Tag Archives: Essays

College Scholarship Essays: 5 Things You Want to Know

Posted by on September 26, 2010 No comments

Starting to write college scholarship essays may make you shake in your boots. After all, what you write could either win you a sizable chunk of cash, or not. But with some preparation, you can lower your nervousness and improve your writing. Take a look here for a few great ways to kick start your ideas, turn your brain on, and get started.
Finding Brilliant Subjects for College Scholarship Essays

Let’s get into making more topics for your essays. If you haven’t read any grant or scholarship applications, take a little time to look at them, especially the ones you want to win. You may have to invent a topic. Or you may be assigned one, like the Harry S. Truman Scholarship which requires essays that evaluate and appraise serious human and diplomatic concerns of importance today. Many use a simple, short kernel of an idea that you call a prompt to use to build an essay around.
Even with a prompt, the essay will have examples and personal features that you will think of and write. And in most cases, you and your life experience will form part of the essay. If you have more experiences to draw on, you can liven up your writing to provide more depth and create interest that draws your readers into the story.
For example, have you seen Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker in The Great Debaters? Denzel Whitaker’s character closes the movie with a great speech during a debate. In that speech, he uses stunning detail from his own life. He plays Forest Whitaker’s son in the movie, and Washington’s student. In your essays, like this movie inspired by real event, you will do the same.
Who Awards The Scholarship?

Look at who will award the scholarship. Consider these five ideas to help focus your essay and find out who will evaluate you for the award:
1. What are the organizational purpose or do they have an agenda?

2. Can you go to a website and read the group mission statement?

3. Who has won in the past?

4. Have you looked up the history or the founder for more information?

5. Call and ask for information if you haven’t found any.
After you have a feel for the organization, you can write down the governing principles or goals of the organization. Keep them brief, just a few words each, and make a short list of the ideas and trends you find in your research.
This research doesn’t have to take all day for every scholarship. If the website gives some good background and a mission statement, that should do it. You don’t need to find out the names of the committee, their alma maters, or the name of the founder’s childhood sled (rosebud). You just want a good feel for what will make a good essay and what might not match their values.
Would you give you the scholarship? Why?

Now that you have formed a concept of the group or foundation’s mission, evaluate yourself. Do you consider yourself a good candidate? For instance, the Billiards Education Foundation gives scholarships for high school seniors who play billiards. You have to recognize that if you don’t play billiards, you won’t get this scholarship.
The essay prompt specifically states that you expand on how billiards has touched your life. If you don’t play, you really don’t qualify, because you can’t answer the question with sincerity. Half of you probably laughed when you read this paragraph and the one before, but this organization gives two types of scholarships, one for $5000 over two years, and 7 awards for $1000 each.
As scholarships go, $5000 can go a long way. Take your scholarship essays seriously, and remember who you will write to, and their aims. You also should recruit proofreaders for every essay to look for typos, grammar errors, style, flow and coherence. You want to sound good.
Last, keep applying. Don’t let a little 500 or 1000 word essay come between you and $1000 or $5000 of money for college. Look, that amounts to between $1 per word on up to $10 per word. You can do it.

College Scholarship Essays: 3 Tips to Write Better

Posted by on August 30, 2010 No comments

College scholarship essays seem impossible the first time you write one. Here you will learn why scholarships require these essays and pointers on how to improve your writing. You’ll have more vivid examples of how you have overcome, learned, and grown. Let’s get started.


Why do I have to write a Scholarship Essay?

The foundations, committees, universities, some grant giving agencies and so on need you to write college scholarship essays for three reasons. Once you see the reasons, I think you will feel better about writing. And you’ll find ways to make your writing better as well:


1. You demonstrate capability. By writing a sample for to win a scholarship award, you prove you can write well. Always write the essays yourself, as this keeps the essay unique, shows integrity, and avoids plagiarism. Even if you have a company evaluate your writing and offer suggestions for improvement of an essay, you created the idea and the details in it. This small essay example provides a window into your academic abilities, and lets the scholarship committee see that you value education and will finish the degree or program you plan to attend.


2. Your goals match the goals of the scholarship giver. Do a little research on the scholarship you want to receive. What does it stand for? Can you find a mission statement or purpose? Perhaps you can read old press releases or news stories, too. Many groups, especially businesses and foundations, give away scholarship money or a grant to further their own purposes. They want to award the money to a person with similar principles.


3. Your essays speak for you. In any scholarship essay, you will provide some detail or experience from your own life. Reviewers see you through these details, and decide if they want you to represent their mission. Once you have received the scholarship, you can reflect on them for better or worse. Of course, you can see that you will want to present the best of your life. Not a rosy picture, but the real you, when you overcame, learned an important principle, or succeeded in spite of the odds against you. Or even a failure that taught you how to be a better person.


Your essays will present a small portion of you and what you have learned during the course of your life college scholarship essays. The essay provides the scholarship committee reassurance that you will be a good recipient and utilize the scholarship award to further their purposes and finish your studies to become a contributor to society.


For example, you usually won’t find the beef council giving scholarships to vegetarians, or Wal-Mart handing out money for essays that talk about limiting urban sprawl. Their values and future plans don’t go with these applicants.


After you have written a few scholarship essays, they will become easier. Plan on spending some time brainstorming. Make sure you stick to the guidelines in the application, such as for length. Always have some one proofread your article for mistakes, style, and flow. If possible, your proofreader should be a better writer than you, perhaps an English teacher, teacher assistant, or a professional writer.


Keep a copy of every essay you write, in case you can use it again. Also, you may be able to use a class essay for a scholarship application, or vice versa. When you have a topic assigned on an application, you may have to do some research before you can start writing. Spending a little time on this step will help your writing immensely. Some scholarships only require a personal statement, others want a full blown essay. In either case, reviewers will read your essay and either award you money or not, so make it great.


For your best chance to win more awards, apply for as many as possible. Don’t quit. If you can pass high school English, you can write one of these essays and win some money for college, but you have to apply!

Need more tips on scholarship programs? Come to my scholarship essay information page and download my free grant program ebook here