College Scholarships Essay tips

Now that a new academic year has begun, it’s important to take your scholarship application process seriously in order to increase your chances of success. If you need help writing your college scholarship application, you’ll want to learn how to write an essay that convinces the scholarship program board that you deserve the money up for grabs. Your scholarship essay should be a window into your life. The essay should give the readers a sense of you as a person—beyond what your high school GPA and test scores alone can reflect—similar to your personal statement for college applications.

5 Key Areas 

When writing your College Application Essay, we believe there are 5 simple areas you need to be mindful of and what to include for your application. These include:

1.Adhere to the guidelines of the essay

Like any other essay you write for school, you’ll want to format your scholarship essays in a way that it follows the core guidelines and principles. Do the guidelines provide a prompt of one or two part question? Make sure that you address all portions and give complete answers. But remember that you know your audience (scholarship committee)! 

2.Start with a Hook

Draw in the reader with strong and memorable words from the very first sentence. For example, you may want to come out of the gates with a snapshot of (1) your story; My first time traveling abroad was during a family vacation to Canada in 2020. It was 2020; I had just crossed the border into Canada and my life was about to change. or (2) where you see yourself in 5-10 years times, after getting the education of your dreams from your dream institute. Overall, you’ll want to give your reader a quick preview of what they can expect from your essay – think of it like the written version of a movie trailer.

3.Tell a Story

Write a personal detail of your life and write in the form of a story that endears yourself to the reader. The mistake many students make is to write 100% about the hardships they’ve faced without acknowledging or discussing how they overcame them. Essay readers are not simply looking for the hardest story when selecting a winner, but rather a complete narrative that includes how the student has worked to overcome the challenge. Be clear and don’t forget to keep it simple, you don’t want to use unnecessary words (don’t use three words when one will do). 

4.Word Count

Do not exceed the specified word count. Use all available space to impress the judges. If you have space, a brief thank you is thoughtful and appropriate. But you’ll want to be as succinct as possible. For example, at the very end of your essay, you can simply say something like, “Thank you for this opportunity and for taking the time to read this essay.”

5.Proofread

Take a break from your work to relax, then return to it. Your essay will be seen by you with new eyes, enabling you to improve it. It’s a good idea to give your work to someone else for comments if you feel comfortable doing so. Select a dependable teacher, family member, or friend, and be receptive to their advice for growth. This needs to be easy to read for your reader.

Example Submission

New York University College of Arts and Science $39,500 Scholarship by Ana

“If you can’t live off of it, it is useless.” My parents were talking about ice skating: my passion. I started skating as a ten-year-old in Spain, admiring how difficulty and grace intertwine to create beautiful programs, but no one imagined I would still be on the ice seven years and one country later. Even more unimaginable was the thought that ice skating might become one of the most useful parts of my life.

I was born in Mexico to two Spanish speakers; thus, Spanish was my first language. We then moved to Spain when I was six, before finally arriving in California around my thirteenth birthday. Each change introduced countless challenges, but the hardest part of moving to America, for me, was learning English. Laminated index cards, color-coded and full of vocabulary, became part of my daily life. As someone who loves to engage in a conversation, it was very hard to feel as if my tongue was cut off. Only at the ice rink could I be myself; the feeling of the cold rink breeze embracing me, the ripping sound of blades touching the ice, even the occasional ice burning my skin as I fell—these were my few constants. I did not need to worry about mispronouncing “axel” as “aksal.” Rather, I just needed to glide and deliver the jump.

From its good-natured bruise-counting competitions to its culture of hard work and perseverance, ice skating provided the nurturing environment that made my other challenges worthwhile. Knowing that each moment on the ice represented a financial sacrifice for my family, I cherished every second I got. Often this meant waking up every morning at 4 a.m. to practice what I had learned in my few precious minutes of coaching. It meant assisting in group lessons to earn extra skating time and taking my conditioning off-ice by joining my high school varsity running teams. Even as I began to make friends and lose my fear of speaking, the rink was my sanctuary. Eventually, however, the only way to keep improving was to pay for more coaching, which my family could not afford. And so I started tutoring Spanish.

Now, the biggest passion of my life is supported by my most natural ability. I have had over thirty Spanish students, ranging in age from three to forty and spanning many ethnic backgrounds. I currently work with fifteen students each week, each with different needs and ways of learning. Drawing on my own experiences as both a second language-learner and a figure skater, I assign personal, interactive exercises, make jokes to keep my students’ mindset positive, and never give away right answers. When I first started learning my axel jump, my coach told me I would have to fall at least 500 times (about a year of falls!) in order to land it. Likewise, I have my students embrace every detail of a mistake until they can begin to recognize new errors when they see them. I encourage them to expand their horizons and take pride in preparing them for new interactions and opportunities.

Although I agree that I will never live off of ice skating, the education and skills I have gained from it have opened countless doors. Ice skating has given me the resilience, work ethic, and inspiration to develop as a teacher and an English speaker. It has improved my academic performance by teaching me rhythm, health, and routine. It also reminds me that a passion does not have to produce money in order for it to hold immense value. Ceramics, for instance, challenges me to experiment with the messy and unexpected. While painting reminds me to be adventurous and patient with my forms of self-expression. I don’t know yet what I will live off of from day to day as I mature; however, the skills my passions have provided me are life-long and irreplaceable.

You have come to the write place if you need assistance writing your college scholarship application. This is a stressful time, but breathe, take a walk, plan your attack on how to tackle this major achievement. If you do not feel as if you have adequate resources or time, we can help out by providing addition resources which can be found by clicking this link.

We can provide you with scholarship essay examples.