#173 The Top 3 Scholarship Essays That Win Money with Leia LeMaster Horton Transcript

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT… PLEASE FORGIVE THE TYPOS & GRAMMAR! xo-Lisa.

Lisa Marker Robbins  00:49

Are you worried your team might be missing out on 1000s of dollars in college scholarships simply because they don’t know where to start? Navigating the scholarship landscape can feel overwhelming, but focusing on just three key essays could dramatically increase your teens chances of success. With college costs continuing to rise, and families feeling the pressure, knowing which scholarship essays to prioritize can make all the difference. Today, I’m excited to welcome back to the show Leia LeMaster Horton, founder of Horton test prep, she’s sharing her expert insights on the three essential essays your team needs to master to win substantial scholarship money. In our conversation, we’ll uncover which essay prompts appear most frequently across scholarship applications, how your team can strategically repurpose their writing to apply for multiple awards and the ideal timeline for getting started with scholarship essays. Leia’s approach is practical and designed to maximize your teen scholarship potential without adding unnecessary stress to their already busy schedule. If you’ve been concerned about college affordability or wonder how to help your teen stand out in the competitive scholarship process. This episode provides a clear roadmap you’ve been searching for. I’m Lisa Marco Robbins, and I want to welcome you to College and Career Clarity a flourish coaching production. Let’s dive right in to a great conversation. Leia, Leia, welcome back to the show.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  02:24

I’m super excited to be here today. Thank you so much.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  02:27

I cannot believe that it’s been a year and a half since we had you on talking about testing for homeschoolers, and we’re gonna, like, broaden the lens, because we’ve got something for everybody. This time, we’re going to talk about something that you very successfully did in your own home, which was really winning tons of scholarships for your kiddos, and the three essays that make a difference. So if you think you’ve heard stuff on scholarships before, and where to find them, and scholarship search stuff. Stick with us, because we’re gonna dig into the three most common topics for scholarships. How to approach this? Because if you do, if you headed out of the park on these three, you’re just gonna make life easier, and you’re gonna earn a lot of money. Right? Absolutely. So let’s, let’s just start with the topics. I know you and I were talking offline. They there’s been identified about 10 different common essay topics. It can be you should be prepared to write if you’re applying for scholarships, but you argue that really only three of them are the most important that’ll move the needle the most, right? Yes,

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  03:45

absolutely. I think if you’re gonna start the process of going after those both merit based and merit based and need based scholarships, if you write three, then that actually answers six of the top 10 prompts, because the personal statement essay, which is the one I normally recommend starting with answers four of the top essay prompts. So we’ll get into the specific questions. Yeah, second, but the reason you start with that one first is because when a student writes that personal statement essay, of the what do I think I might possibly want to do with my life, right? And why I think I might possibly want to study this, and what potential impact I want to make on the world that should in my recommendation, you start writing that sometime fall of your junior year, that personal statement I say, and then you get to tweak it all for a year, and then come fall of your senior year, that’s what you’re gonna use on the common app, but that’s gonna be usually morph into the college entrance essay. That’s why that’s so vital. But when it comes to earning scholarships, it’s because that particular essay the what you think you. Want to do with your life is going to be the one you also give to your reference, and they buy into your passion. Want to help you make it happen. And you’re going to get stronger letters of recommendation when they have read your personal statement essay. But

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  05:18

yeah, so that one you’re saying is like, in this I love what you’re saying, because, you know, my passion with college major and career coaching is really about like knowing your path forward and just being able to make informed decisions about what comes after graduation. So it feels like this topic of, hey, here’s who I am, here’s where I’m headed, here’s why. Is that kind of a good way to sum it up,

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  05:43

yes, and it’s it’s okay for the students to realize this is your dot, right? This dot may change in time, right? Is the dot now, and so when they are first starting that personal statement essay, realize they could end up deciding change their major by next year, but in that moment that they’re going to start going after those merit based scholarships, or merit based need based, or third category, the perseverance and contribution to community scholarships, there’s three different types of those scholarships out there. So again, merit based, merit and need based and perseverance slash contribution to the community impact type. And these

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  06:27

are private scholarships that you’re referring to, not the ones given by the institutions, necessarily. Or are you saying both?

