Why you didn't get that scholarship.

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

I was recently on a committee that was giving away free money to healthcare students. I'm sure the disappointed applicants will be wondering why they were not chosen. Let me share what made it easy to turn them down.

1) Answer the questions. Some applicants left entire sections (even the financial need section) blank.

2) Answer the question we asked. When asked to tell us about your educational goals an applicant told a story about making bread. Might work for a creative writing scholarship not so helpful for a healthcare scholarship.

3) Follow instructions. One question was very specific and even gave an example. Tell us about yourself in third person. For example, John Smith is pursuing a career in Nursing.

4) Have someone proficient in English check your spelling, grammar, text speak etc. I won't wade through one long paragraph without proper punctuation, spelling or usage. Plenty of other people will make the effort to submit a coherent application and I will give them the money.

5) Show up for the interview. This one totally blew me away. I was completely understanding of the guy from Alaska using Go-to-Meeting software. Not so much the guy from across town. Not only did he fail to make arrangements to interview face to face but he attempted to use a public coffeehouse WIFI connection that had way too much noise in the background. When we realized that was not going to work, we were going to try calling him and use the speaker on our phone. Nope. As another committee member said exasperatedly, "This is the only teenager in America without a cell phone."

In a competitive environment like scholarships, school admissions and employment you have limited ability to make a good impression. Yes, we are judging you. This is not the time to be making your political statement about freedom and equality. We are looking for the best candidate.

So, fill out the paperwork completely and correctly. Show up prepared and dressed professionally. You won't always get what you want but you sure gave yourself a fighting chance instead of being an easy throwaway.

Any other suggestions from you committee members, admissions personnel, nursing managers?

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I LOVE THIS! I have a kid getting ready to push off to college soon, and am going to send him a link to this thread. I usually share some laughs from the site with him, but now can give him something USEFUL!

Thanks :)

[Jolie, BSN]

Wish I could "like" this 1000 times!

As an employer, I can substitute "job" for "scholarship" and write pretty much the same thing. Seems that many students gain absolutely no wisdom between losing the scholarship as they enter school and not getting hired 2-4 years later.

[amoLucia]

WOW!!!!!!

Your post should be printed out and given to all applicants when they receive their application papers! And they should have to mandatorily (is this a word?) sign off that they ACTUALLY read it as they hand in their ap.

Primo info!

[singwithme123]

I was interviewing a potential scholarship candidate a few years ago, and he actually pulled out a picture of a little girl that he had taken care of once (to make some sort of point). Um... HIPAA????

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I was interviewing a potential scholarship candidate a few years ago, and he actually pulled out a picture of a little girl that he had taken care of once (to make some sort of point). Um... HIPAA????

..and more than a little creepy. Kinda makes you wish you had looked at the photo, said "OMG, that's my niece, I had no idea she was in the hospital for that! I'm going to call my sister RIGHT NOW!!"

But then, I'm a rabble rouser

[Jolie, BSN]

Our receptionist walked back to my office this morning with an application that a young man had just dropped off. She asked if she should invite him to stay for an interview. I took a few minutes to read it over and told her, "No, thanks," as I placed it in the no-interview file. The reason: One question reads, "What was the reason for leaving your prior employer?" His answer was "Ask me." My thought was that I just did ask him and he refused to answer. Why should I try a second time?

[Larry2016]

Here is,a way to NOT market scholarships. The school I went to had over 50 different type of nursing scholarship. A mass email went out to everyone and here were the instructions:

For each scholarship, tell us about yourself, educational goals, and financial need IN 300 CHARACTERS OR LESS (yep you read that right...and spaces count as characters!)