Smart Guide to Writing a Winning Scholarship Essay
Securing a college admission is a critical step in a student’s journey to success. Students need to fill out the college application forms meticulously; likewise, college essays need to be impeccable. The majority of the students celebrate when they receive college acceptance letters since the difficult hurdle is the application process is over. Indeed, the admission part is over, and other stages still await the student execution. The majority of college seniors are in dire need of financial help beyond what they can access. It is where scholarships kick in. To secure scholarships, students need another application process that requires them to write distinct essays that will answer pertinent questions pertaining they need. The article needs to convince the scholarship fund administrators to grant you the much-needed money for your studies.
What it takes to write an excellent scholarship essay
- Have the college application materials ready
The majority of the college scholarship applications require students to collect a list of volunteer work, jobs, achievements, awards, and extracurricular activities. When you have that list at hand, it will be easy for you to remember the stuff that makes you unique and the actions you got involved in.
- Do not reuse college application essays
Most of the time, students are tweaking the college application essays and sending them. Though scholarship essays and college application essays have the same prompts, their wordings are often various. The same material cannot thoroughly the needed questions satisfactorily without making some changes. For instance, most students apply for scholarships in state schools that have prompted how your school residence enriches the school community. However, local school scholarships prompt students to describe how their achievements will contribute to their future success. The majority of the students tend to speak of the same accomplishments and achievements in both essays. However, such students need to make sure that the essays address the prompts correctly and fully.
- Discuss the activities that make you shine
It is obvious advice. However, the majority of the students get deprecating when they are writing a scholarship essay. Such students report that they did not participate in anything or they do not do anything. Indeed, such students might not have had an opportunity to participate in the student council or be part of the athletics team. Even though teachers might try to push students to participate in school activities; however, it is the responsibility of students to develop interest at an individual level. For instance, if you have an interest in music and learned alone how to play guitar, then it is an opportunity for you to discuss the problems of learning how to play a musical instrument alone and how music has shaped your life. Most likely, your passion will stand out through your writing. Do not fear to share what captivates and inspires you the most.
- Do not transform the scholarship essay into a resume
As a student, you should strive to discuss your interests, experiences, and activities that make you shine. However, do not make your essay simply a list of things you have to get involved in. Your report should not be like a list of all the things you have accomplished. Instead, your essay needs to explore other things you were not fully involved in but capture the interests, experiences, and activities that impacted your life. In scholarship essay writing, quality trumps quantity.
- Discuss the plans you have
The majority of the scholarship committee members need to know how you will use the funds. In such scenarios, do not include an itemized list of probable expenses. However, indicate the college’s name that you plan to study and the course’s title together with your major if the prompt requires it. The committee members have an interest in your goals and the strategy of achieving them. In case you have not decided, do not shy off in mentioning your career areas of interest and what you have done to explore those career options.
- Do not make your essay a pity party
It is good for students to discuss their future in scholarship essays. However, they should not complain a lot about their past. Scholarships for needy students are available, and forms to collect such data are filled in a different application section. In your essay, you do not need to say that you need money. It is up to the scholarship committee members to see the need in your essay and the application form. You also need to address the obstacles that you have gone through without necessarily sounding desperate.