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  06:34

No, actually more of the private scholarships which I had a parent asked, does that mean a private scholarship money can only go towards private college. And the user, I didn’t even know if somebody would have that question, but no, the the outside scholarship, right? That would stack on top of your financial aid. That’s

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  06:53

a great question. I think some so many times we as experts get are so close to a topic we can’t even imagine what the average podcast listener or parent is thinking. So that’s so, yeah, let’s back up. So there’s institutional scholarships, money given by the colleges, private or public colleges, and then there are private scholarships that are given by an organization, right, right and

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  07:23

and back to the college cartos. Just to mention, the national average is a $15,000 financial aid package for a family, for the if the student’s going to go to a four year school. The reason that’s important to keep in their mind is just evaluating the packages that come in. So if they get a financial aid package of 18,000 they’ll know, oh, look at that. This is 3000 more per year than the national average. So it just helps

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  07:51

you evaluate good, yeah, when you’re thinking about paying for college, I mean, we, we, I just spoke at Ohio’s largest high school this week, and we were talking about how to build a college list where you love your likelies. And part of loving your likelies is I can afford it. You can’t love a school if you can’t afford it. So that’s a good benchmark. I never knew that statistics, so 15,000 is the average award. So if you’re exceeding that, whether it’s through institutional money or private you’ve you’re beating the averages, right, right?

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  08:26

It just helps you understand the package. And what I’ve found for the years is most students really are not going for those private, outside scholarships. They they’ve received their financial aid package from the college. The College calls it a scholarship, they accept it and they just move on, right? But the problem with that plan is that a lot of students are taking out student loans or draining the family savings, right? Either one not a good option, but students are taking out those loans, and the national average on that is that it takes 20 years to pay was those student loans where the student needs to know, what does that mean? That means that their monthly loan payment is going to be between 380 and 500 per month right as soon as they graduate. So now that the bad news, right? Yeah, the good news is, let’s get focused on writing the right essays to win those scholarships. These three important essays that’s gonna start the student just going in the right direction, right it’s gonna help realize that if they write that personal statement essay, it answers four of the top essay prompts. So let’s review what those four are

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  09:44

well. So let me ask you real quick. So the the first one you’re saying is, is that you sent me this list ahead of time because I said I was curious. I was like, What are these? What are we gonna be talking about? What are these? You said, tell us about yourself. So that’s what you’re saying. That one Cora. Relates with the personal statement that you are already going to be writing for the common app for the colleges that you’re applying to. So we’ve killed two birds with one stone on that one, right, and actually more, which you’re going to tell us in a second. So my question real quick is, before we hear like the added impact that this work would do when you sent me this list, tell us about yourself. Was number three on the list of 10 that you gave me? Were those and like the most common to the least common? Or were they just like, here they are. Here’s 10, no

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  10:35

in order of popularity, which was really surprised, yeah, like when we get to number one? Number one, but that the personal statement essay answers

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  10:47

the number three. I’m shocked. I thought it would have been number one. I know I did too.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  10:53

So that tell us about yourself. The other top question is, what are your academic and or career goals. Again, that’s answered in a personal statement essay, yeah, the How are you unique is actually number nine. I forgot to mention. Number five was the what are your academic and career goals? Number nine was the How are you unique. So that’s just, you know, the student writing that

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  11:19

was the ninth most popular, and

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  11:21

then the 10th is, why do you want to study or pursue this field? So when a student accurately writes their personal statement essay, they’re answering all of those questions, because that’s why that will be the most important essay that they write, because it’ll morph into their college entrance essay. It will help them get stronger letters of recommendation, but it’s also just going to be that essay they use the most when going after scholarships, and they just have to make sure that they tweak it a little tiny bit to be really clear in answering the prompt. So

