The personal information section of a university application typically asks you about your personal information such as your name and address, place of birth and citizenship, and about your family, such as your parents, brothers and sisters and your legal guardian. Some applications ask you about your future plans regarding whether you intend to apply for scholarships and financial aid, the highest educational level you intend to reach and whether you intend to live in university housing. You may also be asked about you ethnic background.

In this section, you are typically asked you about your classes, grades, standardized exam scores like SAT or ACT, sports, community service activities and jobs. You can make several copies of your application to use as practice before filling out the real document. This can help you avoid using Wite-Out to cover up mistakes. All the information you put on this application should be accurate and honest.

Another important aspect of your admissions application is your personal statement, which is usually an essay about your aspirations, an important mentor or a formative life experience. It is better to be specific in your essay because essays that try to be too comprehensive end up sounding vague. Using a lot of details can make your story come alive. Try to avoid generalities and instead use specifics to help your audience better understand what you're saying. Your topic doesn't have to be extraordinary - if it has meaning for you, then it'll probably be easier to make your audience care about it also.

Some universities require students to send letters of recommendation to supplement the other portions of their applications. Needless to say, these letters should not be written by parents or favorite aunts. Regardless of whom you ask, make sure you give the person enough time to write a good letter - recommenders have prior obligations of their own, after all. You might want to give a potential letter writer at least two week's notice in advance of the application deadline.

Before you begin filling out the applications, you need to obtain teacher and guidance counselor references. You also need to obtain your transcripts or copies of your grades for each application you plan to submit. You need to give the proper individuals enough notice to gather the needed information. You should also make sure that you have enough time to fill out the applications, which can take some time. By allowing yourself enough time, you can fill out the forms neatly and completely and decrease the risk of entering wrong information.

The first portion of an application will be simple. You will include basic personal information that is pretty straightforward. You will also need to include information about your parents and siblings on the application. The next portion includes your past and present education. However, simply writing down your grades is not sufficient. Instead, you will need to obtain the certified documents from your school. It is important to take your time and provide accurate information in legible handwriting.

When you begin listing your extracurricular activities, this is the point where you will set yourself apart from other applicants. Typically, you should only include activities, awards, and other notable achievements since grade nine. However, you can list other achievements if they are extremely prestigious. In addition to grades, universities will be evaluating the type of person that you are. The more well-rounded your achievements, the higher favor you will receive.

Many university applications require you to write two essays. Typically, you will create a shorter essay of 150 words and a longer one of 250 words or more, which will be your personal statement. When you are completing your essays, you should ensure that your writing reflects you, instead of what you think the universities want to read. It is important to show your style in both writing and personality through the essays you complete. Letting your voice shine through your essays will give you a better chance of being accepted. Also, take your time while writing and have a teacher or parent proofread for any errors that may be present.

Use the tips below to craft your own powerful essay questions so that universities can learn more about what makes stand out.

• Make it personal and be original: Be honest and authentic in your responses, and don't be afraid to discuss struggles or hardships that have led you to this point. Remember, this is your opportunity to show universities who you are outside of your test score.
• Demonstrate passion: Tell what excites you. Universities love that students are passionate about a variety of subjects and interests.
• Don't rush: It's important to take your time completing your essay responses.
• Edit and spell check: After you've written your essay responses, make sure to reread and review with a fresh set of eyes to make sure you're presenting yourself in the best manner possible for admission and scholarship consideration.

Here are some excerpts from essays in which the students have shown their personality and character. Remember, universities are not looking for the standard response; they want to hear your real stories!

Something to consider: Your own cultural experiences

Example Question: Music spans time and culture. Explain how the lyrics of one of your favorite songs define you or your cultural experience.

Example Response: ...This song ("Jitterbug" by WHAM!) is definitive of my culture because so much of my generation revolves around finding love and having fun, entertaining experiences. In the chorus “Wake me up before you go-go, cause I'm not planning on going solo” details the insatiable fear each of us in my generation have of missing out, also known as FOMO (Fear of missing out). With all the social media at our fingertips, staying connected has never been easy or caused more anxiety. No one wants to miss out on what their friends are doing and so this song encapsulates that fear. Overall, this song is one full of joy and that, in essence, is the definition of my life and cultural experience.

Phillip Spaulding
Yukon, Oklahoma

Something to consider: What experiences have shaped you?

Example Question: At age 60, you have just completed an autobiography detailing your life journey to date. Write the summary that would appear on the back cover. What parts would draw in readers?

