Grace Hopper Scholarship: Essay Questions Guide
Part 3 of “Everything you need to know about GHC” series
Tips to write a Scholarship winning Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Scholarship Application :
Being a GHC scholar last year, I’ve had a lot of fellow students send in their applications to me, in the hopes that I would help them with their essay answers. Although I’ve done my best to assist them, I feel that everyone should be privy to all the information that I have to offer. Furthermore, the best answers are written when we stay true to ourselves and come up with it on our own. I urge everyone who is filling out the scholarship form to not rely or depend on anyone else but themselves to bring out their story.
Having said so, in this article, I am going to be focusing on the Two Essay Questions in the GHC application form and how to go about them.
To get a complete idea about the entire application process, please go through the below link where I have covered all the important details with regards to the application form.
Essay Questions
The essay questions are very important and serve as a cornerstone by which your application form is going to be reviewed and judged.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that you should pay extra attention when filling out this section.
Before you begin writing the answers, please take a moment to read the essay prompt written on the form. It is crucial you understand what exactly the GHC review members are looking for.
Essay Prompt:
Please tell us why you would like to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration and how you plan to share your experience with others (including your school community) after attending the celebration. We strongly encourage you to share any experiences with overcoming unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background. While not an exhaustive list, some examples of unique challenges could include: the quality of your early educational environment, your socioeconomic background, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, having a disability, and other life or work experiences. Please discuss how such factors have influenced your goals and preparation for your career as a woman in computing.
Essay Question 1
Tell us why you want to attend GHC, what type of impact will being at a celebration focused on women in computing have on you? (maximum 200 words)
Essay Question 2
How will you share your experience at GHC with others? What type of impact will your experience at GHC have on others in your community? (maximum 200 words)
Points to be Noted
- Be Unique and Creative. Feel free to cite personal stories and incidents which have happened in your family or immediate surroundings relevant to the application.
- Don’t be afraid to talk about your strengths and as well as weaknesses. But when you point out your flaws, be sure to mention why it is so and what you are doing to change it.
- Remember scholarships applications are all about portraying your story and staying true to yourself. You absolutely mustn’t lie!
- Most people have this notion that the best applications are those which have very huge sophisticated words in them which is NOT TRUE at all. Use words and phrases which best suit your style.
- Do not exceed the word limit. The scholarship reviewers have kept the word limit short for a purpose considering the huge number of applications coming in.
- Write about the committees you are a part of, the leadership roles you have held.
- Don’t be afraid to brag about your accomplishments.
- Be sure to mention your projects (if any) relevant to the application process.
- Once you complete your answers, please make your peers read it and correct grammatical errors that may have crept in.
- Be explicit. When you state some point which is relevant, write about why and how it is so. Don’t just state facts — provide sufficient proof.
Bonus:
Please find attached my scholarship application to read what I have written in my application form.
Staying true to the application guidelines, in my essay questions, I have written about incidents in my family which are quite personal to me. I have redacted some sections of my answer to preserve my privacy. As I pointed out before, the best applications are those which have a real story to portray.
In Conclusion
Before you submit your application, please put yourself in the shoes of the scholarship committee reviewer, does your application say something unique about you? How does it stand out?
If you find clear answers to these questions, be assured that you have done your job well. Now all you gotta do is click submit and wait.
All the best!
Please feel free to ping me if you have any doubts or queries, I’d love to help you out.
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