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  11:57

I have a question on that, because we’ve had other podcast episodes on writing essays just for college entrance, right? Not, I think this is the first time we’ve really just looked at these topics for winning scholarships, right? Some people that I some guests that I’ve had on, and some IECs that I know would say you don’t have to cover your future career, whatever goals, just talk about yourself in that personal statement. But others I know, take the approach of, hey, let’s cover where you’re going. So what I’m hearing is the way that you coach people in the personal statement is, let’s get the the future goals in there so that you can make double use of this essay. Is that right?

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  12:46

Absolutely, I would argue. If you are telling me about yourself, but you leave out what your potential career is and what your passion or what you think you might possibly want your.to be in your impact in the world, then I’m not learning about you enough. And so I think it’s going to help the student, you know, potentially write that in fall of their junior year, so they can go after some top scholarships we’ll maybe talk about later, but it just helps them have time to take that essay from good to better to best. And so when students first write an essay, when they do their brain dump and just kind of put it on paper, it’s not ready. And he edited a lot

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  13:34

and tweaked, and, you know, asked for feedback from to adults, but it takes time to take that letter from good to better to bad. But so you what I was going to ask is, when we’ve talked we often talk about like, hey, as soon as your junior year, and start writing that personal statement. You would actually argue, start the bones, the framework of that personal statement essay at the beginning of the junior year, a year before you’re getting ready to hit submit on your college applications. Is that what I just heard? Well, actually, normally

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  14:10

I’m saying by December of June a and the reason I mentioned that is, and I’ll just spoil the thunder a little bit, but my absolute favorite, top merit based scholarship is the President Coolidge scholarship, and students apply December of their junior year, and it just sneaks up on students. And it’s a it’s a full ride, like it’s an amazing scholarship, the full ride, which includes, you know, 100% tuition paid, as well as housing and meals. So we call that room and board and to any college the student chooses. So it’s over the top school. I was just

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  14:49

getting well, I was getting ready to say, why is it one of your favorite now, I know, do they only give one of those away? No,

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  14:54

there’s two per year, but they do have what’s called the. Be Coolidge senators, and there’s 100 winners, and they win $1,000 I’ve helped multiple students become Coolidge senators, so I haven’t helped anybody win the full ride yet, but I will. I definitely will. I will. And what happens is it just sneaks up on the students, and they’re like, oh, wow, I missed the deadline on that, right? Because they weren’t prepared. That’s why it’s good to kind of get in that radar. Yeah, go ahead, get your scores on the books by October of your junior year, so that you’re ready to start applying. Because I want students to apply starting December of their junior year. For a year and a half, right to apply to one scholarship per week. I normally suggest, because I’m a scholarship consultant, that when I’m meeting with families, I’ll say, hey, on Sundays, check in. Check in with the parents and go, Hey, you know, Sundays by six scholarship search and submit. And what that really means is, once a week, check in, hey, what’s capital blank for this week? Oh, I’ll go tweak that essay right? If it’s due Tuesday at five? Are they turning it in Tuesday at five? Absolutely not. I see it happen way too much. We’re just gonna go to Sunday. Oh, I was at an orthodontist appointment and I forgot to turn it in. Like it is turned in.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  16:15

You’re possibly leaving money on the table. So and so. For the Coolidge scholarship, this number three most popular essay, tell us about yourself meets the criteria for this really fantastic scholarship that you just

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  16:29

shared. Right? And there’s more to it than that. There’s other parts, right, right, right,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  16:33

but that’s one, and I think I heard that they need to submit test scores for that too.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  16:38

Yes, it’s, it’s a top merit based. Okay, so it doesn’t matter how much money the family College, yep, you’re based on it.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  16:45

So okay, let’s, let’s move in. Let’s work our way towards number one. So number two, most popular is, how have you contributed to your community? And you know, I know that this is one of the more popular ones, just that the colleges ask, is the community essay?