Example Response: Jansen Patterson is a very silly and loveable character who has worked hard and fought through adversity at a young age to become a very active and optimistic person. At age nine Jansen was diagnosed with Leg Calve Perthes disease and required two hip surgeries to help fix the lack of bone growth in his hips. Using his past as his inspiration he double majored in Physical Therapy so he could one day help kids recover from surgeries and find their own passions…

Jansen Patterson
Lewisville, Texas

The essay component is basically there for the organization to get to know you better. Therefore, take some time first to learn about yourself. Try to answer questions like these: What accomplishments are you most proud of? What motivates you? How would this scholarship help further your dreams? Create an outline first and don’t be afraid to do it all over again if one idea does not work out. The essay may very well lead to that crucial first interview, so it really needs to be well thought out.

Do not repeat information that can be found elsewhere in the application form. Do not talk about too many things which will only dilute the message. “I took physics, chemistry and mathematics in junior college where I was president of the student council, a track-and-field athlete and I also volunteered for the SPCA.” All this information can be found elsewhere in the form so repeating them here is just a waste of space and it does not reveal anything more about you.

Be original and avoid saying things you think they want to hear. The people reading the applications will probably have heard them all already and saying the same things will not persuade them to pick you. If you show them who you really are –what makes you tick and what you want to achieve – you will stand out from the hundreds and thousands of other applicants.

Don’t just tell them, prove it. For example, instead of writing: “I love to work with children”, write this instead: “I volunteered to teach English to primary school children from low-income families”. It makes much more impact, because it shows that you took positive action and followed up on your own interests. This is a useful point to remember even in your interviews.

Make full use of the word limit, but don’t exceed it either. Aim to communicate as much as possible without being long-winded. Remember, yours will not be the only essay that the reviewing officer will have to read – don’t make his job harder by telling him every mundane detail of your life story.

The aim of the scholarship form is to get you short-listed for the interview. Therefore, try to express your uniqueness, your creativity and how you are the best fit for the organization that you’re applying to. Don’t be afraid to express your true self. That’s who they are looking for!

Don’t just start writing scholarship CV, it would be wise to gather all the necessary relevant and important information before starting. Make a list of all your educational qualifications, honors and awards (if any), achievements, extracurricular activities and information that you think might help. Afterwards critically analyze your list and categorize which information is worth featuring on your scholarship CV and which can be left behind.

When writing a CV with an academic focus, it should not look as though you are applying for a job. Do not make the main focus of your CV a list of your current and past employment. You should still list your employment history, but it will normally appear later in the CV. However, if you have undertaken employment or other activities with an academic focus you should make this fact clear. It would also then be a good idea to place the employment section earlier in the CV. Relevant employment or other activities may include working as a tutor, lab technician, or research assistant, being a class or course representative, or attending or presenting at a conference, etc. Including relevant employment history will also allow you to demonstrate transferable skills, such as organizational, communication, computer, and research skills.

Some scholarships will ask you to demonstrate community or cultural involvement or leadership. This should be more than just a list of pastimes. Your CV should describe your current and recent community or cultural involvement or leadership. Your involvement might be campus, community or family based; it may be voluntary or paid, or related to your research in some way. Information about community or cultural involvement should come under a clear heading in your CV and you should use the wording used in the regulations. For instance, the scholarship regulations may be looking for applicants who can demonstrate leadership. You would then include ‘Leadership’ as a heading in your CV and bullet point your leadership experience, followed by a brief description. As always, you should list your most recent involvement first.

After finalizing your list, it's time to organizing it in a manner that will seem objective, professional and leaves good impression of you. You should list your achievements in descending order, meaning you should feature your current achievements foremost and then others.

Mention all the required information such as your name, phone number, address, email, date of birth, nationality, education qualifications, marks or percentage scored, school activities, languages known, computer skills, extracurricular activities, hobbies (only those that matters) or job experience or internship etc. You could also mention the objective and how attainment of scholarship will help you achieve your goal. If you are thinking about simply stating you are applying for so and so scholarship then better not mention it. Don’t provide personal information such as marital status, religious affiliation, political views, gender or sexual orientation etc.

Temptation to write a CV, embellished with achievements that will instantly stand out is usually great. However, just to make your CV stand out you should never add information that you can’t back with facts or actions. Be honest and truthful when mentioning your skills; don’t write down skills you don’t process. Also, refrain from blowing your own trumpet. Yes you want the scholarship committee to consider you but over embellishing facts, going on and on about your minor irrelevant achievements and not presenting an objective view of your achievements will not help you win that scholarship.

Before sending your scholarship CV to its destinations, make sure you have included all the relevant information and have edited it to make it error free. Small grammatical or spelling mistakes will reflect poorly on you.

