Thanksgiving Break 101

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Hey Hawkeyes, I don’t know about you, but Thanksgiving break was much needed for me. The week before break started, I had 4 papers due and two midterms. Academic burnout was hitting me in the face like never before. Once break started, I took a few days to rejuvenate my energy, then I thought it would be great to stay productive. Follow along with some of the things I did:

Friday: Fun day

  • Finished up classes
  • Met up with a friend from home who was visiting and touring the University of Iowa
  • Went to the movies (for the first time in a long time)!

Saturday: Fun day

  • Went out for breakfast at Goosetown Cafe
    • It was my first time here and I highly recommend trying this place, I’ll definitely be going back! The cafe itself is gorgeous and has great service.
  • Went to the game (and saw the last Hawkeye home game win for the season)!

Sunday: Relaxation and fun day

  • Drove home (yay!)
  • Spent lots of time with family and played lots of uno

Monday: Productivity and relaxation day

  • Lots of errands ran today
  • Watched lots of Netflix
  • Made dinner and baked some cookies!

Tuesday: Relaxation day

  • I ran a few errands
  • Caught up with some more family and friends

Wednesday: Productivity day

  • Studied and got ahead in some reading for class

Thursday: Relaxation and fun day

  • Spent lots of time with family and friends
  • Ate lots of good food :)

The rest of break: Productive days

  • Drove back to Iowa
  • Worked lots!
  • Read for class to get ahead

After this break, I feel ready to jump back into classes for another few weeks. However, I can’t wait for another break. It was so nice getting to stay at home for awhile! I am also very thankful I stayed productive. Putting in some hours at work and getting ahead in classwork was very helpful as I am preparing for classes this week. I hope you all also had some fun this week and stayed productive! :)

 

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Do I Have Time For That? Time Management In College

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Time is so valuable as a college student. Not only do you have a strict schedule, but somehow you also have to find ways to value other people’s time when it comes to office hours, group projects, and even just hanging out with friends. Here are some time management tips I have learned in my college experience:

  • If it takes less than five minutes, do it now.

Chances are if you procrastinate on something small, you are going to forget about it. Whether it is writing something down, sending an email, or organizing your notes, just get it done. The perk of this is it is something off of your to-do list that you won’t even have to write down!

  • Use a digital calendar you can access on all of your devices.

Planning ahead is essential, and using a calendar makes it easy. If you have apple devices, I recommend using the calendar app and syncing your calendar across your devices (bonus points for color coding)!! If you don’t have apple devices, try seeing if you can find one embedded in your email. I know Office 365 emails have a calendar feature you can access with any device as long as you simply sign into your email. At Iowa, this is attached to our ascribed student emails. Try it out!

  • See if you can work, volunteer, or complete research on a consistent schedule.

It is easier to get things done if you don’t have to worry about keeping track of when to do them! Ask for a consistent schedule in the activities you are involved in. For example work after class on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Volunteer Wednesday nights once every two weeks. Work in a research lab before and between classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. No matter your schedule, make it something you can get used to.

  • Study every day.

No one has time to effectively cram in college. Study a bit every day, type a few paragraphs for that paper, or even take it easy and rewatch lectures. Whatever you do, do something. It will pay off not only in the long run for the retention of information, but you are also going to thank yourself when you are running low on time to get an assignment in.

  • Let people know your limits.

College will eat up every second of your time if you allow it. However, you still have to allow time for yourself in order to be healthy and productive. When you need a break from all that is going on or have to tell yourself when to sit down and do something, don’t get talked into doing something with your time you don’t want to. Let your friends know “Sorry, that’s time I set aside for…” It can be as simple as cranking out assignments and sending emails, or just going out for coffee with yourself to clear your headspace in the day.

Good luck Hawkeyes and Future Hawkeyes with schedule planning! It can take some trial and error with each semester as classes change, but generally, these are my rules of thumb!

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Myth Busters: A College Lab Report

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Hello science people :)

I have had my fair share of lab reports already not only in college but just this semester (so far) as well. Here are some myth busters for you to think about when it comes to writing those pesky lab reports!

