How To Write A Winning Scholarship Essays

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It doesn’t matter if you have good academics, low grades, volunteer experience, or none at all; there is still a scholarship waiting for you. And if you’re having problems locating these scholarships, don’t worry; we’re experts on the subject.

Scholarships can be earned in a variety of ways, such as through outstanding grades or based on your financial situation. So, whatever your situation is, your school may not be able to provide you with as many scholarships as you would like. So you’ve decided to begin on a scholarship search, and regardless of how you go about finding scholarships, this post will undoubtedly be beneficial to you.

Scholarships are the best sort of financial aid when it comes to paying for college, because they never have to be repaid. A fantastic scholarship the essay assists the scholarship giver in gaining a better understanding of the person behind the application.

Today, I’ll give you some advice on how to write a scholarship essay. Your essays are the most important aspect in determining whether or not you will be awarded a scholarship; therefore consider the following points before writing one:

1. Strong Introduction
Make a strong first impression. So this is what hooks the reader into truly caring about what your essay says, and if you have a really weak introduction, it could turn the reader off and make them not want to read the rest of your essay at all, resulting in a loss. As an example, suppose you were given an essay prompts asking you to describe the worst day of your life. “The worst day of my life was the day I failed my finals,” for example, is an excellent example of a bad introduction. Because you’re automatically telling them the complete tale, it doesn’t offer the reader enough room to be intrigued or guess what you’re going to say. You’re not leaving readers any chance to envision what happened or to make it interesting because you just said in one line what your entire essay was about, and what’s the use of the reader reading further if they already know what your worst day was? Instead of that, a stronger opening may be used, such as this: “It was a stormy and cold day outside, and I even slept through my alarm.” This was the ideal prelude to the calamitous day that lay ahead of me.”

Grab your reader’s attention in a similar way with a fascinating statement like this: “It’s 6 a.m. on a hot July day, and I’ve already showered and eaten breakfast.” I know my friends are sleeping in and enjoying their summer vacation, but I don’t envy them; I’m looking forward to starting my day as an investigative journalist intern at a local newspaper. Despite the early starts, nothing has made me happier than working a standard 8-5 day over my summer vacation.

Looking back on my high school experiences and everything that lead up to this internship, I realize it wasn’t evident to me at the time. This route, I believe, began with a very astute teacher and a small book she recommended I read outside of class.

2. Always Stay On Topic
Before you go down to write your essay, make sure you read the question three times, over and over again, to make sure your brain understands what the topic is. Do not stray from the topic. For instance, if your essay is on how you have aided your community, don’t go off on a tangent detailing all of your accomplishments and awards you’ve received throughout your high school career. You’re making yourself appear good since it didn’t go well, but that’s not the point of the essay, and if you go off on a tangent and start talking about something else, you’ll lose the reader’s attention. As a result, make sure you stay on topic.

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3.Tell a Story
The most important element for any scholarship essay is effective storytelling. You are revealing your personal narrative, so it needs to read like a brief biography and not some dull research paper. Use professional but natural language to tell your tale, be descriptive, convey emotion, and even use humor to connect with your reader.

4. Be Authentic & Be Yourself
Don’t try to fit in or tailor your essay to appease the reader. In order to succeed and receive your financial reward, you must stand out from the crowd. In other words, be yourself.

5. Keep Positive
While your story may focus on overcoming adversity or some other negative event, you will want to remain positive. Show how your story helped you learn and become a better person.

Describe A Lesson Or Valued Learned
Whatever story you highlight, make sure to tell the reader what lesson or value was learned from the experience. If your essay focuses on struggling with financial hardship, you could say you learned the value of learning new skills to obtain a better career.

6. Link Your Goals With Your Story
If your story was about economic hardship, it’s important to tie it to your goals. Weave your educational or career goals into your story

7. Choose a Proper Format
Your essay must be composed in a proper format. For example;

Protecting the Environment

One of the things that worry people most nowadays is the environment. In the last few decades, humans have been polluting way too much, which has had a negative effect on the environment. For this reason, we must protect it from now on. -Introduction

First, we ought to start paying attention to the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. By doing so, we will reduce the quantity of rubbish, we will not throw away so many things and we will be able to recycle most of our waste. – Body

Second, a very good idea is to stop using cars so much and start cycling or walking a little more. For example, instead of commuting by car, we can try to do it on foot or by bike. – Body

Finally, if we really want to change things, we should teach young pupils about the dangers of contamination and pollution. It’s the only way to change the future, because they are the future citizens of the world. – Body

In conclusion, I believe that if we do these three things, we can still prevent humans from destroying the environment. – Conclusion

The given example is the default format of an essay consisting of five paragraphs; one for the introduction, three for the body and the last one for the conclusion.

