Applying for scholarship would be an easy task, if it didn’t have the requirement of writing an essay. These scholarship essays reflect students’ personalities, who they are as people, and what they have accomplished so far and why do they want to take admission in the desired institute. While this part is considered to be the most difficult task and is also dreaded by most students, it is also a very crucial phase.
A good scholarship essay is your chance to customize your case and demonstrate it to the committee as to why you deserve the scholarship. You have an opportunity to represent your personality and the things that have made you proud. You can also highlight your achievements and accomplishments to make your essay strong. Your scholarship application should include your details and inform the committee; however, your scholarship essay has to be persuasive, so the committee members select you.
As the scholarship committees go through hundreds of scholarship essays each day, you should ensure that your essays showcase your true personality, to make your application standout from other scholarship essays. After extensive research, we’ve gathered a few tips from different online essay experts that can help you ace among the pool of applicants. But let us first understand the significance of these essays.
Why Scholarship Essays Are Important?
Scholarship committees depend on scholarship essays for determining scholarship awards, even though many applicants demonstrate exceptional achievements, test scores, and grades. These essays can up the scholarship game for those students who have diverse experience. For those students who meet the minimum state scholarship requirements, a scholarship essay provides them an opportunity to stand out from other applicants.
Additionally, submitting a well-written essay can distinguish you from other competitors. Hence, you should focus on writing an essay that is persuasive, original, and clear. For creating a perfect scholarship essay, you don’t need outstanding writing skills. You need to keep a few scholarship essay tricks and tips in mind that can make your scholarship essay even better.
Tips to Help You Stand Out From the Crowd
According to experts, tips can be broken down into three phases to give students a deeper insight as to how to get that scholarship essay exceptionally drafted. These tips can help to bring your scholarship application to the next level.
The Planning Phase
1. Plan In Advance
You shouldn’t wait till the last moment to write your scholarship essay because it will affect the quality of your essay. You need to ensure that you have plenty of time for this phase. You can also create calendars in which you mention the deadlines. You need to start this phase in advance to give yourself enough time for proofreading and brainstorming.
2. Know Your Audience
The best way to write a great scholarship essay is to give them what they’re looking for. You need to identify what their ideal candidate looks like and try to fit into that character. However, you shouldn’t sacrifice your personality or your voice, but tailoring it according to their requirements can surely help you come in their good list. Furthermore, you should take a look at your strengths and then use them in a way so that you can become their ideal candidate.
3. Follow the Instructions
Although this is one of the most obvious tips, but many applicants disregard this aspect. They don’t follow the instructions mentioned for writing the essay or they don’t answer the questions asked. This is the area where applicants commit their first mistake. To avoid this mistake, you need to double check your essay instructions and make sure that you respond to every part along with following the correct scholarship essay format.
4. Select a Topic of Your Interest
This is an important and a critical part because the selection of the topic of your essay has a great impact on the way it’ll turn out. If you go for a topic that bores you, then it will be likely that your readers will be bored too. So you should select a topic of your interest, which will help you in highlighting your strengths and your personality.
5. Consider Reusing an Existing Essay
Most scholarship essays use the same prompt or in some cases permit students to choose their own topic. This means that they can copy their previous essay making a few amendments. You can even combine two essays to make it a new one. In this way, you save your time and use one essay for multiple scholarships.
The Writing Phase
6. Establish a Strong Introduction
Introduction draws the reader to your essay and develops their interest, which convinces them to continue reading the essay. Hence, this has to be the strongest part of your scholarship essay. Rather than starting in a traditional yet boring way by giving overview of the topic, you should try to hook you reader with an interesting first line.
7. Keep a Good Structure
After a strong introduction, you need to ensure that your reader is following along with your essay without efforts. You can make sure that this happens by creating a basic outline of your essay. For this, you need to write down your main points covered in the essay and structure and organize your thoughts accordingly.
8. Portray Emotions
It can be a big challenge for you to connect through your writing with the audience. However, if you do this step correctly, you can develop a powerful connection between the author and the reader. You can do this by showing your emotions and making the reader invested in your essay.
9. Use Real Life Examples
Rather than telling about your experience to your readers, you can show them through examples. You can also provide real-life examples of your experience and how it has changed you as an individual. By adding these practical examples, you can take a different approach than other applicants. Moreover, you can make your essay engaging and interactive.
10. Keep Your Tone Positive and Inspirational
Tonality is considered to be one of the most important scholarship essay tips. You need to make sure that your tone inspirational and positive even when you’re writing about a sad incident. Your readers aren’t interested in reading self-pity and depressing stories. You can do this by focusing on how the event helped you grow, instead of writing about how it has negatively impacted you.
11. Don’t Write Boring Conclusions
Most applicants paraphrase the essay in their conclusions. However, you can add some innovative factors to make your ending interesting. You should try to make your essay attention-grabbing and interesting from the beginning till the end.
The Editing Phase
12. Proofread
Students often think that their essay is free of errors but they are simply unable to find their mistakes. For this reason, most students ignore this step. However, you need to proofread your essay to make sure that there are no typos, blunders, or flaws. One way to do this is by reading your essay loud.
13. Take Advantage of Resources
You don’t have to write the entire essay on your own. You can use some resources, such as ideas from the web. In addition to this, you can take guidance from these resources and try to prepare a flawless scholarship essay.
Online essay experts believe that every student who is writing a scholarship essay encounters challenges and gets stuck at some point which is why they are there to help. They advise that students must remind themselves that the effort and hard work that they’re investing in the scholarship essay will ultimately give them a chance to sell themselves.
A winning scholarship essay is the one that sets that applicant apart from other applicants. If you narrate your story persuasively and clearly, then this might be your chance of getting that scholarship. If you are a beginner, you must seek professional help and buy essay online.
