College Scholarship Essay Tips
College is stressful. Classes, homework, teachers, and for most it’s the first time away from home. Having to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans is would only add to the stress. Scholarships are a great way to pay for some of the unmet financial burden that federal aid doesn’t cover.
Oftentimes, scholarships will require an essay. It can be unnerving to think about something as simple as an essay can mean the difference between thousands of dollars! Below are some tips that can help you write a great scholarship essay.
Start Off Strong
A strong introduction can mean the difference between an engaged reader, and a quick skim before throwing the essay in the recycling bin. To write a great intro, you need to make it personal and intrigue the reader. Make them want to continue reading!
Perfect and Re-use
With all the scholarships that require an essay, the topic required tends to overlap from scholarship to scholarship. The best strategy is to make a solid essay and work off it for each new essay. You won’t want to copy it completely but take the required topic and use your main foundation to turn it into its own unique masterpiece!
Follow the Instructions Exactly!
When competing for scholarships, details matter. Readers want to know that you are a detailed-oriented person and can follow instructions well. If you don’t follow the clear rules put out, it may appear to the reader that you are not taking it seriously. Large amounts of money are on the line, so you should be taking it extremely seriously and giving them exactly what they want!
Have a Point and Stay on Topic
There will most likely be thousands of submissions on the essay you are sending in. Judges don’t have time to read an essay that is all over the place and hard to follow. Make sure you pound your point hard, and you stay direct the entire time. No fluff is necessary to make a great essay that judges will remember.
Be Error Free
It is possible you can write an essay that just doesn’t quite fit the judges taste. That is bound to happen, and it is ok. But, there is no excuse for getting declined for a scholarship because of careless grammatical errors. Don’t give judges an easy excuse to dismiss your entry. Use spell checker and have multiple people proofread your essay to make sure it is error free.
Hopefully, with these tips you are ready to write a great essay. Practice makes perfect, and if you take the time to perfect your writing, next thing you know you will be getting scholarship offers left and right! Good luck!