Follow The Grammatical Rules
The scholarship committee does notice grammatical mistakes even a minor error can cost you badly. So be precise in terms of grammar, word choice, punctuation etc.

SCHOLARSHIP ESSAYS

Things You Should Consider when Writing Your Essay;

  • Know your audience

Scholarship committee looks for specific students who meet their criteria. So understand the true purpose of the organization and its goals to better respond to the questions at hand.

Don’t start your essay with a quote
An essay is not someone else’s opinion. It is your thought, research and your opinion; so keep it real and authentic.

  • Think outside of the box

Catch the scholarship committee’s attention with a unique approach; devise a way to make your story stand out and then you will get a better reception.

  • Don’t try to earn sympathy

If you are writing a scholarship essay, don’t assume that writing your sad story will force them to give you sympathy. Write your essay in a way that demonstrated your strength through struggle. Committees admire perseverance and determination than grief and sorrow. Writing a scholarship application essay is to really show that you know who you are. Use carefully selected language to emphasize your character. Believe in your positivity hobby and all the great things you have done. If you don’t believe in yourself, why would the judges?

SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY EXAMPLES

Submit an essay on a topic of your choice

It was ironic that my life’s dream shattered into million pieces, or so I thought. What’s this dream? Well I had envisioned myself as a millionaire, realizing that “Millionaire Stock Trader” lifestyle that’s advertised across the Internet. After two years of studying stock patterns, professionals’ trades, and even making $8000 trading with virtual money, I felt it was time to join the major league. I begged my parents to fund a TD Ameritrade account containing $ 1500, claiming I’d be able to “double their money within a week.” I was fully confident when I said that. A mistake. I never had much of an ego, but for whatever little ego I did have, the stock market took it within a week.

The infamous statistic in the trading world is “90% of traders lose money.” Quite demoralizing, am I right? As I sat, looking at my computer with a PS3 controller in one hand and math homework in the other, the stock, SSING, began to surge. Behaving similarly to stocks I’d scrutinized in the past, I spent no more than thirty seconds waiting before I hit the BUY button.

In less than ten minutes, I had made $100, which for a teenager, is like a dose of ecstasy. With such short-term success, overconfidence shrouded logic, and I began to trade any stock that had positive news for the remainder of that Monday. By Friday, I only had $70 of my parents’ $1500 left – and was mentally broken.

I’d never been so disappointed in the percentage, “90%” because all my life, I looked at it as an “A”, a sign of success. Darn, the school system set me up for failure. In all seriousness, after my initial account’s blowup, I realized two key concepts: the first being that the market requires far too much attention to be able to PS3-and-trade, and the second being that there is no space for emotion when dealing with the market’s volatile nature.

To my parent’s dismay, I pleaded with my overly-generous uncle to lend me $1500 to open another trading account. He originally declined, saying I had to prove myself, and after spending the following two weeks washing cars, mowing lawns, and running errands, he conceded. The morning the funds settled, I wrote on my white board, “NO EMOTIONS, NO DISTRACTIONS.: these four words were mow lawns I had to abide by. As I scanned early morning press release, I noticed a company has released news of its outstanding sales. The BUY button never seemed so compelling, but I knew my emotions were blurring my thinking, so I resisted pressing it. Shortly after, the stock plummeted, so I bought it at the bottom of its dip and then sold it for roughly $30 in profit as it rebounded. Those thirty dollars was life changing. I validated that I had the mental resilience and emotional control needed to become a trader; my dream no longer seemed shattered.

No decision is clear-cut in life, but that’s because personal feelings convolute decisions. By learning how to control my emotions, I enabled myself to make the optional decisions, not just in the stock market, but in life. But, no matter how hard I try, I cannot stifle my emotions any time I watch jack sacrifice his life for Rose

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