About This Site
What’s this site all about?
Short Answer: My name is Josh Barsch, and I started this site to help students stop screwing up their scholarship applications and win more money.
Long Answer (but still pretty short): I’m the CEO of StraightForward Media, and our company has been awarding scholarships for a long time now. I’ve been a judge for those scholarships since we began the programs in 2003, and I’ve read thousands upon thousands of scholarship applications. And, I’m sorry to say, most of them are pretty bad.
A vast majority of students (I’m talking over 90%, at least) make stupid mistakes that disqualify their essays almost immediately. At first, it made me laugh (you know, in the “Man, these kids today…” sense), but soon enough it became a little depressing. I’d have a stack of scholarship essays that would take me hours to read, and it was exhausting to think that only a handful of them would be winner material. To be honest, it also hacked me off at the educational system. Is there really no one out there teaching our high school students how to write an acceptable scholarship essay?
Apparently not. So I decided to do something about it. I wrote a short e-book on the subject, which was very helpful for the kids who bought it, but didn’t do much for the body of applicants as a whole. So I decided to put this website out there for everyone to use, for free. If you’d like to have all this information in a print book, you can buy it here if you want.
So look around as much as you like — the info is free and here for you to use. Use the navigation links at the top left to get around and find all of our tips, because there are a lot of them. If you have questions or comments, just leave them as blog comments and I’ll answer them as soon as possible. Enjoy!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Mr. Josh Barsch, thank you for posting all these relevant and helpful articles. I haven’t win any scholarships yet, but now I know why. I’ve read some articles that made me realize why. English is my 2nd language, so I guess thats one point less. Anyway, thanks again for caring about the future of US/Worl. Oh! you’re right about “what’s happening with teachers” from one of the articles statements.
Thanks for the kind words, Nancy, and you’re very welcome! Good luck with your applications!
Hi Mr.Josh Barsch, I’m a senior student from China. I’ll be applying for American Universities this year, well, in the next few months to be more exact.
The information provided here has been most helpful, and I’ve learnt tons of stuff that I hadn’t even thought about before. Still, I was wondering if there’s anything about international students, tips and skills that we ought’a know.
So if there’s any, would you please post it so we could benefit from your experience and avoid making mistakes that’ll only screw up my chances for college.
Hi Mr.Josh,Iam a Student from University of Dar-es-Salaam,I will be apllying for Sweden University this year
Pls, i want you to help me to secure admission to any one of the school in england through scholarship. pls help………GOD BLESS YOU.