How to Write a Scholarship Essay That’ll Win You an Admission

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It takes a lot of effort to apply for college. Applicants must pass exams, submit all documents, and correctly fill in different forms, etc. With the tuition fee ever-increasing, most students find it necessary to apply for scholarships to help cover part of their expenses. However, winning a scholarship can be quite elusive. In case you are planning to apply for a scholarship, there are high chances you will be required to write a scholarship essay. 

Let’s get to the basics of writing one.

What Is a Scholarship Essay?

A scholarship essay refers to any essay which students submit when applying for their scholarship. It is one of the most important parts as it can help you win or lose the award. Any good scholarship essay will make your application stand out from the rest. It helps in giving the scholarship committee a hint of the type of person you are, the goals you pursue, and why you deserve to be awarded the scholarship. 

In most cases, scholarships are offered by individual organizations that strive to support education. It means the scholarship essay should demonstrate the beliefs and passion of the author concerning the interests of the organization.  Some people refer to scholarship essays as scholarship letters of application. 

Scholarship Essay Vs. College Essay

We’re often asked to distinguish between a scholarship essay and a college essay. Well, you should know that these have one thing in common. They are both used in representing your beliefs or opinion. 

However, several distinctive features help in differentiating between them. 

Length 

The scholarship essays are below 500 words, while the college essays can go above 500 words. 

Purpose 

The college essay should be in a position to reflect your personality. Scholarship essay prompts, on the other hand, has to show that you share the interests and beliefs of the organization, which is offering the scholarship. 

Prompt

College essay prompts are more extensive than scholarship essay prompts. Most colleges will give you the freedom to choose a topic while an organization offering scholarships will give you specific questions to address in your article. For example, a university can request you to write an essay on why you deserve the scholarship. 

Scholarship Essay Outline 

A good scholarship essay should have a scholarship essay outline like this:

Introduction

• It should have a hook that aims at grabbing the attention of the reader. 
• Reasons why you deserve the scholarship (Thesis statement)

Body

• What has been the most difficult challenge in your life, and how did you handle it?
• What are your educational and career goals?
• What do you aim to achieve an educational perspective?
• What impact will the scholarship play in helping you achieve your educational goals?
• What impact will the scholarship play in helping you achieve your long term goals?
• What are your long term career goals?
• For what purpose will the education help you?
• What are the real-life examples supporting your arguments?

Conclusion

• Provide a summary on the key points 
• State how the scholarship will help you

Writing a Scholarship Essay Step-by-Step

The introduction will be the first section of your essay. However, the real work starts long before you get to the introduction part. You need first to allocate enough time before you embark on the writing process. Ensure you are first aware of all the deadlines before you start and that you have enough time to work on the essay. 

1. Examine The Prompt 

Prompts can be quite tricky in scholarship essays. It explains why you need to read it a couple of times so that you can get what is required from you.  For you to be considered for the scholarship, you will have to make sure your essay is within 400- 500 words.  The piece you will submit should illustrate the reasons why you deserve the scholarship.

Ensure you consider the following questions:

• Why am I applying for the scholarship?
• What makes the essay unique?
• How do my beliefs align with the interests of the organization?
• What goals am I pursuing?
• What are my aspirations, career-wise?
• What unique contribution will I make to the field?

2. Write a Compelling Hook

The first goal is to grab the attention of the reader while the second goal is to make them eager to continue reading your piece to completion. Since the committee will be reviewing dozens of essays, you must make your paper memorable, and this is where the hook comes in.  There are three methods you can use to ensure your first statement is thrilling:

• Use a question -  What made me realize that I am after helping people?
• Drop a quote -  "Success is made up of going from one failure to another without losing your enthusiasm." This is, according to Winston Churchill. 
• Include a statistic - At least 10% of children between the ages of 2-17 are diagnosed with ADHD every year.

3. Write the Scholarship Essay Introduction

After crafting a compelling hook, you can now proceed with your introduction. Here are some of the things you need to consider when writing an introduction. 

• Ensure it is short and clear 
• Never forget to follow your hook using a thesis statement 
• Give relevant background on the topic you have chosen. Do not start with an argument. 
• Only list relevant and helpful information 
• Try convincing the reader that it is worth reading the essay. 

