Tips on Writing a Good Scholarship Essay for College

Did you know that the essay can make or break a college scholarship application?

It is so easy to write and submit yours while not realizing that it still has mistakes – whether they are big or small.

Here are some important “dos and don’ts” for writing an amazing college scholarship essay, along with a few tips to help decrease your stress levels when it comes time for submission.

Most scholarship applications will require you to write about a personal topic; for a generic example, take the following: “Why do you need this scholarship and why should we give it to you?” The best way to make the most out of these topics is by being honest and letting your passion shine through your words.

The people who are reading this have to read a lot of other essays on the same day as yours, and it’s best to keep that in mind.

Try your best not to write a generic essay that will blend in with all the others they have to sift through.

It’s also a terrible idea to write an outrageously fake essay that they can tell is loaded with half-truths and/or outright lies. Write something with truth; something personal, of your actual self, and with passion. Write your story for them.

Since this is for a college scholarship, you want to make sure it is free from any spelling errors and is as grammatically correct as possible. It’s a show of thoroughness and professionalism. Autocorrect will be your friend while writing such an essay, and even through its use you can increase the appearance of your competence.

Make sure at the onset that you write an outline and a rough draft to double-check the fluidity and cohesiveness of your essay before submitting it “finished and complete”. You want yours to make sense and not be a big unreadable mess.

Having someone else proofread your essay is also a great idea, because they can better let you know if it flows well and if you missed any minor details, which happens more often than we wish it did.

Do not, however, let their critiques make you lose sight of what this is really about. While you want to take their advice under consideration, you still want your essay to be fully original and full of your own voice.

The college scholarship essay is the heart of the application!

Another important tip is to make sure that your essay stays focused on the given topic.

Don’t, for instance, go off on any tangents; doing so will lead to a general lack of coherence and guarantee that you won’t be chosen for any scholarship. This is where writing an outline and having a third party read your essay before submitting comes in handy, for your outline will keep you from straying off-topic, and the outside reader will often better be able to let you know if you have done so. Use these principles to grade yourself before calling your work complete.

Originality can be achieved by writing in your own voice and about your own experiences and desires; truth by being honest and finding a way to pour your passion into your words; professionalism by checking and double-checking the fundamentals (your spelling and grammar); cohesiveness by writing an outline to make sure that your writing and points flow; coherence by enlisting a capable third party to ensure that you haven’t strayed too far from your outline.

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Remember these tips and they will do wonders to help make your essays as good and complete as you have the ability to make them. Have them in mind while writing and revising and by the time your essays are finished and it’s time for the moment of truth – you’re going to be in better shape with higher chances of success than ever before. Good luck and I hope you win lots of scholarships!

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Monica Matthews

Monica Matthews is the author of How to Win College Scholarships. She helped her own son win over $100,000 in college scholarships and now shares her expertise with other parents and their students. She truly has “been there, done that” in regard to helping parents and students navigate the scholarship process.

Her method of helping students in finding college scholarships, writing unique and compelling scholarship essays, creating amazing scholarship application packets, and more have taught desperate parents to help their own students win thousands of scholarship dollars. She teaches them how to apply S.M.A.R.T. with outstanding results.

Monica’s scholarship tips have been featured on many prominent websites, and she has been dubbed the “Go-To” expert on college scholarships.