Dear College Scholarship Providers,
Most of your guidelines always seem to say something like, "Explain how you have overcome your adversities in hopes of achieving your college dream," or "Explain what adversities you have overcome in your life?" These prompts are something I will never understand. You will offer money to the students who have overcome adversity, but you are taking it away from kids that are trying their absolute hardest to not only get the best education they can but that also try their absolute hardest once they get there. Just because I have not overcome the hardest adversity this world has to offer does not mean that I do not deserve to have my education funded for.
I am a middle-class college woman with both parents still living. So as you can guess, every scholarship of yours that I applied for, I didn't win a single one. As a writer that revised those essays many times, I know it was not my writing that made me lose. It was the fact that the only adversities I had to write about were divorced parents, financial problems and a medical problem.
Dreams should not be limited by money just like your scholarships should not be limited to the small population who have overcome extreme adversity. As a middle-class citizen with big dreams of going to a top university, let me tell you, the tuition has not been in the budget. Especially with no scholarship. It may be breaking the bank, but I guess that is my problem because I have not overcome enough adversity. I did not conquer ENOUGH obstacles by the age of 18. My struggle was not enough to earn money that would fund the education that at one time I thought I could only dream about.
Who are you to tell me that the adversities I have overcome were not enough? Who are you to tell me I am not worthy of that money?
My heart goes out to everyone who has won these scholarships, I am proud of you for overcoming whatever adversity was extreme enough to win you that scholarship. You deserve every dollar that they gave you. You lived through those obstacles and you overcame them. Now leave that in the past and go get yourself an amazing education.
I understand every reason for this type of scholarship to exist. What I do not understand is why there are so many. The basis of the scholarships is very kind-hearted, but having so many of the same scholarships takes away the opportunity of awarding scholarships to MANY hard-working, intelligent, worthy students. Lack of adversity should not be the reason that a hard-working student cannot go to the college of their choice.
I have been blessed with parents that believe enough in my work ethic that they have worked even harder just so my dreams could come true. Some students are not as lucky or are not in the same financial position. So please, scholarship providers, realize that a lack of adversity does not mean that a student is not worthy of financial support from you. Instead of asking what they have been through, maybe start asking what they are hoping to do.
