How to write a winning scholarship essay - Gen Tanabe, Kelly Tanabe 2018

Why we know so much about scholarships
The secret to winning a scholarship

You may be wondering who we are and what we know about winning scholarships. As the authors of several books on college admission and scholarships including Get Free Cash for College, 1001 Ways to Pay for College and Get into Any College, we have had the unique opportunity to meet thousands of students and scholarship judges. In writing this book we conducted extensive research and interviewed dozens of scholarship judges and scholarship-winning students. We have distilled all of this research into the easy-to-read pages of this book.

But just as important as the research that went into this book is the fact that we’ve been where you are today. Both before and during college we were fanatical about applying for scholarships. Using the strategies that we have incorporated into this book, we won more than $100,000 in merit-based scholarships. This money was instrumental in allowing us to graduate from Harvard University debt-free.

In addition, we have served as scholarship judges for numerous competitions. One scholarship that we judge is the SuperCollege.com Scholarship, which receives over 10,000 applications each year. Reading these application essays has given us valuable experience, and we have seen what works as well as what mistakes students make over and over.

We are also expert interviewers, having conducted both scholarship interviews and admission interviews for Harvard.

The sum total of this experience, research and know-how is contained within these pages. If you follow these strategies, you too can become a scholarship winner. Always remember that someone is going to win every scholarship that is out there, and there is no reason for that someone not to be you.