  • Statement: “You can write these reports quickly.”
    • Myth buster: You can not write these quickly if you want a good grade, even if you are good and quick with writing essays. Science writing assignments at the college level analyze how well the material is resonating with you and how well you can connect your studies to real-world examples. It also depends on the project. In Foundations of Biology, my first lab report I wrote, took a break from and edited in a matter of two days. I received back a great score, so I thought I could follow that time management strategy again. That was my mistake. The next lab report had the same directions and elaboration requirements, but I did not acknowledge that there was more material and concepts to cover… and that’s the story of why I pulled my first college all-nighter! Thankfully I only made this mistake once, but it definitely emphasizes that the length of your project may not be easily seen by the directions. My papers with the same directions differed by almost ten pages!
  • Statement: “If you follow the instructions, you are set for a good grade.”
    • Myth Buster: Please, please, please follow the instructions, but you have to go beyond what you are told to write most of the time in order to get a good grade. You have to connect the dots between what you have learned and what you were expected to do in the lab. My first lab report was for Principles of Chemistry I, and I felt like it was super structured with what I needed to write. I wrote it right after my lab, answered all of the questions laid out for me, and did not get the grade I thought I would. Why? My report was shallow. I did not review the concepts that I was elaborating on, so I was not writing what my professors wanted to see. They do not want to see a regurgitation of the lab procedure or their slide deck, they want to see how you can connect a specific concept used in the lab to a broader scale phenomenon and why things work out the way they do. Write about that.
  • Statement: “You will write more than the English and Creative Writing majors.”
    • Myth Buster: Well you might… but it depends on the project! Like mentioned before, my first ever lab report was short and sweet, handwritten (and largely spaced out), no diagrams or figures needed, solid two pages. However, my most recent lab report was 24 pages. This was for Diversity of Form and Function. Now how on earth is that difference acceptable? My most recent lab report was over a cumulative project rather than a two-hour single lab. This means this report was acknowledging multiple weeks of being in the lab for three hours at a time. That is a lot of data collected to be reported and elaborated upon! This report was also required in a digital format because pictures and diagrams were expected. This was an easy couple of pages added to the report because in the event your report gets printed, these figures have to be huge (with captions and elaboration on them, too, which are easy points)!
  • Statement: “Your professor skims the method and materials section because it is the same for everyone.”
    • Myth Buster: News flash! Everyone is doing the same project, therefore everyone will have (or should have) the same material in their report. Your professor lives, sleeps, and breathes their profession. Many have assigned the same project for years and have read similar reports hundreds of times. They will read every word of your report, they are used to this. They want to know what you know. Even in the materials and methods section, they are checking that you can do more than just regurgitate your lab manual. Do you know how to put the procedure in your own words? Do you know what is most important to include in the report and what is more common sense?

Good luck with your lab report and future lab reports! Always reach out to your professors and teaching assistants for advice on what specific concepts they are looking for.

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The Big School, Small Town Feel

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Hello, Future Hawkeyes (and current Hawkeyes)! Interested in how many opportunities the University of Iowa has but are not sure if such a big school is right for you? Here are some of my highlight stories from my time at the University of Iowa that shows not only how big of a school this is, but also how small!

1.) A car ride with (not so many) strangers

A preface to this article is I am an out-of-state student and I only knew of one student coming to the University from my hometown prior to my time here. I visited them here a few times but did not remember their friends to who I was introduced while I was here. But that did not stop this first story and crazy encounter from happening!

Imagine this, you are new to the University of Iowa, are trying out new student organizations, and join a student organization in which you knew absolutely no one before joining… then you agree to spend two hours in a car with strangers on your way to a service trip with them. Crazy right? Welcome to college, there are a lot of bonding experiences like this one that you can easily find with student organizations, but that is a story for another time. Back to this car ride with strangers, of course, they knew each other from being in the organization in previous semesters, but I’m a newbie at this point, so I had to get to know them and they had to get to know me.

About ten minutes into the car ride, I was fielding the questions that you will be asked the most as a college student: What’s your major? Where are you from? Why did you choose to come here? At one point or another, something clicked in the brain of the girl in the passenger seat that I was talking to. She whipped around to face me as she said “I know you!”

Of course, everyone else in the car, including myself thought she was joking and meant that she now knows me, but that is most definitely not what she meant. She said that I was introduced to her years ago when I came to visit my friend that went here. Everything she said was right on the dot, but I just couldn’t remember her face if my life depended on it.

The moral of this story is, the school is big enough to forget a face you run into (like I did), but also small enough to remember it years later and build a connection!

2.) A coworker from home

No one I knew from my hometown came to the University of Iowa or has even really looked at the school. When I went home for the summer, one of my coworkers changed this. He said he was leaning towards going to St. Louis University, but the University of Iowa was also on his radar. I told him he should visit campus and explore the University of Iowa more before making up his mind.

