5 Ways to Make Your Scholarship Essay Stand Out
A well-crafted essay can potentially win students thousands of dollars in scholarships, experts say.
Make Your Scholarship Essay Stand Out
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Applying for scholarships means starting early and writing strong essays.
Key Takeaways
- Start writing essays early to allow time for research and editing.
- Grab the reader's attention immediately with a compelling story.
- Answer questions directly with sound grammar and style.
It's no secret college is expensive . One way to alleviate the cost burden is through scholarships , a form of financial aid that doesn't need to be repaid. Scholarships can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, but winning them requires strong credentials and a well-crafted essay.
With so many components to the college application , experts say it's common for students to rush through certain parts. But applying for scholarships and writing strong essays should receive careful attention, experts say.
"A scholarship can mean the difference between graduating debt-free or accumulating substantial student loans," says Liz Doe Stone, president of Top Tier Admissions, an admissions consulting company. "The financial relief can also provide more freedom in choosing a career path without the pressure of loan repayments and open up other professional opportunities, since (scholarships) look great on a resume and may facilitate networking opportunities."
Students should approach scholarship applications and essays as if they're applying for a job, says Haley Lindsey, director of financial aid at Missouri Western State University .
"Essentially, you’re trying to obtain money,” says Lindsey, whose role also includes reviewing scholarship applications. "When you’re writing your essay, be professional. You want to put your best foot forward."
Here are five ways students can make their scholarship essays stand out.
Start Early
Scholarships will set deadlines throughout the year, but experts say a majority – especially local scholarships – typically set deadlines from January through April of a student's senior year. Regardless of the deadline, experts agree on when to start writing essays: the sooner the better, as procrastination typically leads to poor writing.
"It's critical to give yourself enough time to research, write, revise and seek expert feedback," Stone says. "Your final draft should clearly make the case that your goals align with the scholarship's mission and values, and this process takes time."
Students can save a lot of time by pre-writing and reusing essays, but they should be prepared to carefully tailor them to the specific school or organization awarding the scholarship, experts say.
Pre-writing essays can be especially useful for students applying for a high number of scholarships. If students try to write a unique essay for every scholarship, there’s a chance they could experience burnout, which could negatively affect the quality of their essays, says Bethany Hubert, financial aid specialist and manager of high school partnerships at Going Merry, a free scholarship application platform.
"I would much rather a student have two or three essays in their pocket that they’re super confident about, that they spent hours on over the summer and can use again," she says.
Craft a Strong Opening
Scholarship committees often sift through hundreds of applications and essays – or more. The ones that stand out capture the reader's attention from the start with a strong hook that creates curiosity in the reader's mind, says Andrew Simpson, editorial director for College Essay Guy, which offers coaching on college admissions and essay writing.
The following example from an "open topic" prompt shows this well, he says.
Fedora? Check. Apron? Check. Tires pumped? Check. Biking the thirty-five minutes each evening to the cafe and back to work a six-hour shift was exhausting, but my family’s encouragement and gratitude for the extra income was worth it.
This opening "clearly sets up the experience and stakes that drive the essay forward, but again does so relatively succinctly," Simpson says.
Introductions like this, which drop the reader into the action through an anecdote or personal story, tend to be effective and persuade the reader to keep reading, Stone says.
"Remember, the classic advice to 'show, not tell' is key," she says. "Use descriptive language to paint a picture and immerse your reader in the action."
Tell Your Story
Committees want to see how students are able to connect their personal achievements to their future goals and how the scholarship will help them achieve them. Committees don't need applicants to be "level 10/10 vulnerable," Simpson says, "but a lot of strong scholarship essays we’ve seen include moments or details that make us feel connected to the students, that make us root for them."
Students can do this is by sharing their personal story. For example, Hubert says she won several scholarships by writing about her journey as a first-generation college student . Sharing such background allows scholarship committees to understand an applicant at a deeper level.
One student Hubert worked with wrote a scholarship-winning essay about attending college despite her parents not doing so, explaining how she plans to forge her own path.
Everyone makes mistakes, but it is those who learn from their mistakes who are successful. I am learning from their mistakes. Where they got stumped, I find a way to get over. Where they may have stumbled, I continue to run. I have to keep running for my goals in life. Even after reaching my goal I will continue to strive towards greatness. People use the saying, “the sky is the limit,” but it isn’t.
"This made me feel something, and it resonated with me on a personal level," Hubert says. "Statements that are direct, clear and evoke an emotion are great for essays asking you to discuss a personal experience."
Authenticity is important to scholarship committees, so applicants should focus on what makes them "a uniquely deserving candidate for this award," rather than what they think the committee wants to hear, says Carolyn Pippen, a college admissions counselor at admissions consulting firm IvyWise.
