These prestigious scholarships should be viewed as awards -investments in excellence from which much is expected of the recipient. If you think of them as rewards for past achievements, as financial aid packages or as a way to dress up your resumé, your chances of being successful are slim. Self-serving attitudes like these almost always find their way into the application. Selection committees are adept at spotting them, and they are almost always fatal.
Above all, make sure you are serious about applying and are determined to follow through. These programs are not for the whimsical, nor are they for those who are merely testing the waters or keeping their options open. Some students take the "dartboard" approach. They apply for everything, including scholarships for which they are not well qualified, in the vague hope that one of their darts will hit the target. We strongly discourage this for two reasons. First, the process involves much more than simply filling out application forms. Second, it suggests an attitude that the only thing you stand to lose by applying is the cost of a postage stamp. If that's your attitude, what you're really saying is that it's worth only a postage stamp.
To help you decide if you should compete for a major scholarship, try wrestling with the following questions. Although they are not intended as an exact test of your fitness, your responses may reveal whether or not you have the kind of attitude most of these scholarships seek. If you can honestly answer "yes" to most of these questions, our guess is that you would probably be a competitive candidate.
- Do you give at least as much thought to synthesis as to analysis?
- Do you value intuition and imagination as much as logic and information?
- Do you think the main purpose of going to college is to learn, not to get ahead?
- Do you question your own views as vigorously as you criticize those of others?
- Do you believe that truth must be discovered rather than received or inherited?
- Do you think an education is something to cultivate rather than confiscate?
- Is your thinking guided more by "both/and" than "either/or"?
- Can you make decisions without all the "evidence" being in?
- Do you think it's more important to be a person of honor than a person of principle?
- Do you place more value on being happy than on being successful?
(Some of these thoughts are from C. Grey Austin, "Your Mind Is Not Your Friend," National Honors Report, Summer 1994; some were "borrowed" from Clemson faculty, and a few we actually came up with ourselves.)