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  17:03

Absolutely, and I see it all the time with those three different buckets of scholarships, right? Merit based, merit and need based, and the perseverance and community impact, right? So all of those have that component, that if it’s if a student is involved in their community, if they are, you know, volunteering, servicing, initiating club, doing something that’s involved in their community, they are more likely to win scholarships, especially the Local Community scholarships, which are a lot easier to win if you’re more involved in that’s a great point. You are going to win more Fauci

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  17:47

period. Do you see that with those local scholarships? Do they tend to ask the community impact question? Is there essay more often than these other

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  17:58

Absolutely, I’ve served on the committee for Distinguished Young Women, which, by the way, that is my second favorite of the merit based scholarships. It’s the largest scholarship for high school senior girls. They literally get away millions and millions, billions of dollars every year. The thing about that one is you also have to have your name in as a junior, just like, wow. Okay, you gotta be on the ball with these. You have to have your name in as a junior, but you actually compete in the scholarship as a senior. It’s a little confusing, but just know, start early.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  18:32

Well, all you need to know on that one is really the timeline right now, is that, is that a national or

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  18:38

a local award? It’s both. It starts locally, but goes national. So

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  18:43

it’s really like a scholarship competition. It is. It absolutely

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  18:47

1. And my daughter, my oldest daughter, won like 25,000 through this organization. So I know a lot about it. It’s legit. It’s really, really good and very well run. But those students that have made a contribution to their community, right? Who are? You know, strong academic students are going to do well in that type of a merit based scholarship.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  19:17

You just said something that made me think of another question you said, this is you stressed that you’re very familiar with this one, and it is legitimate organization, legitimate scholarship. Are there illegitimate scholarships out there? I wouldn’t even have ever thought to ask that question. Yeah. So what do you what do you mean by that? Because you stress that, and I’m like, wait, what? How do we know if something’s legitimate or not? And I can’t believe there’s actual non legitimate scholarships out there. People say they’re giving away money and they’re not.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  19:51

Yes, there’s a lot of scams. And so if, if a scholarship is number one, asking for your social security number, that’s. It’s a red flag, right? Yeah, I think that perhaps some of the big ones after you’ve won and they’re sending the money onto the college, there might be that component, but not in the very, very beginning. So if they’re asking for that personal kind of information, no, if they’re asking for money to apply to that specific scholarship, no, it’s a red flag. I do want to give a caveat, though, there are some organizations where you have to be a member of the organization before you can apply for scholarships that aren’t a scam, right? Where, like, for example, Elks, that’s a local community club, and that organization, you do have to be a member for the student to be applying for the Oaks ag LT award. So that’s that’s not

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  20:52

really an exchange of money to be able to apply. It’s just like you ever be a member originally gonna give that’s kind of like employers I know here, Proctor and Gamble world headquarters are here in Cincinnati, and they’ve got some employer, Scott private scholarships. But you have to be the child of a PNG employee to be able to, to be able to apply for the scholarship. Yeah, we had

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  21:16

that too. Both. Two of my children were Disney scholars. That was $20,000 a pop, which, by the way, I will mention, if you do your husband used to work because my husband now bought Disney company. I was about to say that, so it’s one of the employer type scholarships, and it was paid out 5000 per year. But my oldest just automatically renewed and did the paperwork to turn in that she had met grades where my second child didn’t know or remember to renew, and we lost the scholarship that was after the first year, which means we lost $15,000 we did have to renew and go through this lengthy, stressful appeals process, and we did get it reactive stated,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  22:03

but I always say whether it’s whether it’s an institutional scholarship. I didn’t know that that really occurred with some private scholarships, but here locally the University of Cincinnati, you actually have to submit proof that you in this might not be the case anymore, but last time I checked on their main scholarship bucket of money that they give away academically, Merit Scholarship, you have to do 30 hours of community service every year, and you have to submit the paperwork to be able to renew. It. Is renewable scholarship, but it’s dependent upon a, your GPA and B community service, and it’s only 30 hours, but if you don’t do that, then you’re not eligible. So I