One day as I was running between classes I got a text from this coworker saying that he was on campus for a tour and he may or may not run into me. I was ecstatic he was here touring the campus, but unfortunately, it was on my most busy class day so I didn’t think I would see him.

I had about a twenty-minute lunch break and decided to go to Burge dining hall. As I was looking around for a seat, I locked eyes with my coworker! What a small world. I wasn’t expecting to really see him at all but ended up running into him and getting to tell him some of the hit spots of campus that he should visit outside of his tour.

3.) Everyday run-ins

I can not emphasize how often you will run into your classmates and friends throughout the day as you just walk around. Between classes, studying, going to get food, you name it, chances are you will run into someone you know.

Whether you recognize them or not is what gives this place a big school, small-town feel. Sometimes you know exactly who someone is, and sometimes it’s just at the tip of your tongue.

I am the type of person who gives myself plenty of extra time to get to activities because of these unexpected run-ins. A lot of the time I spend catching up with people is from stopping to talk to them unexpectedly on the street.

Regardless, it is easy to not get lost in a crowd here if you don’t want to. Being outgoing and making friends with a variety of different interests and schedules can ensure you can always say hi to someone nearby!

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College Dorm Room Tour

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Hey Hawkeyes! Here is my dorm room tour for this year, followed by some important things to note about Stanley and a shopping list of some of the items highlighted in the video. I am so excited to live in Stanley Hall!

Here are some of the important things to note about Stanley:

  • Stanley rooms overlook the river that runs through campus or a courtyard by the attached residence hall (Currier). Both are beautiful sights, especially in the fall!
  • Stanley rooms, like all residence halls on campus except Peterson, have a sink and mirror (not featured in the video.)
  • All residence halls, including Stanley of course, have great AC and heating
  • Stanley has pod-style bathrooms, meaning you have multiple bathrooms to share with your floormates, but they are individualized where you can lock the door behind you and have an entire bathroom (sink, shower, toilet, mirror, etc.) to yourself while it is in use
  • Stanley has a lounge on every floor that overlooks the river for community use, and a large lounge on the 3rd floor that has the best study spots!
  • Stanley is attached to Currier, so you get all the Currier amenities (but bigger rooms than Currier). This means you get access to more study areas, a gym, a computer room, a 24/7 front desk, and more!
  • Stanley’s laundry facility is on the lowest level of the building (don’t worry there are elevators if you are on a higher floor)

A lot of the items featured you can find cheaper outside of amazon, but if you are already moved in, here are some links to shop:

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What I Learned During Move In

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Hello Hawkeyes, and welcome to the 2021 fall semester. The fun of moving in is something we all look forward to, but no one looks forward to the hassle of actually lugging around a room’s worth of items. So how can you make this process easier? Here are some hacks I found!

  1. Organize clothes by season into tubs
    Why bring your entire wardrobe to college if you know you are going home for winter break? The answer is simple… don’t. Go to the store and buy two identical tubs. If it is summer, put all of your fall and your favorite winter items in one tub, and in the other put the rest of your winter clothes. If you are packing in the winter, pack all of your spring clothes and your favorite summer clothes in one tub, and the rest of your summer clothes in the other.Now that you have your out-of-season clothes packed in tubs, put the tub for the upcoming season and favorite items into your car. Pack this tub first! It should be big and bulky, so it is easier to fit small items around the tub than the tub around the smaller items. This tub is going to your dorm room with you, and the other will stay in your closet at home. This will ensure you have some clothes to start you off when the weather changes, and you won’t have to take a special trip home just to switch out clothes. Put this tub somewhere out of sight or reach, because you won’t need it. I slipped mine under my bed and in the corner!

    Now here is the best part. Pack the clothes that are in season into the hamper you will use in college. Stuff this full! Anything that is leftover, put in duffel bags or day bags you can envision yourself using in college. When you get to college you can put these items in dresser drawers or hang them up, but when the season changes, grab that tub from the corner of the room and switch out the items between the tub and your closet. Now you have a new wardrobe that is in season, and all of your out-of-season clothes out of the way without taking a separate trip home! Now when you go home for break, take this tub of out-of-season clothes and switch it out with the tub of now-in-season clothes that are at home, and add to your closet!

  2. Plastic wrap is your friendWhen packing for college, you don’t have a lot of space in the car typically. To make it seem roomier, I found it easy to set up my small room pieces such as my three-tier storage cart and my shoe rack, and stuff them with all of the items that can fit in them. That means things inside things inside things. Things that can be squished are, and every nook and cranny is filled with something.

