Can I haz acceptance letter?

Over the years, I’ve received numerous requests for advice on applying for scholarships, college, grad school etc. The vast majority of these requests fall along the lines of:

• Is my application strong enough?
• How do I pad my resume?
• Which colleges / grad schools should I apply to? How many?
• How do I prepare for interviews?
• How does the process of applying to US colleges differ for international students?

Of course, these are all extremely important, and not too long ago I was the one who was freaking out over them. However, caught up in trying to secure scholarships or get into the best schools, many people fail to ask these questions:

• Is a scholarship / grad school right for me?
• What am I signing myself up for?

A little background about myself: I’m currently a graduate student at Stanford. I'm funded by a science scholarship, which pays for undergrad and grad school tuition in exchange for a 6 year service commitment.

Now that I’m currently down this track, I can tell you from the other side that I wish I’d asked myself these questions earlier on. I do not regret my choice – I just have these moments where I suddenly realize that as a naive 18 year old, I basically put down in ink what I would be doing for the rest of my life.

Because they’re so hard to obtain and involve so much money, many people think it would be crazy to turn down a scholarship. During my undergraduate days, as well as at Stanford, I’ve met people who have accepted scholarships from all over the world, whose lives have been affected by their choice. One thing I hope to achieve in this blog is to shed light on this question: What does accepting a scholarship really entail? I refer specifically to sources of funding that involve a service commitment, or bond, where you’re required to return to work for your funding agency for a certain amount of time.

In a similar vein, I’ll also discuss the following:

• - graduate school. Free food jokes aside, what is grad school really like?
• - international student life. At one point, I was Fresh Off the Boat (or plane). And severely homesick. And misunderstood.

Finally, the all important:

• - Scholarship /college / grad school application tips and tricks. I’ve served as a student member of various interview panels / admissions committees, so I’ll write about what caught our eyes while we were sifting through hundreds of applications / interviewing dozens of kids who all seem to be geniuses.

Till next time,

- B