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| Scholarship Essay |
 Check your punctuation, too. Run-on and fragmented sentences can become the reason of your disqualification. Another problem is tense shifting, which gives the written piece an appearance of uncertainty. "Write the essay, examine it, and examine it again if necessary. Spend the time now for a larger pay off later," says Gores. After you have double-checked for mistakes, ask your teachers, parents and friends to proofread your application. Nesbitt advises at least five people look through your essay before you mail it. All of the experts agree: Students who send careless applications are not taken seriously and often are disqualified immediately.
Neatness and attention to grammar and spelling are the best ways to make it through the first round of decisions. Scholarships are for students just like you. Don't be left out because the essay question stopped you from turning in your application. Write, reflect, re-write and refine. A winning essay takes a little time to prepare, but free money for college is a perfect reward.
Essay questions are as different as the sponsors that provide the awards. Look over this list of sample questions, offered by experts, and brainstorm answers from your unique history.
1. How would this scholarship influence your education?
2. What would you hope to get out of your time at college if your education had no limits, you could stay as long as you wanted and money were no object? 
3. You have just retired. What would people say about you at your going-away party?
4. What legacy do you hope to leave with your life?
5. Who is your hero and why?
6. Describe a personal experience that has profoundly changed your perspective on an issue of regional, national or international importance. In what way has this event influenced your previous perspective? How will it change your approach to this issue (or similar issues) in the future?
7. Depict how a work of art, music, dance, theatre or literature has inspired you.
8. Who speaks for your generation, and what are they saying? If you answer “no one,” why? What needs to be said?
9. Pearl S. Buck once said, "You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings." Tell us about an experience where you felt that you did the right thing in spite of your feelings.
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