    Now that this sounds like a chaotic mess that will fall all over the place, you have to make it easy to move. Plastic wrap (used for packaging mail is the best but plastic wrap for food works too) will be used to secure your items in the place they are in. Wrap individual shelf units as a tier and every item stays in place. This means you can just pick it up and pack it in the car as easily as if it were empty.

    A bonus for the three-tier cart is that they come with wheels so they can still roll all around campus with your stuff packed full inside and you don’t have to worry about it falling out or getting a moving cart for this item. An additional bonus if your car is anything like mine is, the three-tier cart, although tall, does not have to be set on its side. Instead, mine fit in front of the stationary back seat and our movable passenger seat and rested on our floorboard. The movable passenger seat when pushed back allowed the whole structure to be secured in the car.

  3. Reusable bags first, then tiny boxesWhen moving in and out, you have to use every bit of car space possible, but you also have to stay organized. How? Use reusable bags to throw your items inside to allow the bag to form fit into the nooks and crannies of the car. Save these bags on a high shelf or in the corner of your room for when you move out, then you won’t have to track down packing materials. When you run out of reusable bags moving in, use small boxes! These also fit in those small spaces while keeping your things organized. You can also find smaller boxes more readily than those large, awkward, and bulky boxes!

I hope you take these hacks into consideration as you are moving, they certainly helped me out this year as opposed to last year when I did not think these things through!

This blog post will be followed by a tour of my entire new dorm room in the near future.

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How To Stay Productive In The Summer

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College students are used to keeping busy, so summer break can feel like you are crashing into a brick wall with nothing to do. What do you do with all your free time? Here are some ways you can keep moving forward with productivity:

  • Update your resume
    • You can never have a perfect resume. Update it from last semester, proofread, reorganize it, or even find something to add to it.
  • Get a summer job
    • While you are out of school, it never hurts to get a summer job to make more money. This can be picking up more hours at a current job or getting a part-time job.
  • Write a new personal statement
    • Your writing skills get better the more you use them. Start that personal statement again and add something new!
  • Volunteer
    • Volunteers are needed just about everywhere. Finding somewhere to help out in your free time is a great selfless act for the summer.
  • Apply for scholarships and fellowships
    • During the school year, you may not have much time to do this, so take advantage of your free time now to try and earn advances toward your education.
  • Review your notes within the past year
    • It is easy to forget details, so review your notes to see what you retained from class and what you should look over again to remember long-term.
  • Read a book or other scholarly articles
    • This keeps your mind engaged so you don’t jump back into the school year and feel like you are bombarded with a heavy reading load.
  • Look into research
    • Research is always a great opportunity. Find a lab that interests you, work up a resume and personal statement, send an email to see if there are openings in the lab or what the availability is.
  • Prepare for post-graduate plans
    • Are you going into the workforce after you graduate? Look into where you want to go. Are you taking an exam for post-undergraduate studies? If so, start studying now. Are you planning on taking a gap year or traveling? Start planning exactly what you want to do.
  • Look for summer internships
    • Many businesses understand that students are only free in the summer, so they offer summer internships. See if you can land one in the field of your choice. This helps you get hands-on experience before you have to dive right in.
  • Job shadow
    • This is another way to get experience in the field of your choice without having to dive right in. Job shadowing is majorly a hands-off experience where you watch someone do their job and ask questions. This is a great introductory experience to a job of your choice to see if you are truly interested in the job and to get your questions answered.
  • Get certified
    • Depending on your career path, different certifications are offered through different programs, but take what you can get! Any certification shows you are willing to put in work early. A common option is the CPR and First Aid certification through the American Red Cross. Even if you are not interested in the health field, this can be a good certification to get, because accidents happen everywhere.
  • Take a class
    • It is recommended that you only take classes if you have to in order to graduate during a desired time. This is because summer breaks are supposed to be a break from the traditional academic school year, summer classes have a different cost of attendance than fall and spring tuition, and summer classes are heavily accelerated. If you do take summer classes though, it is a great way to keep your brain busy during the summer so you don’t feel rusty when the fall semester starts.
  • Find a summer program
    • Many professional tracks have summer programs across the nation where you can learn more about the profession, practice hands-on skills, and even give a boost to the academic side of your career path. Give a quick google search to summer programs with your major or track to see if there is something that catches your eye!

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Preparing for Finals in Eight Steps

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Yes, I get it. The absolute last thing you want to do right now is study for finals. You might be tired, maybe you didn’t have a spring break, and you just want it to be summer. But here is the deal, you made it this far, so finish strong. Start prepping for finals now.