• Most importantly, refrain from asking someone else to write it for you, even if you think you are no good at it. Do research on scholarship CV online, get some examples, re-write your copy until you get it right and finally have someone check it for mistakes.
• Also, remember, CV isn’t a place to show your drawing skills, Do not use colored paper or special binding for your CV. All applications, including CVs, are photocopied before being sent to the scholarship selection panel members. Use plain white paper fastened with a paper clip or bulldog clip.
• Keep it short – preferably one and usually no more than three A4 pages. It is best to use white paper and an easy-to-read font like Arial or Times New Roman.
• Start off with your name and contact information. Your email address should sound reasonably sensible – while ‘naruto_rulz4eva@geemail.com’ might have been a good idea when you were 11, it won’t look too smart on a scholarship application. It’s simple to register an email address with a free web mail service for this purpose. Make sure you check the account regularly in case the scholarship provider uses it to contact you.
• Start with a concise summary of your educational and career goals – what you hope to study in university and what you want to do for a living.
• Your educational record should be listed first, in reverse chronological order – i.e. starting with your most current school and exam results.
• Then list your school organizations and extra-curricular activities. Note any leadership roles, such as team captain.
• Following this, list your awards, honors and certificates earned in activities pursued in and outside school.
• Note any part-time jobs or work experience, charity work and so on.
• List your skills, especially any foreign languages that you are fluent in.
• Lastly, provide the names and contact information of at least two people not related to you who have agreed to attest to your personal character and academic ability, such as teachers or current or former employers. It’s good to have one academic reference and one character reference.
• It can be easy to add pages when you consider what goes into a CV. The CV lists your education, work experience, research background and interests, teaching history, publications, and more. There is a lot of information to work with, but can you include too much information? Is there anything that you should not include on you CV?
• Don't Include Personal Information. It was once common for people to include personal information on their CVs. Never include any of the following:
  • Social security number
  • Marital status
  • Height, weight, hair color, or other personal attributes
  • Number of children
• Allow yourself to be judged only on your professional merits and not on your personal characteristics.
• Don't Include Photos. Given the ban on personal information it should go without saying that applicants should not send photographs of themselves. Unless you are an actor, dancer, or other performer,. Scholarship application is an academic endeavor. You're being evaluated on your academic merit. Your appearance doesn't matter. In fact, it is inappropriate to include a photo in your application.
• Don't Add Irrelevant Information. Hobbies and interests should not appear on your CV. Include only extracurricular activities that are directly related to your work. Remember that your goal is to portray yourself as serious and an expert in your discipline. Hobbies can suggest that you're not working hard enough or that you are not serious about your career. Leave them out.
• Don't Include Too Much Detail. It's an odd paradox: Your CV presents detailed information about your career, but you must take care not to go into too much depth in describing the content of your work. Your CV will be accompanied by a research statement in which you walk readers through your research, explaining its development and your goals., explaining your perspective on teaching. Given these documents, there is no need to go into minute detail describing your research and teaching other than the facts: where, when, what, awards granted, etc.
• Don't Include Ancient Information. Do not discuss anything from high school. Period. Unless you discovered a super nova, that is. Your curriculum vita describes your qualifications for a professional academic career. It is unlikely that experiences from university are relevant to this. From university, list only you major, graduation year, scholarships, awards, and honors. Do not list any extracurricular activities from high school or university.
• Not List References. Your CV is a statement about YOU. There is no need to include references. Undoubtedly you'll be asked to provide references but your references do not belong on your CV. Don't list that your "references are available upon request." Surely the employer will request references if you're a potential candidate. Wait until you are asked and then remind your references and tell them to expect a call or email.
• Not Lie. It should be obvious but many applicants make the mistake of including items that are not entirely true. For example, they might list a poster presentation that they were invited to give, but didn't. Or list a paper as under review that is still being drafted. There are no harmless lies. Don't exaggerate or lie about anything. It will come back to haunt you and ruin your career.
• Criminal Record. Although you should never lie, don't give employers a reason to dump your CV in the trash-pile. That means don't spill the beans unless you are asked. If they're interested and you're offered the job you may be asked to consent to a background check. If so, that's when you discuss your record - when you know that they are interested, Discuss it too soon and you may lose an opportunity. Don't Write in Solid Blocks of Text
• Remember that employers scan CVs. Make yours easy to read by using bold headings and short descriptions of items. Do not include big blocks of text. No paragraphs.
• Don't Include Errors. What's the fastest way to get your CV and application tossed? Spelling mistakes. Bad grammar. Typos. Do you prefer to be known as careless or poorly educated? Neither will help you advance in your career.
• Don't Include a Touch of Flair. Fancy paper. Unusual font. Colored font. Scented paper. Although you want your CV to stand out, be sure that it stands out for the right reasons, such as its quality. Do not make your CV look different in color, shape, or format unless you want it passed around as a source of humor.