Help me win a college scholarship!

Benfordrum

Senior Member
Hi guys! Kyle here. Some of you my have seen my thread about college loans. My predicament is here: http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116099

I found a simple scholarship that requires your votes to promote my essay. I have about 10 days to gain your votes in order to be considered for selection. I need about 300 votes in order place! You don't even have to read my essay (which i hope you don't think is a sob story hahaha!) and maybe you can learn something if you do. Thank you so much! The link is below, just click vote. And share if you can!

http://www.wyzant.com/scholarships/v4/essay95954-Miami_Beach-FL.aspx
 
It is not about likes, or a popularity contest. In order to even be considered for the scholarship, enough people have to vote for his submission. Without enough votes, his submission will not be reviewed by the panel of judges, who ultimately decide who gets the money. There are hundreds of different ways to obtain scholarship and grant money, this just happens to be one of them. It is just like the lottery, but I suppose y'all think that is stupid and a reflection on our society as well.
 
It is not about likes, or a popularity contest. In order to even be considered for the scholarship, enough people have to vote for his submission. Without enough votes, his submission will not be reviewed by the panel of judges, who ultimately decide who gets the money. There are hundreds of different ways to obtain scholarship and grant money, this just happens to be one of them. It is just like the lottery,
but I suppose y'all think that is stupid and a reflection on our society as well.

Which completely ignores the point that the criteria for academic success should be set by those fit to judge it. Not a bunch of his mates "voting" for his submission. Are you seriously suggesting that it's prudent that a panel of academics hold the opinions of a bloody drum forum with such merit that it'll in some way shape the outcome.....even if that shaping is as simple as bothering to read his submission in the first place?

Turn it up. That approach IS nothing more than advocating a "popularity contest".......however you try and swing it.

So yeah, you've identified our point. W'all (;-)) think it is stupid to use such an arbitrary manner with which to further an education. No longer is consideration given to the most deserving or worthy, it goes to the bloke with the greatest number of mates..........regardless of content. Yeah mate, I definitely have a problem with that.
 
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Which completely ignores the point that the criteria for academic success should be set by those fit to judge it. Not a bunch of his mates "voting" for his submission. Are you seriously suggesting that it's prudent that a panel of academics hold the opinions of a bloody drum forum with such merit that it'll in some way shape the outcome.....even if that shaping is as simple as bothering to read his submission in the first place?

Turn it up. That approach IS nothing more than advocating a "popularity contest".......however you try and swing it.

So yeah, you've identified our point. W'all (;-)) think it is stupid to use such an arbitrary manner with which to further an education. No longer is consideration given to the most deserving or worthy, it goes to the bloke with the greatest number of mates..........regardless of content. Yeah mate, I definitely have a problem with that.

I get that the voting might be a bit sided as far as whose essay gets to be judged. But from a numbers side, how many thousands of essays would they have to read if there was no preliminary voting? The deadlines for these things are usually pretty short, and there must be a way to narrow down the selection process. Once the selections are narrowed down through said voting, the essays are judged on merit alone, not the number of votes accrued to get the paper to that point. I see nothing wrong with it. It is in no way a reflection on the student or the education that they seek. Anyone can vote for these. I wouldn't know Benfordrum if I hit him with my car, but I can still try to help him out to achieve his goal. I see it as no different than those kickstarter programs.

Also, a lot of these scholarships and grants are offered by corporations that are just trying to help people pay for their education. They set the requirements for the money. If you want to blame someone, blame them. They are just trying to help kids get an education. Is this what it has really come down too, criticizing how people choose to donate their money in order to help others? Would you rather they just randomly pick names out of the phone book?
 
Would you rather they just randomly pick names out of the phone book?

I would rather they read the bloody essay that they determined was to be part of the requirement for consideration in the first instance. And then judge who is to be short listed (or not), on what was presented in their initial criteria. Not by vetting it through several hundred of his mates in what most definitely amounts to a popularity contest, before they even bother to set eyes upon the thing. Otherwise, why bother with the essay at all? Just ask which candiate has access to the largest number of people and give him the scholarship.

As it stands, they may as well pick random names from the phone book.

Is this what it has really come down too, criticizing how people choose to donate their money in order to help others?

Geez, emotive much? Desgined to tug at the heart strings, sure. But really doesn't address much of what we're discussing does it? Come on mate. You normally put your point across so well. But that sentence is just clutching at straws. You know it and I know it.

Anyways, voting done. Endorsement given. Sincerely hope the kid gets offered a spot.
 