  1. Know your finals schedule! You can’t successfully take finals if you don’t know when the test is. Mark it on your calendar right now, no excuses. Look up your finals schedule here.
  2. Get your notes together! I am guilty of taking notes on my computer for one class, by hand in another, and a mix of both for the rest of my classes. Now is time to organize all of your notes (chronological order of material covered will help a lot when you are studying).
  3. Use the printer! During virtual learning, it is easy to screenshot diagrams in a presentation and just stare at them. Print them out so you can mark them up while studying.
  4. Change your study spot! There is nothing worse than getting so used to your study spot so that you no longer can focus there. Change up your study spot, so you know when you are there that you are there to get work done.
  5. Take a break! Please do not burn yourself out. You may feel that way already, but that just means you need a break more than anyone. Go treat yourself to coffee, take a walk while it is nice, call your family or friends, read a book that is not related to coursework, or go play catch. Literally, do anything besides study… just for a bit. It will boost your mood so much, because you may need a break more than you think. Self-care is essential right now.
  6. Make a study schedule! Do you have a class that needs more studying than the others? Take this into account, but don’t devote all of your time to just one class per day. Since you also have assignments and projects due within these last few weeks, you need to be as organized as possible. Make a schedule to set aside time for your current classes and assignments, but also time to study for those looming finals.
  7. Prepare for summer! This is a great way to take a well-deserved break. Even though preparing for summer may seem like planning, it will get your mind off of school. What are you doing this summer? What to go on a trip? Plan it. Are you moving out of the dorms? Start packing. Are you getting ready for research? Prepare as much as you can and read the materials given to you.
  8. Work hard! Now that you are prepared, give it your best. Stick to that study schedule and spend quality time on material that seems harder to understand. Do not be scared to go to office hours for review, do some extra practice questions, or ask your classmates questions. Everyone is working towards finals. You are not alone, so do not make it seem like you are. Use your resources to give finals your all. Good luck, you will do great!

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How to handle academic burnout

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Hi there, if you’re reading this, I assume you are at that point in the semester where it feels like your academic workload is just too much. We have all been there, but how do you handle burnout as an upperclassman in high school, as a college student, or as anyone in the middle of a global pandemic? Maybe the following story and strategies will help you.

My story

I am a first-generation, and first-year college student from a very small town. Needless to say, if I wasn’t already lost coming to college, the pandemic surely set my confusion over the top. Not only was I coping from the loss of my senior year of high school, but I was also struggling with feeling like I was missing out on my first year of college. This combined with a college workload, trying to make friends, and holding a part-time job, lead me partially to burnout… not to mention the loss of spring break in the middle of the second semester.

But hey, we are all supposed to keep our heads up and move forward right? Students really don’t have time to take non-scheduled breaks, but that is exactly what I had to do. I got sick for about a month and a half in the middle of a semester with no spring break. I completely missed this time of schooling and was struggling to keep my head above the surface of my workload. How was I supposed to catch up? With looming midterms and a heavy workload on top of what I already had missed, I worked on school night and day for weeks thinking I was never going to catch up. I slowed down. I was experiencing burnout.

So how did I get back on top of things? How can you get past burnout? Consider these strategies.

Tips

Plan, plan, plan! Make yourself a schedule and stick to it. For example, say you are behind in a class by a chapter. Instead of trying to catch up ASAP, consider dividing that chapter into sections. Lots of textbooks do this already! Read a section or two extra in addition to your traditional workload per day. You won’t catch up right away, but you will not feel overwhelmed because you are getting your current work done while catching up segmentally.

Think about your routine. Do you go get coffee every morning? Do you workout at a certain time of the day? Let’s find some mood boosters for your routine, and don’t take this for granted, it has helped me the most! If you have a regularly scheduled part of your day that you look forward to, such as that morning coffee, evening workout, or even a nice hot shower, have you ever thought about setting it back an hour in time and working towards it as a reward? When you set back something you are looking forward to, you have time to flip around your schedule and start getting straight to work. Set mini-goals of what you want to accomplish, and when you start to feel bored, tired, or anxious, reach one more goal then take that well-deserved break you have postponed and have been looking forward to.