 

22:46

love that. See onesie channa,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  22:48

yes, things that you wouldn’t think of. That’s why I love these conversations. Yeah,

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  22:53

one more thing about the scam, yeah, yeah. I saw this company that’s guaranteeing that the student’s gonna win $12,000 but you have to pay them 1000s and $1,000 I’m like, yeah, no, that is a scam. Yeah, they’re they’re trying to cheat the system, but I just beware when they guarantee you that you’re gonna win. That is a

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  23:19

huge role. It’s just like, when, when an IEC set guarantees, oh, I guarantee you, you’ll get an IV plus placement. Like nobody can guarantee that. So yeah, that. Be wary of that. Okay, so community contribution, last one, the number one college essay for scholarships that is are asked is, and this shocked me when I look at all the other ones about the student. Shocks me. How will the scholarship help

 

Speaker 1  23:53

you? It seems so simple and so obvious, yeah, but I was surprised

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  23:58

the number one prompt. But when I really sat and thought about it, I realized also, there’s a lot of small scholarships, like on on search engines, like, you know, bold.org where you can create a scholarship in honor of your grandmother, right? There’s just so many scholarships out there. But I think that the scholarship committees that are creating these prompts, you know, want to know that their money is going to a good cause that is really an investment. Help the student make those dreams come true. And they want to know, what is that dream? How is this money that we’re going to potentially be giving you really, really going to impact you personally. So the more I thought about it, I was like, okay, I can see why. That’s the number one prompt, scholarship essay, um, prompt, but it did shock me. Yeah,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  24:48

I was I would have thought like community contribution or, you know, so it is not lost on me with my college major and career coaching course. Yeah. That number five, what are your academic and or career goals? I just had Rick Clark on our podcast, and he is, he used to be Director of Admissions at Georgia Tech. He’s still at Georgia Tech, but now he’s about, he’s the inaugural person for like access, and we talked about the hidden impact of college major selection on admissions. And so this is really almost like that essay kind of unearth the hidden impact of winning scholarships, like knowing your path. It just I keep going like this is why I’ve dropped everything else, and I’m focusing only on helping kids know their path, because it’s far reaching, and I think the impact is often hidden. I you know, as I look at these before you give us some more advice on tackling these essays. Number one, how will the scholarship help you? If you did, if you took the approach that you suggest with the personal statement essay for number three that you also double it as your personal statement for the common app for the colleges. You actually could probably use some of that to help answer number one, right? Absolutely.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  26:14

And that’s just it. These students that you know are applying for 50, 6070, scholarships, or way more. Are they writing 50, 6070, essays? Absolutely not. They were taking these three right, and they’re blending the through tweaking. So yes, absolutely you can take parts of your personal statement essay and answer the question of how this is going to help you, because that part, that’s the your passion to do this, yeah? Potential major that’s going to help you make an impact on the world in this specific way is definitely, could be a part of that. So, yeah,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  26:53

well, it’s even, you know, a lot of colleges, probably the, the most popular college supplemental essay is why us? So that you know that is the why? Why do you want to go here? And I had Susan Napal on from while writing workshop recently, we talked about the role of AI and helping with essays which she’s got her take on that, and it’s a good one. I think if anybody wants to go over and listen to that episode, it is, I gotta look at what number it is. It is number 170, but you know, we talked in there about, like, if you’re writing the why us it most of the time, makes sense to talk about like you’re choosing it based on your academic goals, right? So your major would go into that the second most popular essay is the she, and she’s an essay specialist, she said, is the why this major. So again, this overlap between like, if you’re applying for scholarships early, as you suggest, and then you’re writing those essays. It’s only going to help save time with all of the essays that you have to write while you’re applying to college.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  28:09