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Anyways, voting done. Endorsement given. Sincerely hope the kid gets offered a spot.

Same here. I will continue to vote for him as long as he keeps needing it. Seems to me he has his head on straight and isn't going to piss away an opportunity to get an education that the school is footing the bill for. There are way too many of those people. Here we call them athletes.
 
Same here. I will continue to vote for him as long as he keeps needing it. Seems to me he has his head on straight and isn't going to piss away an opportunity to get an education that the school is footing the bill for. There are way too many of those people. Here we call them athletes.


I really appreciate your support guys! I really want an education. As unimportant as it is in the voting process, the essay pretty much sums it all up. Spread the word if you can, it would mean a lot to me!
 
JUST realized how many votes the first voter has- over 5,000. Hopeless cause to post here lol! Thank you for the support either way guys
 
In the next to the last sentence edit it to read I have come very far, not came very far.
 
Voted.

I, for one do not have a problem with this style of judgement. I think that it is a great exercise for determining the motivation of the applicant. Not only does the essay need to be of quality, but the applicant needs to go out and promote himself and his ideas. Yes, one could consider it a 'popularity contest' but there are important lessons to be learned by implementing self- promotion. Heck, the music industry is mostly a 'popularity contest' as far as I can tell. They start 'em early these days it appears.
 
JUST realized how many votes the first voter has- over 5,000. Hopeless cause to post here lol! Thank you for the support either way guys

Kyle, I took the time to read your essay (as I'm sure most of us did) and voted- it took me all of 2 minutes of my time to do so.
Considering the current vote for your essay was 47 at the time of writing and the front runner has up to 5000- it's really just the saddest, most pathetic way of deciding who earns a scholarship (and yes this is completely directed towards the process- not yourself).
I can't believe we've come to this point where "likes"/ "votes" or whatever you want to call them are now being used to sort out which essays are even worth reading and therefore who is the best candidate.
As for the time saving factor- are you honestly telling me the academics (or whoever decides these things) can't even be bothered to read these essays so they'll make a decision based on whoever has the best social networking skills??
 
Kyle, I took the time to read your essay (as I'm sure most of us did) and voted- it took me all of 2 minutes of my time to do so.
Considering the current vote for your essay was 47 at the time of writing and the front runner has up to 5000- it's really just the saddest, most pathetic way of deciding who earns a scholarship (and yes this is completely directed towards the process- not yourself).
I can't believe we've come to this point where "likes"/ "votes" or whatever you want to call them are now being used to sort out which essays are even worth reading and therefore who is the best candidate.
As for the time saving factor- are you honestly telling me the academics (or whoever decides these things) can't even be bothered to read these essays so they'll make a decision based on whoever has the best social networking skills??

I'm not sure I can agree with this, and here's why. WyzAnt looks to be a business that sells tutoring. They have the applicants promote themselves by getting people to visit the site and vote for their essay. These voters become potential clients for WyzAnt as they may need tutoring themselves.

I agree, this may be a bit underhanded, but there is $15000 in scholarship money to be won. And WyzAnt is a business that helps people with their education. We may not agree with the methods used here, but then this isn't the only potential scholarship out there either.
 
I'm not sure I can agree with this, and here's why. WyzAnt looks to be a business that sells tutoring. They have the applicants promote themselves by getting people to visit the site and vote for their essay. These voters become potential clients for WyzAnt as they may need tutoring themselves.

I agree, this may be a bit underhanded, but there is $15000 in scholarship money to be won. And WyzAnt is a business that helps people with their education. We may not agree with the methods used here, but then this isn't the only potential scholarship out there either.

If this were a social networking scholarship (or a WyzAnt scholarship for that matter) I would agree with you.
However, we're talking about a music scholarship here. Granted, social networking is a large part of the music biz nowadays and perhaps demonstrated skills in this area should at least be considered.
But to not even bother to read the essay based on votes alone??
Maybe we should apply this method of selection to all aspects of finding employment?
Imagine the time and money we'd save on reading worthless resumes and selection criteria when we can just put an essay online and wait for the votes to roll in?

What really shits me is that it looks like this kid is going to miss out on a scholarship just because he doesn't have enough facebook friends/ belong to enough forums and is not as well versed in manipulating social media as the competition.
Is he the best drummer/ the best candidate/ the hardest worker/ the most deserving? Who the hell cares??
He can't get enough votes, therefore he doesn't even deserve consideration. Yep, sounds totally fair to me.
 
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