Learning isn’t cheap nowadays. Most graduates end up with hefty loans that consume a significant part of their lifetime income. Let’s not talk about the lost opportunity to earn that arises because college hours are tough and demanding.
Scholarships come as a relief in such difficult times. The only problem with this relief is that it is not for everyone – or that’s what most students think. Don’t let this belief hold you back. The truth is that the educational world offers plenty of scholarships for students to benefit from.
But how to get one? After you have researched the offering institutions well and working months before the start of your school year, the only thing you can do is to write a relatable scholarship essay. Essentially, a scholarship essay assures the providers that their money will be spent on the right person with the right purpose in life.
So, your goal for your essay should be the same, make it appealing, yet grounded in reality. Here is how you should write the essay.
Give Yourself Ample Time
The scholarship-hunting process can take months, so it should be started as soon as you decide to further your education. Initially, you will spend time researching all the potential providers. Once you have shortlisted those providers whose eligibility criteria you meet and who offer help in your discipline, geographical location, and institute, you will need time to research and write the essay.
Coming up with the perfect approach to the topic may take you a few days. To ensure its success, it’s only natural that you will seek opinions from your mentors and fellows on it. This validation phase may also take another week or so. In the end, you will need to write the essay and edit and re-edit it. Allow up to three months for the whole process to complete.
Rushed essay writing may not win you your much-needed scholarship. So, take your time.
Understand the Prompt
Every scholarship provider requests the candidates to stick to a prompt to write an essay. In most cases, the prompt requires you to reflect on your life to approach the topic. Whether you intend to write the essay yourself or you plan on hiring professional essay writers, you must ensure that the angle you hold for the writing is consistent with the prompt you get.
Take an angle that interests you most. You may want to appear more appealing to the decision-makers by selecting a topic that appears interesting to the masses, but if it doesn’t resonate with your truth, you may look unauthentic and shallow.
Remember that the best way to maximize the chances of success of this application is to earn the trust of the institute. In turn, trust is directly related to being true to oneself in expression and promise.
Know the Provider
Take some time to research the scholarship provider, their goals, and their desired footprint on society. This research will give you pointers about what they want from the awardee. You may also want to check out the past students who got the scholarship to understand the features these institutions like to see in the receivers of these scholarships.
Create an Outline
Most scholarship essays are short by default. It means that you will not need headings in these essays. But ask any professional essay writer about the perfect planning process for a winning essay and he will talk about the importance of outlining important details.
Before you put your pen to paper, think about what impression you want to convey with your piece then write all the information you will include in it. Many candidates want to believe that it’s the tone and word choice to attract the attention and trust of decision-makers, but this belief is far from the truth.
Instead of worrying about the tone of your essay, you should focus on expressing it in short sentences. If you can understand the flow of these sentences to write the whole essay later, you are on the right path.
Keep It Stupid Simple
Scholarship essays don’t have to be literary masterpieces. Instead, they should appear as the original, personalized accounts of one’s take on education and growth. So, keep it in simple language. Avoid using jargon or say goodbye to wordiness.
The format should flow smoothly from the introduction to the body and conclusion. Again, a scholarship essay is not a poetry contest. Instead, it’s a test to check your originality and your commitment to your purpose.
Make It Appealing
If you aren’t too confident about your writing expertise, pay someone to write your essay. But don’t delegate the whole process to that professional. You wouldn’t want your essay to reflect you as a person who you are not.
If you are hiring a custom essay writing service, ensure that you give enough information about yourself and your goals so that the writer can relate to you and make the essay about you. You may feel tempted to keep the costs low at this point, but professional services will require transparent communication and a solid feedback loop.
Proofread and Edit Your Essay
You cannot underestimate the power of proofreading and editing in grooming the quality of your writing, can you? The time and cost you spend to proofread and edit your essay is always worth it whether you have written your essay yourself or have delegated the pleasure to a professional writer.
If you have written the essay yourself, the importance of hiring an independent editor for your work only multiplies. Better yet, hire a person for developmental editing so that the tone of your essay can be improved beyond your writing skills.
Wrapping Up
Scholarships can significantly reduce the college tuition cost for a person. You can get quite a few opportunities in every university and every department. But the presence of these scholarships for your discipline doesn’t guarantee that you will acquire one. If you want to increase your chances of winning a scholarship, focus on making an impression through your scholarship essay. This blog post talks about some ways that help you write an impeccable scholarship essay.