"A great essay about a seemingly mundane or 'unimpressive' topic that helps the reader understand you more clearly will always be more effective than a generic, surface-level response about a more 'exciting' topic," Pippen wrote in an email.
Be cautious of tone, however. While applicants don't want to come across as arrogant, they should sound confident in their essays and still be the main character in their story, Stone says.
"It’s easy to write an essay about a meaningful mentor, family member or friend," she says, "but these details distract from what the scholarship committee wants to know about: you! An effective scholarship essay will highlight your achievements and/or discuss the challenges you have overcome through concrete experiences that make your essay more memorable."
Answer Prompts Directly and Thoroughly
Scholarship essays vary in length, but in many cases students have around 500 words to share their message. Some essay prompts are open-ended, but most ask very specific questions. Applicants should read the prompt thoroughly and directly address what it's asking.
Lindsey says she occasionally reads essays where applicants don’t fully answer the prompt or even leave some blank.
“If you can’t answer all the questions, then why should I reward you?” she asks.
Since the runway for most scholarship essays is so short, students need to get to the point immediately and efficiently tell the story, focusing one or two solid examples to directly answer the question, Pippen says. Hubert says students should use the AEC formula to get their point across quickly: assertion, evidence, then commentary.
Students should have someone proofread their completed essay without knowledge of the prompt, Hubert says. If the reader can discern what the prompt was only by reading the essay, the student will know they answered the question directly.
"A lot of times, people who are writing miss that and they end up writing a really good essay, but it has nothing to do with the prompt or it dances around it," she says.
Use Strong and Sound Writing
While students may be lax when text messaging with friends, that style of writing should not carry over to scholarship essays. Using shorthand, slang or improper sentence structure, grammar or punctuation is a surefire way to lose credibility in the eyes of essay readers, experts say.
"It is very common and I see it a lot of the time where instead of saying ‘you,’ students put ‘u,’" Lindsey says. “That’s a huge turnoff to scholarship committees. If you can’t take the two extra seconds to put in the two extra letters, that’s not a good essay, to me. They don’t have to be a phenomenal writer, but if they’re not giving me the full word or (if they're) using that texting language, it’s an automatic out for me."
Such writing also typically signals a lack of time spent crafting the essay. Successful essays undergo multiple drafts and edits to ensure strong writing, Simpson says.
Example of a Scholarship-Winning Essay
The following excerpt, used with permission from Stone, comes from an essay that won a student a scholarship.
This prompt asked applicants how their course of study will contribute to their future career and why they chose that path.
By studying Spanish language and Latin American history in college, I plan to pursue a career that will allow me to advocate for immigrants and refugees. Since I plan to study in the United States, I am specifically interested in helping the Mexican-American immigrant community by creating lesson plans for schools that will teach students about immigrants’ struggles and educating people about the laws that will resolve injustices.
The applicant goes on to explain what they've already done to gain experience and knowledge in this field, including creating an app that educates people on bills being passed or voted on that pertain to immigrants' rights within their state. The applicant then mentions a class they took at Brown University in Rhode Island where the final project was an infographic highlighting the challenges immigrants face and what U.S. citizens can do to help.
The essay closes:
This project helped me to realize that I could be interested in a career in law or social services that will allow me to work directly with the immigrant community to address their needs.
"This scholarship essay effectively articulates the student's post-college goals and how these goals are rooted in their specific high school experiences and accomplishments," Stone says. "By linking their intended course of study to their advocacy for immigrants and refugees, they demonstrate both a strong commitment to community activism and a practical understanding of the challenges faced by immigrants. This alignment of past experiences with future aspirations – as well as their sincere dedication to making a positive impact through their chosen field – resonated with the scholarship committee."
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*** Enter the $2,000 College Transitions No Essay Scholarship Contest ***
How to Write a Scholarship Essay (with Examples)
September 27, 2023
While applying to college, many students are faced with an additional, daunting task: how to write a scholarship essay. Financial need, already a sensitive subject, can become a stressful factor in the process alongside other existential unknowns. Luckily, scholarship essays will not require you to go tiptoeing around the taboo topic of money. Furthermore, most scholarship essay prompts more or less resemble standard supplemental essay questions. The trick then is to make your scholarship essay stand out. The following article and scholarship essay example will offer up pointers for anyone striving to win a college scholarship.
Organizing Scholarship Essays by Prompt
You may feel like melting into a lump of despair when facing a browser full of tabbed scholarships. The best way to avoid getting overwhelmed is to organize and analyze a list of prompts. Why? Because your first goal is not simply to figure out how to write a scholarship essay. Rather, you’ll want to know how to save time while writing complex and relevant scholarship essays.
