the Sam Jackson College Experience

The wonderful* people at www.collegescholarships.org have set up an interesting scholarship that I just have to share. The Twitter 140 Scholarship is short and sweet: All you need to do, in 140 characters or less, is write a Tweet highlighting how we can use Twitter to improve the world.

Here’s my application:

I did put a fair amount of thought into it, but one can only worry so much about something when you’ve only invested 140 characters in it. (In my case, I believe, 139.)

Now, what exactly is the motivation for completing this scholarship? Let us count the ways:

Since Twitter is still such a new medium, we hoped that by creating a scholarship around it we could help encourage further thinking about how to leverage it. That is why we’re giving $1,680.00 to college students who uses Twitter.

• $1,400.00 Winner
• $140.00 First Runner Up
• $140.00 Second Runner Up

If those aren’t 1,680 good reasons to spend a minute and consider writing a scholarship app here, I don’t know what else could convince you. So without more discussion here about Twitter, go ahead and write something!

Requirements:

• Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education; and
• If you win, you must be willing to allow us to list your name, your picture, and your twitter username, and your winning Tweet on CollegeScholarships.org.

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*(Disclaimer: I did apply for the scholarship, but even if I hadn’t, CollegeScholarships.org is run by really nice people, at least as far as I have interacted with them. I wish everyone in the Higher Ed space were as nice! I guess being popular is easier when you give away money, too.)

Today I am very excited to announce that the college admissions scholarship I originally outlined and later updated is finally off the ground: myUsearch has stepped up to the plate and is offering $1000 to the best student essay answering the following questions: What has been the most frustrating part of your college admissions process? Why is it important for colleges and universities to change this? What suggestions do you have for colleges and universities to try to relieve your frustration and the frustration of your fellow students?

The program I originally envisioned would be specifically linked to an effort to promote the development of new resources for students in the college admissions / higher ed marketing spaces. I remember how frustrating and painful college admissions was–that’s why I started this blog, and why I continue to work to try to make things better. With my younger sister (now 15) just gearing up to apply to college, and the demographics and admissions figures ever-worsening, there is no better time for a scholarship like this one which will hopefully bring us all some really great new ideas. I am going to work to make sure that the best of these suggestions received get heard by schools.

The scholarship is open to fall ‘08 freshman and those students applying for 2009 (important update as of 5/22!). pursuing an associate or bachelor degree at an accredited U.S. postsecondary institution with a combined household income of $100,000 or less. If that describes you, apply today! If it doesn’t, tell a friend for whom it might be applicable. More rules and instructions after the break in this post.

I will be involved in the judging, and personally I would encourage participants to write about ways that new technology (especially the internet and new media) could help improve the college admissions / higher education process — basically, I’m hoping to see some really great stories and ideas which will then be put into action convincing colleges to make these reforms happen!

I originally wanted to organize a scholarship from the ground up myself, but it turns out that this is quite tricky! Having myUsearch administer the scholarship proved to be a good alternative. I do want to thank all of my friends and colleagues who were ready to put money on the table for my proposed scholarship, and I would say that I hope to be able to do more in this direction, long term. This is going to be a great start.

More details in the days ahead! Complete Press Release and instructions below.

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