Although I’m a tad ashamed to admit it, I do watch American Idol. However, I usually only watch early in the season when the judges are still traveling from city to city and the contestants range from horrible to diamonds in the rough. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of talented people who just miss making the cut. Usually one or two of the judges is mildly impressed, but one of the others feels indifferent. The contestant is usually ushered out of the room with a “maybe next year.”

I want you to imagine scholarship committees like they’re the American Idol judges. Just like being a pretty good singer is probably not going to get a contestant to Hollywood, being a pretty good applicant is not likely going to result in a student landing an award. In reality, you have to stand out. You have to wow the judges. You have to show them something unique, different, or promising. Although that might sound like a tall order, don’t be intimidated. Wowing them is more about knowing what they want than what you have to offer. It’s about packaging yourself in a truthful way that fits their organizational objectives.

Most people applying for scholarships spend all their time trying to highlight their laundry list of accomplishments—many of which have nothing to do with why the organization is offering the scholarship. The successful students are typically those who pay close attention to what the committee is looking for and design their application around that.

If you can weave the following things into your application, there is a good chance you’ll make it into the pile of finalists:

Another great way to grab a scholarship committee’s attention is to include timely comments about their organization in the news or the impact their organization is having on the current state of affairs in a community. This shows that you are truly interested in their organization and not just their money—something many people sending out mass applications fail to do.

Many people give the standard “Miss America” answers on their applications. They believe that children are the future, want to solve world hunger, believe in peace in the Middle East, and love Mom and apple pie. That means, of course, that if you build your scholarship around those things, you’re probably going to sound just like everyone else. Now don’t get me wrong, those are all great things. But what scholarship committees are looking for are individuals who stand out from the crowd, not people who think they deserve money for believing in the same unsolvable problems as every other applicant.

What you need to talk about is you. You need to tell them your story. You need to give them a moving look into who you are and how this money will help you become the person you’ve dreamed of being. Talk about that in real and honest terms, and again, you’ll stand out from the masses of applicants who fail to differentiate themselves.

Taking a hard look at the previous winners of a scholarship can lead to some great clues about what to include on your application. Because many scholarship organizations put profiles of the winners on their websites, it should take you only a few minutes to find some great inside information about what type of applicants a scholarship committee tends to choose.

If the person applying for the scholarship has received any recent praise in the media, make a copy of the clipping or print the Web page and include it with your application (unless the organization requests only the application be submitted). This will build an organization’s confidence that you can help expand their reputation and that you will represent them well.

Some scholarships don’t require an essay or answers to questions about why you deserve an award, but most will. For the student with average credentials, this is the place where you can easily snag scholarships out from underneath more qualified applicants.

In addition to ensuring that your essay or short-answers are typo free and reflect the core beliefs and purpose of the organization and the scholarship, you should try to do the following:

A few years back, there was a job I wanted more than probably any other job in my life. At the time, it seemed like the dream job, running a gorgeous retreat center in the mountains for an organization I had climbed the ranks in. Sure as shooting, I was one of two finalists in the running for this juicy dream job.

They flew my wife and I across the country for an in-person interview in front of the search committee. I decided, because I wanted the job so badly, that I needed to play it cool in the interview and not let my hopes show too much. I tried to be a team player and talk about how I would happily continue in my old role if they didn’t want to give me this job, yadda yadda yadda. In the end, when I didn’t get the job and asked why, I was told simply that the other guy had appeared to want it a lot more.

I share that story because I think the logic holds true for scholarships. Committees would much rather give money to someone who is hungry for it and does back-flips when they get it than those that seem to be indifferent about a scholarship from that organization. So if there is a decent amount of time between when you submit an application and when the award decision is made, you should continue to show them you are hungry for the scholarship.

Let me be clear: the wrong way to do this is by calling and asking whether they’ve made a decision yet. That makes you look pushy and childish. Rather, you should consider doing one of two things. First, if you accomplish something major (or a number of minor things), send the organization an updated list of your accomplishments, asking them to add it to your file. This shows them that you are serious about receiving a scholarship from their organization. Second, if you don’t get the scholarship, be sure to reapply in the following year, indicating that you are “excited to again be considered for an award from your organization!” Further, do some homework on who actually won the scholarship in the previous years and do some comparison to see what they had that you did not.

Because many scholarships are renewable from year to year, any scholarships you win need to be nurtured and cared for. Be sure to contact the organization that awarded you with the scholarship and ask them what criteria they’ll be looking at for renewing your scholarship in future years. Then, make sure you meet every one of the requirements, notifying them as you do!

The Least You Need to Know