Find a shortcut. Time is crucial, you already know this. Shortcuts are a slippery slope, so don’t go crazy with this step. Do you spend a lot of time making your hair and/or makeup look good in the morning? Brush your hair quickly and throw on a hat or throw up your hair into a cute messy ponytail or bun. How much time do you spend on your phone or watching TV without realizing it? Save this as a reward and put away distractions. Do you study in an elaborate place far from your residence? Try something simple and closer. Do you spend a lot of time reading and watching extra material to understand concepts? Skip these for now and come back to them later when you have more time. You are in a time crunch, it is time to get a basic understanding now and a mastery understanding later.

Make a short to-do list. By all means, do not write out all of the assignments you have to do. This will overwhelm you so much. Instead, take it two or three days at a time. That way, when you cross off things you are accomplishing, it feels like you are making a larger difference in the workload you have.

Focus on your mental health. Burnout will get you down. But the feeling of being almost done with the semester and on top of your workload is exhilarating! Until then though, you can’t stay down in the dumps. Each night take some time to reward yourself by watching some Netflix or anything that brings you joy. Also, reflect on how much you accomplished.

You are dealing with a lot.

You are handling things in the best way you can.

Taking things one step at a time is better than no progress at all.

You are making strides to meet your goals.

You will get through this.

You have a plan.

You are taking time for yourself.

You are going to become a better person from this experience.

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The University of Iowa’s Scholarship Portal

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Scholarships are everywhere, inside and outside of all college institutions, but how many universities combine all sorts of opportunities into one place, where you can AUTOMATICALLY apply to the majority of them?

Upon your acceptance to the University of Iowa, your financial aid offer will come soon. Maybe the number you see scares you (especially for out-of-state students). Maybe you didn’t get all of the automatic scholarships you hoped for. Maybe you just have a little bit more funds to round out, or maybe your tuition is covered. No matter what kind of bill you are looking at, you are going to want to check out the University of Iowa Scholarship Portal. These scholarships will help you cover tuition, housing, books, and more.

Open only to University of Iowa students, you can’t apply within the scholarship portal before you are admitted to Iowa, but let me tell you what it’s like! Every student is able to fill out the general application. This is just a handful of questions to get to know you, your background, and the town you grew up in, but no question is extensive! The biggest requirement on your part is to list the three most meaningful activities you have been or are engaged in. With all things considered, this general application can take five to ten minutes. Why wouldn’t you want to apply to scholarships that are so easy?

However, it does not stop there! The more you are planning to be involved on campus, the more opportunities come your way. For example, once you declare your major, you know what “college” you are a part of. This decision comes with a corresponding scholarship application to the college you are in. For example, I am a part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as a Microbiology major, so for me, I have a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences scholarship application. On the other hand, my friends who are Biomedical Engineering majors are a part of the College of Engineering, so they have the College of Engineering scholarship application. The same goes for other majors and the other colleges on campus. This is the application that is typically where you get to show your passion for your major or showcase what you have been doing to follow your academic goals. These scholarships are only available to undergraduate students in your “college” so the competition level is much lower. For example, even as a first-year student, I received a scholarship offer that was open to all ages of undergraduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Therefore, these scholarships are by all means obtainable, so take your time responding to these questions.

Like I said before, the more involved you are on campus or the more you are planning on being involved, the more opportunities apply to you. If you are in the University’s Honors Program, there is a special application open to you as well. This application is the most extensive one I have heard of. Recently it involved an essay, a letter of recommendation, and an honors-oriented resume.

No matter how many applications are available to you, you are not required to do any of them. They are purely there as a resource for you. The more time you dedicate to them and the more applications you fill out, generally the better your results get. If you don’t want to work alone on filling out any part of the scholarship application, there are plenty of resources to turn to once on campus. One resource is the Pomerantz Center. You can get help writing your resume by looking at this guide for help, or even schedule a one-on-one appointment session to get feedback on how to improve or maybe even start your resume. Another resource is the campus writing center, where you can make individual appointments to get writing advice, submit documents for review, or even register for weekly writing one-on-one advice sessions.

One final thing to talk about regarding the University of Iowa scholarship portal is that there are scholarships posted that are not affiliated with the university’s undergraduate programs. These are called external scholarships or external opportunities. Most are related to the university in some way, shape, or form though. For example, one that was posted for the 2020-2021 academic year was from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, but for undergraduate students. It took into consideration a general application, but also a few additional materials.

Needless to say, the scholarship portal is a good start to your scholarship search because of how diverse it is. There are tremendous amounts of opportunities specialized and available to you because many scholarships award multiple winners, many are specified greatly to limit the competition, and many scholarships just require a little bit of effort. The University of Iowa’s scholarship portal has this and more. Good luck with your scholarship search!

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