Scholarship Application – Rules and Info

Accepting applications beginning NOW, 2023.
Deadline for Applications is April 5th, 2024.

(I know FAFSA doesn’t open till December sometime)

We’re only taking the first COMPLETED 50 applications.

There are TWO parts to the application.  A paper mail-in part, and an electronic part.  Do both of them.

Read this entire page before emailing with questions, please.  Everything is here.

Everything mailed must be postmarked by the above date.  Everything submitted electronically must be submitted by this date.  Everything after this will not be accepted.  No exceptions.  Don’t wait until after the deadline to ask if it’s okay for some stuff to be late.

What’s my email?  [email protected]

INFO

  1. For US residents only (US military bases DO count).
  2. Scholarship award size will vary- $500, $1,000, maybe even $1,500 or $2,000.
  3. Scholarships are for high school students going into college ONLY.  Not for current college students or students returning to college, or any other sort of student.
  4. Student must be signing up for full time classes – college of their choice – study of their choice.  4 year, 2 year, trade, technical, barber, beauty, welding, ANY type of secondary school.
  5. Students can be from any type of school in the US: Public, private, religious, or home school, etc.
  6. Must have at least 2.5 gpa
  7. Scholarship checks will be mailed directly to your college/school, with instructions to apply it to either one or two (or more?) semesters.

WRITING PROMPT & some advice

  1. Tell us YOUR story.  Tell us a little about yourself and what motivates you, why you want to go to college.  Maybe something happened when you were a little younger, somebody told you something, you saw something or did something.  Our life experiences shape us.  That’s what we want to hear about.
  2. Try to avoid telling us any religious, race, or gender info so that our volunteers reading the essays can avoid grading bias.  If this is important to your story then do include it, but if it’s just info about you because you want to include it, maybe don’t.
  3. Don’t tell us how expensive college is.
  4. Don’t tell us how many years you plan to go to school, or all about the school.
  5. Don’t give us textbook definitions of what a scientist, a lawyer, a doctor (or whatever) is.
  6. If you want to thank us for considering your application, please do so separately from your essay.
  7. GET SOMEBODY TO PROOF READ YOUR ESSAY!  If it’s hard to read for you, it’ll be hard to read for us.  There’s no shame in asking for help.  I’m not so concerned about typos or a little bad grammar, but more with structure and clarity of message.  If you ramble and go back and forth, or things are out of order, you won’t score well.

Your application will be discarded if

  1. Essay does not meet minimum/maximum (about) word count of 800-900 words.
  2. Does not include transcript.
  3. Does not include two letters of recommendation.
  4. Does not have any contact info.   I can’t give you money if you don’t give me all the information I need.  Always include an email address.

You Submit in the mail:

image from http://clipart-library.com/clipart/6ir5GoxAT.htm

  1. Your High school transcript.  Just print it out.  I don’t need official b/c some schools charge for that and that’s dumb.
  2. Two letters of recommendation. From a teacher, a school official, an employer, volunteer organization, or somebody else.  Not family.  Not a peer (some colleges are asking for this now?  Not me).  Get letters from people who know you, who you’ve worked with, etc.  Have them include their contact info when they sign these – name, email, maybe a phone number.
  3. Your essay PRINTED OUT – with NO contact info printed on it.  DON’T PUT YOUR NAME IN THE HEADER OR FOOTER OF YOUR ESSAYS.  It takes me a bunch of time to edit that stuff out.
  4. Your contact info: A card or piece of paper with your name, email, phone, and mailing address.

This can be sent to
Newton Pens Scholarships
PO BOX 6084
Hot Springs, Ar. 71902

 

You Submit in Email:

Copy this form to a new email, fill it in, then email it to me – [email protected]

NO GOOGLE DOCS!  I hate working from those.

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