask their parents about their employers' scholarships and bursaries, too, Crewe said. Many companies offer educational support that people don't even know about.

The Royal Bank is one corporation that since 1992 has granted educational awards through its Native Student Awards Program. Five students receive $4,000 annually for their educational expenses to a maximum of four years at university or two years at college. Recipients who are interested may also be considered for summer and post-graduate employment with the bank. An independent committee of Aboriginal academics reviews the applications and selects students according to personal and academic achievement and financial need. The awards are available to status and non-status Indians, Inuit and Metis.

The biggest problem Crewe sees is that students are not always aware of who should be applying for what. e stresses talking to your school's scholarship advisor, rather than going on your own. Sometimes advisors know about additional scholarships for which you should apply, and they can help with resumes, which may be required.

The other thing Crew encourages is for students to prepare their grades at least a year before applying for a scholarship, in order to beat the competition. Personal qualities, such as leadership, volunteerism, and good recommendations from teachers and community leaders also count, he said.

Jack Fuller, a spokesman with Continuing Education Services at Edmonton Public Schools, reiterated that about 80 per cent of scholarships are based on academic merit, but that personal attributes also matter.

For a comprehensive listing of Aboriginal scholarships please check out AMMSA's web site at: http://www.ammsa.com/ammsabursary.html