{"id":26643,"date":"2020-05-29T17:51:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T22:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=26643"},"modified":"2021-12-25T11:40:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T17:40:01","slug":"want-a-full-ride-to-college-heres-a-scholarship-you-can-pursue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2020\/05\/29\/want-a-full-ride-to-college-heres-a-scholarship-you-can-pursue\/","title":{"rendered":"Want a Full Ride to College? Here&#8217;s a Scholarship You Can Pursue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With Decision Day for the Class of 2020 now past, members of IMSA\u2019s Class of 2021 are beginning to prepare for the college and scholarship application season in the fall semester. As I\u2019ve written in previous articles, taking the PSAT\/NMSQT to earn a National Merit Finalist designation alone can win you a free ride at many state schools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the PSAT was all the way back in October. If you didn\u2019t plan ahead for the National Merit route, what can you do now to get money for college?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/brucefishkinscholarshipfund.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bruce Fishkin Scholarship Fund<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> seeks standout students who will go on to make a difference. They award scholarships in amounts up to a full ride &#8212; in other words, the entire cost of attendance &#8212; at any accredited U.S. school of your choice. Students residing or attending school in specific counties in Illinois, Nevada, and Connecticut can apply in October of their senior year. (The full list of eligible locations can be found <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/brucefishkinscholarshipfund.com\/frequently-asked-questions\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). Up to six students can receive the Bruce Fishkin Scholarship each year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since the Fund looks for students who place a premium on academics, IMSA students tend to be a natural fit for the scholarship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The application process runs from October through April. Essays are due in October and ask only one question: \u201cIn 20 years, if you were on the board of this scholarship committee, would you award the 17-year-old you a scholarship? Why or why not?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Applicants from the essay stage are then filtered to advance to the semifinalist interview, which is a brief interview with one or two members of the Fund\u2019s Board of Directors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After another cut from semifinals to finals, finalist interviews are conducted with most or all of the Board of Directors. They are longer and more difficult than the semifinalist round. Finally, up to six winners are chosen from the finalist stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The benefits of the scholarship are not just financial. Winners join an established network of Bruce Fishkin Scholars and have the unique opportunity to mentor future scholars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Regarding the application process, newly-named Bruce Fishkin Scholar <\/span><b>Krishna Thakkar (\u201820)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> advised, \u201cRead your application essay before you go to interviews because they will ask you about it\u2026and make sure your interview answers fit with your essay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thakkar commented that the lengthy application process taught her that &#8220;it\u2019s okay to express vulnerability and flaws even in a scholarship setting, and sometimes that can&nbsp; be more helpful than trying to curate a false perfect image.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Decision Day for the Class of 2020 now past, members of IMSA\u2019s Class of 2021 are beginning to prepare for the college and scholarship&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":27038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[1326,2123,2908],"coauthors":[2747],"class_list":["post-26643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-college","tag-scholarships","tag-tuition"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26643"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31947,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26643\/revisions\/31947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26643"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=26643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}