As you look over the various prompts, you’ll notice that some sound fairly open-ended, while others ask for something quite specific. In response, you should annotate each prompt with thematic keywords. This will help you figure out when you can use the same essay for several prompts.
Your annotated list may look something like the following…
Sample Scholarship Essay Prompts
1) “Explain something that made a big impact in your life.”
- Keywords: event , personal development, growth, background
2) “We’re committed to diversifying education abroad by providing funding to students who are typically under-represented in study abroad. Please describe how you and/or your plans for study abroad could be viewed as under-represented.”
- Keywords: minority, diversity, identity, study abroad
3) “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
- Keywords: background, identity, interest, talent
Sample Scholarship Essay Prompts, Continued
4) “Please explain a personal hardship or catastrophic life event that you have experienced. How did you manage to overcome this obstacle? What did you learn and how did you grow from it?”
- Keywords: event, personal development, growth, challenge, background
5) Describe a change you would like to make in the world. Tell us about how you would plan to make that change, and what obstacles you might encounter along the way.
- Keywords: world development, challenge, future
6) “Tell us three things that are important to you. How did you arrive at this list? Will these things be important to you in ten years? Why?”
- Keywords: background, values, interest, development, identity, future
Scholarship Essay Prompts ( Continued)
7) “What does it mean to you to be part of a minority community? What challenges has it brought and how have you overcome them? What are the benefits?”
- Keywords: minority, community, challenge, growth
8) “Please explain how your experience volunteering and participating in community service has shaped your perspective on humanity. Elaborate on how these experiences have influenced your future ambitions and career choice.”
- Keywords: community service, humanity, community, background, future, values, career
9) “Discuss in your essay any challenges or obstacles you have dealt with and overcome in life and how this will help you succeed in college and beyond. Describe how volunteer, community service or extra-curricular activities have shaped who you are today and what it has taught you. May also include future educational plans and career goals.”
- Keywords: challenge, future, community service, interests, value, personal growth, career
How to Write a Scholarship Essay through Prompt Analysis
Let’s compare some prompts by keywords. You’ll notice that some prompts have a lot of overlap, such as prompts 1 and 4. Both have event, personal development, growth, and background as keywords . Prompt 4 includes the additional keyword challenge . This prompt explicitly asks you to explain how you have “overcome” a “personal hardship or catastrophic life event.” While prompt 1 is not so specific, it would be easy, even natural, to include this narrative arc in your response. This means depicting how you faced the thing that “made a big impact in your life.” In other words, these two essay prompts, though worded differently, allow you to tell the same story.
Other prompts provide potential overlap. In this case, it’s up to you to find and interpret these moments. You may consider the values, strengths, interests, and experiences you wish to relate. For example, prompts 7, 8, and 9 all mention community through different approaches. While prompt 7 focuses on one’s past involvement in a minority community, prompts 8 and 9 are more future-facing, and don’t mention minorities.
Scholarship Essay Examples (Continued)
Here, your best strategy involves answering prompts 8 and 9 together in a single scholarship essay. To do so, the essay would need to detail “a challenge or obstacle you have dealt with” (9) which has thus “shaped your perspective on humanity” (8). This narrative arc will thus inform your “future” educational and career plans (8 and 9). Note that prompt 9 allows you to mention extra-curriculars. However, I wouldn’t recommend it, since this would make your essay less relevant to prompt 8. After your essay is written, adapt it to align with prompt 7. Consider condensing the part about the future into one final sentence and focusing more on minority aspects of your community.
How to Scholarship Essay Avoid Burnout
The above tactic will allow you to avoid burnout by strategizing your essay approach ahead of time. In turn, you’ll be able to maximize your efforts from the get-go. You’ll also likely find that your essays become more complex and nuanced when you consider several prompts at once.
The next step involves editing. Refer back to the prompt, once you have a draft written. Ask yourself, did I answer the question fully? Do I need to edit this essay further to emphasize a particular point? Do I need to cut the essay down to fit a new word count? Contrarily do I need to bulk it up? If so, are there other essays in my portfolio from which I can borrow material? Strategic editing will allow you to respond to a large number of essays during peak essay-writing season.
Finally, you’ll notice that most essays require a word count between 250 to 600 words. It’s often easier to write a longer essay first. This will allow you to go into greater detail without censoring your ideas. You may find yourself including dialogue, scenery, emotions, and all sorts of other specifics that make an essay personal. As you whittle down this essay to comply with a similar prompt, you’ll want to identify which pieces of the essay do the most work to get your message across. Don’t simply condense everything by eliminating details, for details are often the most memorable aspects of an essay. More on this next.
