Improve your chances of getting that scholarship

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With the cost of attending post-secondary education constantly on the rise, most students can use all the help they can get to finance their studies. One way to get that help is through scholarships.

According to Diedre Desmarais, registrar and director of student services with Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC), the best place to start your search for the scholarships to apply for is on the Web site of the school you want to attend. If you don't have on-line access, you can also find scholarship information in the school's calendar.

The SIFC currently has 33 scholarships to give out each year, and another will soon be added to the list. The scholarships offered by the college range from $100 for book scholarships, all the way up to one scholarship for $4,000, but the average scholarship value is about $1,000 per semester, Desmarais said.

Once you've found the scholarships, what can you do it improve your chances of being selected to receive them?

"The first, extremely important tip that I think students should consider is actually applying for them," Desmarais said, explaining that one of the biggest problems the college has in awarding scholarships is getting enough students to apply.

"It's unbelievable. We have to go out and search for them," she said.

"So actually go into the different Web sites of whatever university or college that the student wants to attend, and see what scholarships are available," she advises. "And even if they think they're not going to be eligible, just apply for it. I mean, they should have the right grade point average. But often times we'll go into a scholarship meeting, and the decision is really simple for us, because there is only one who's applied.

"The other thing is they should follow the instruction to the letter. I'm also on the City of Regina scholarship committee, and it's very frustrating for committee members when the students don't follow the instructions precisely to the letter," Desmarais said. "If it wants three letters of reference, then get three, and get them from the right people, especially if it says make sure they're not family members or something."

Another suggestion-make it easy to read. Using a 12-point type, and keeping it short, concise and organized will all help your chances.

"Maybe if there's different headings that different scholarships are looking for, they can put the heading, and then in point form under the headings, fill out the information that's asked for within the scholarship," she said.

"For instance, if the scholarship wants what the student's done in terms of community involvement, maybe put the heading community involvement, and then under there bullet what they've done.

"If it's based on need, maybe the student could give some information that would help the scholarship committee to determine that need is in fact a major part of the student's life, which it usually is, because students don't have a lot of money. In our college for instance, we have a lot of single parent women, and you know, trying to raise a couple of kids and go to school at the same time, living on either a student loan or band funding is really hard. So just make sure that they include those kinds of details."

The same concept that applies to resumes also applies to scholarship applications, Desmarais said.

"You don't want to read a whole bunch of stuff. Because if they're too long, you just throw them aside anyway."

For more information about scholarships offered by SIFC, visit the college Web site at www.sifc.edu.