Yeah. And the thing is, if they start December of their junior year, they have a year and a half to really learn how to do it well, right where they are consistently, once a week, going through it. And then also all through college, right? They can continue earning scholarships all through college. It’s so empowering. Number one, they’re going to learn how to write well, and that’s a less, right? And then number two, it’s going to help them realize, oh my goodness, I could pay for grad school by just going after scholarships. So if they learn how to do it while they’re at home and they’re going to be making a contribution towards college, then they’ll continue earning scholarships. What I have seen in the past, if mom dad are paying for all of it, the students just stop. Yeah,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  28:52

they’re disinterested. I had a student, a past student, and she’s out of college now, and so correct me if I’m saying anything that’s not quite right, but she had a Is it the Coca Cola scholarship, and you can still apply for that while you’re in college, right? No, it’s only senior in high school. Okay? Then it’s a different one. There was a different scholarship, and it was open to college students. And one thing that happened to her, her parents were paying for college, but then her mom got breast cancer, and her treatments were impacting them financially. She wasn’t able to work, and you know, they they were just the family was having trouble covering all the bills, so she started going after scholarships while she was still in college, and she won one. And part of it was, what did she want to do? How is it going to help her? The how it was going to help her was, it’s going to help me stay in school, right? And she won it, and it was a, I forget what the award was. It was large, and they really thought she might have to take time off school. And she won enough scholarships while she was still a college student that she did not have to drop. Out of school. Oh, that’s awesome. That’s yeah. Any parting words of advice, this has been so helpful. Any parting words of advice, well, I do think

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  30:10

it’s important for the students to get on a plan to have a scholarship spreadsheet that helps them check in and cover all the bases and lets them plug in. Hey, did I win this one? Did I not? How much was this one worth, so that they don’t miss deadlines? So it’s important to have a organized, well organized spreadsheet that they are checking in with each week, and also just, I think having a scholarship buddy, a friend do it with you helps you stay on track.

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  30:43

I love that, and I know you have a free ebook that we’ll put the link to in the show notes that helps with all of this so but and you, as you mentioned, you help people. So you have a private link for our listeners to learn about how you help people win essays, and that’s at flourish coaching co.com, forward slash earn e r n, because we’re going to earn lots of scholarships through writing these really great essays. So Leia, this is so fantastic. Thank you for coming on.

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  31:17

My pleasure. I’m super excited. I also have a scholarship course that is launching may 1 and so

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  31:23

that’ll be at that earn link right? Walks

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  31:28

the students through every single thing that they need to do to learn how to go about earning merit based

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  31:33

scholarships. Okay? And if people want to find you on the web or on social, where can they

 

Leia LeMaster Horton  31:40

find you? Absolutely it’s Orton test prep.com that’s my website. Or they’re welcome to go to Instagram, and it’s just my name, Leia, LeMaster,

 

Lisa Marker Robbins  31:49

Horton, and we’ll have all those links in the show notes. Thanks, Leia, my pleasure. Thank you, Leia, for sharing your expertise on these three essential scholarship essays that can make such a difference for college bound families and their teens. Ready to help your teen win scholarship money with these three essential essays. Check out the show notes for links to all the resources we’ve mentioned today, including Leia’s free scholarship ebook and information about both of our courses that can help your team navigate the scholarship process with confidence. These tools will give your family the guidance needed to make college more affordable without the overwhelming stress of figuring it all out on your own. If you found value in today’s podcast episode, please subscribe to College and Career Clarity wherever you get your podcast, and if you could please leave us a review your support of our show helps other families find these resources when they need them most. I’m Lisa Marco Robbins reminding you that with the right guidance, your teen’s college journey can be clear, confident and affordable. You