How to Write a Scholarship Essay Using the Three Fs
The three Fs can be applied to any college essay, though they are particularily useful in scholarship essays. Why? Because the three Fs will enable you to impress readers and beat out other applicants. Ultimately, they’ll help you win financial support. Think of the three Fs as a checklist to go over, once you’ve completed an essay draft. Ask yourself, is my essay fabulous? Flawless? Fearless?
How to Write a Scholarship Essay (Continued)
If your essay is fabulous , it glitters with personality. It is detailed, unique, and does its best to highlight your impressive journey. If your essay lacks a little fab, ask yourself, how can I make this essay more enjoyable and memorable to read? If your essay is flawless , it lacks all spelling, syntactic and grammatical errors. It answers every aspect of the essay prompt, and leaves no room for vagueness or misunderstandings. To avoid flaws, give your essay to several people to proofread. Finally, if your essay is fearless , it is not afraid to get a little vulnerable. This may sound contradictory to the first F. On the contrary, this fearlessness refers to the confidence to tell your own story. A fearless story isn’t afraid to go deep, add complexity, or get emotional. It is unafraid to show why its author deserves a financial boost.
Scholarship Essay Example
Now that we’ve established how to approach the scholarship essay, let’s dive into a scholarship essay example. The scholarship essay below stems from a prompt we saw above: Describe a change you would like to make in the world. Tell us about how you would plan to make that change, and what obstacles you might encounter along the way (500 words).
My generation is growing up in a time of increased global turmoil. We’ve witnessed Brexit, the Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, a series of refugee crises, and the invasion of Ukraine. It’s easy to liken this moment to Europe in the 1930s, which saw a spike in fascism and propaganda (their version of fake news). Only now, my generation must also contend with the hottest summers on record, raging forest fires, and the beginning of the 6 th extinction. It’s no wonder we deal with it all through increased skepticism and existential dread.
While I don’t have a simple solution, I believe most problems stem from ignorance. Xenophobia and racism, offshoots of ignorance, can be overcome by exposing isolated groups of people to greater diversity. This begins in the classroom. While dictators are hard to dispose of, education provides critical thinking skills, which allow citizens to make informed decisions when electing officials. Finally, developing a willingness to learn at an early age creates an instinct to continue learning throughout life. We desperately need intellectual flexibility if we are going to adapt to the planet’s needs as a world population and put a stop to industry-led fossil fuel burning.
Scholarship Essay Example (Continued)
The change I’d like to make is free, enhanced education for everyone, at every level, from elementary school to post-doctorate research institutes. To do so, I suggest defunding national militaries and channeling this spending into schools. Imagine if 80% of the 877 billion dollars the U.S. military spends annually went into learning. Combating fascism and climate change would look more feasible. And yet, no leader would agree to making their country more vulnerable by relinquishing arms and armies. Change must come from the people.
As the planet continues to heats up, and conflict over land increases, we must work together. The first step towards increased education is communicating this need for education: through journalism, on social media, in the streets. Next, I suggest lobbying politicians for incremental change. Finally, I believe a global grassroots movement to implement future-focused education, led by activists, educators, and philanthropists, would make this theoretical idea a tangible reality.
Last year, my mother, who never received a college education, decided to offer free gardening courses in our backyard. I quickly joined in. While teaching a handful of neighbors how to provide year-round food for pollinators may seem trivial, I’ve already seen positive repercussions. One conservative neighbor has set up an organization that collects and redistributes leftover produce from the markets to refugees. Another neighbor is now teaching middle schoolers how to cook and compost. These efforts have brought unusual strangers together and given visibility to our movement, #futurefocusededucation. I’ve seen it firsthand. The more we educate, the sooner we can combine our knowledge to create solutions.
Scholarship Essay Example Dissected
This scholarship essay succeeds at answering all parts of the prompt. It includes the change the author wants to make, and inevitable obstacles she’d face at the governmental and international level. These obstacles may sound insurmountable. Yet the essay shows that individuals are not powerless to enact change when they work together towards a common goal. The author provides various thoughtful steps we might take in order to prioritize education and peaceful collaboration.
Finally, the author portrays herself as someone personally invested in the political, humanitarian, and environmental state of the world. She proves that she’s already begun to make the changes she wants to see at the microscopic level. Overall, readers of this scholarship essay can see that this student is invested in bettering the world. This student would make for a proactive participant in her academic environment.
What’s Next?
Now that you have some inkling of how to write a scholarship essay and have reviewed of our scholarship essay examples, you may want to delve into more aid-related articles on the College Transitions Dataverse. You can read up on Need-Based Financial Aid Grants , and learn about Selective Colleges with Generous Scholarships . Furthermore, you may want to create your own Scholarship Timeline , in order to stay on top of the various deadlines. Good luck!
- Costs & Financial Aid
Kaylen Baker
With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.
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