The tips listed above will enable you to come up with an engaging introduction that will drive the reader's attention and ensure your essay stands out. 

4. Choose a Suitable Scholarship Essay Topic

You need to keep in mind the primary goal of your essay, which is to persuade the organization to offer you the scholarship opportunity. 

To win the scholarship, you will have to show them why their money will be put in great use by awarding you.  Ask yourself the following questions when choosing a topic:

• What are your accomplishments so far?
• What makes you different from other people?
• What are some of the biggest challenges you have encountered in your life? How did you overcome come, and what lessons did you learn?
• What traits do you consider as your strongest?
• What are your future goals and dreams?

Here are some of the popular Scholarship Essay Topics:

1. My dreams

2. Why I deserve this scholarship

3. My inspiration 

4. What doors I have opened

5. What I will achieve in 10 years to come 

6. Destiny is in my hands

7. My biggest success

5. Develop the Body

It is the longest part of the scholarship essay. It offers the scholarship committee with whatever answers they are interested in having.   Let us sample 'Why I Deserve This Scholarship.' In such a topic, some of the ideas you can include in the essay body include:

• Talk about your goals 
• Talk about the obstacles you have overcome 
• Talk about your motivation 
• List ways in which the scholarship will benefit you 
• List your positive traits and achievements 
• Share the real-life examples giving support to your statements 

Ensure you avoid generalization when writing a scholarship essay body by ensuring all the statements resonate with the organization's interests offering the scholarship. 

6. Draft the Conclusion

This is an essential part which most people ignore.  It helps define if the committee will remember what things you have talked about or if your entire work will just be stored together with other indistinguishable essays. You will have to write a powerful conclusion that will enable your essay to stand out from the crowd. 

You need to consider the following:

Reflection

It is a conclusion type that demonstrates personal growth well and lists your weaknesses as the stepping stones. Here is an example of a scholarship essay conclusion. 

"I opted to study medicine to help people. I worked hard in order to get where I am currently. However, I am not stopping here.  I have faced lots of challenges and achieved a number of successes up to where I am currently. Since I have never considered my obstacles as failures, I consider myself successful by persevering through all I face. I will be in a position of furthering my education and serve my people if I get this scholarship." 

Future Tense

When you are writing an essay about your present and past experiences, and then consider using this type of conclusion.  Inform the reader how the skills you encounter have managed to influence you and what you will be able to do with the lessons you learned. Here is an example of a scholarship essay conclusion.

"I have learned a lot through experiencing problems existing within my community.  I see myself working towards increasing low income housing efficiency development in future. If I get this scholarship, I will be able to complete my education and immediately embark on a project that will help solve all the problems I experienced within the community and other similar communities."

The Cycle 

You can always restate your introductory statement in conclusion to empower it. This approach is known to be very useful as it makes the reader more connected. For instance, if you started your essay by giving statistics on the total number of kids who need psychological treatment, you can bring up the same in conclusion to make it have a powerful effect. Here is an example of a scholarship essay conclusion.

"Why should I be awarded this scholarship? I am always determined and I have the passion of helping kids get top quality psychological treatment right from a tender age. This will give them an opportunity to achieve their own dreams and successes. When I am awarded this scholarship, it will not just help me in completing my education, but it will also enable me to improve the lives of countless families in the future."

Formatting a Scholarship Essay

Formatting is a crucial step when writing any type of essay. It does not matter who great your scholarship essay content is; it will never perform well unless it is well-formatted.  When you correctly format your essay, it will reveal to the committee that you have followed and understood all the given instructions.

Any standard scholarship essay format should comprise of the following:

• Double spaced
• The font size of 12 point
• Time New Roman Font
• Each paragraph indented
• 1" margins at the top, side, and bottom
• Page numbers and your last name be inserted at the page's top-left side (This is only for the extended essays)

Ensure you follow the prompt to ensure your text has the right format.

Need Help Writing a Scholarship Essay?

The quality of your scholarship essay could be the difference whether you win that highly coveted scholarship. We’re confident that these tips will help you write an excellent article. But we’re also trying to be realistic. 

If this essay inspired you to write a college winning scholarship essay, go for it. On the other hand, if think writing such an essay is a big deal and would need some further help, we’re here for you.

Before going too far, have you seen the dozens of scholarship essay examples in our archives? They’re totally worth checking out.

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