In today’s GrantMe Review, Madison tells us about winning the $70,000 TD Scholarship! She gives her best advice for writing authentically, how GrantMe members helped with her interview process, and tells discusses the community efforts she partook in to win the TD Scholarship!

For the FULL interview, check out the video on our youtube channel!

“Tell us about yourself!”

“I’m an 18 year old student and I’m going to be starting at McGill in the fall. I really love basketball, music, and I’m quite involved with my community in a lot of different sectors!”

Did you know? McGill is included in GrantMe’s toolkit “The Ultimate Guide to the Top 12 Canadian Universities”! To access this toolkit and get into your top choice university, take our Scholarship Eligibility Quiz!

“What was the total amount of scholarships you won with the help of GrantMe?”

“So, I won the TD Scholarship for Community Leadership which is a $70,000 scholarship. I’m really grateful to GrantMe for their help and also to TD. I also had a few random universities give me bursaries but I didn’t end up attending those universities!”

Curious about another GrantMe Review? Check out Mattie, who won $260,500 with GrantMe, including the prestigious $80,000 Schulich Leadership Award!

“How was the TD interview process?“

“It definitely was a lot of fun. The interview process includes very prestigious panellists. I think in regards to challenges, one of the biggest things that GrantMe helped me with was balancing professionalism with authenticity. I want to be a bubbly person and show myself off. But, at the same time, I want to be professional. GrantMe helped me a lot, mostly for emotional support. It was honestly amazing – GrantMe team members like Meaghan and Hunter told me, “You’re going to be okay, you know your stuff! You know what you did to be here and you put in the work!”.

When embarking on your scholarship, or admissions journey, you’re bound to be interviewed! For our best advice on how to ace an interview, check out our tips!

“What is one thing that you learned through this process?“

“I had an academic advisor in high school that really pushed me to stop writing what I thought they wanted to hear, and instead just be authentic. Do a big exercise before you write and just write all the stuff that you’re passionate about and why you’re passionate about them. Really force yourself to ask, “Why do I care about these organizations?”. That’s what’ll take your application to the next level. Of course – you did these partly for the resume, partly because you’re supposed to, and partly because of societal pressures, but there is going to be something inside you that draws you to specific organizations. Try to really delve deep until you see why you chose that organization!

Want to take the guesswork out of your admissions process? Get into your top schools and win scholarship money with GrantMe’s support. To start, take our Scholarship Eligibility Quiz !