college scholarship essay format

college scholarship essay format

College Scholarship Essay Writing Tips

1. Introduction

Sometimes, the first thing that comes to mind when we are struck with writer’s block is to go on the internet and search for “college scholarship essay writing tips.” There are numerous websites to help with this, but it’s essential to know what you’re looking for. If the website is going to give advice, it should also let you know if what you are writing actually defines you. Don’t let an essay written in 1 hour prevent you from getting an academic scholarship to let you further your studies into a career in life. Some of us are gifted with the ability to write, while others struggle. I am sure that one day we’ve never written an essay and we’ve won a game or a match and felt that the day was one of the best days of our lives. Now, tell yourself, of writing a short paper, of all your accomplishments in this game or match wouldn’t give justice to this day. So for those who struggle with writing…FAIR NOT!… get yourself a voice recorder! Speak your thoughts and write them down or it is also acceptable for you to get a little help from a professional. After all, your essay is a representation of you and who is more professional about yourself than you? Now with that said, let’s get to the writing part.

2. Understanding the Scholarship Essay Format

What is the size of the margin? What is the best font to use? What is the title of the scholarship essay? These questions are definitely vital before you write your scholarship essay. These little details give you an extra attention compared to other essays. Double spaced essay is a must and make sure the essay clean and easy to read. As for the font to use, stick to the basic and formal but try to avoid using the “Times New Roman”. This is because that particular font has been used so many times until it’s a bit boring. Go for a unique font, but nothing too extravagant. The best suggestion is for you to try using “Arial” or “Tahoma”. Next is the essay’s title. This is also important aside from the essay itself. Try to make a title as captivating as interesting. This gives the first impression towards the reader. So, make sure it’s a good impression. Other than that, the scholarship essay’s main body should state a majority of your qualifications. You want the reader to know that you are not an average human being. The essay must be able to grab the reader’s attention as it is planned to convey the message to them. And the last part is the conclusive sentence. This is to simply re-state your point at the beginning of the essay and at the same time, wrapping up the essay in a tidy package. With this method, it definitely could not guarantee a scholarship qualification but it does give you a chance compared to other essays with a standard qualification.

3. Crafting a Compelling Personal Statement

Your personal statement is your one chance to speak directly to the admissions committee and demonstrate who you are beyond grades and test scores. Focus on a talent or commitment that was significant to your personal development. Look into your past and uncover an event that shaped your life or a realization that you had. Tell the story of this personal discovery and how it has influenced your education and focus on how the experience motivated you to pursue a new direction in life. Reveal an understanding about yourself. This is your chance to show that you’re more than just a GPA. Your personal statement is also the yardstick used by the admissions committee to measure whether you have a clear goal in mind and whether you are truly committed to your goal. You must make your specific career path clear and explain how and why this decision came to be. Remember that readers will be asking these questions when they read your personal statement. Drawing on the information you have already covered in the previous stages of writing your essay, make it clear that you have a focused mind and a clear goal. With the aforementioned in mind, think small and specific. Writing persuasively to these questions should help you construct a personal statement that makes the case that you are the ideal candidate. By the time you are finished, the reader should feel positive about your worthiness to receive the scholarship.

4. Highlighting Academic Achievements and Extracurricular Activities

An often mentioned way to achieve this is to tie your goals into your “life’s purpose.” In order to do this effectively, avoiding concerns that you are waxing overly metaphysical, is to make some connection between your career goals and what you will do for others, even if it’s just making a contribution to your field in a specific way. Hopefully, with careful development, the life’s purpose you create can be a very profound, moving, or undeniably convincing statement about what it is you plan to commit your life to. This is what people are looking for when they are getting to know you, and this is what they want you to write about. This will require introspection — and that can be a thing that is often difficult to do in the modern world of sound bites and 30-second info pieces. Such introspection is also an excellent preparation for the interview, should you make it that far. Essentially, the introspection that takes place when writing a successful scholarship essay should serve as preparation for interviews.

Spend too much time on the front end of the essay tying it into the organization’s purpose and activities. At some point in your essay, make sure to become aware of the donors, administrators, and those who are working behind the scenes. These are the folks that want to know the student they are sponsoring and their goals of becoming someone in their profession. What they want is who you are, how you got there, and who you want to become. You must answer these questions throughout the essay. Then start to tie all your research and experiential knowledge into what you want to become.

Introduce the essay with a perspective in a creative manner. Demonstrate your information of the agency’s task and activities, and express how your personal ambitions are related. For example, whenever you’re walking past a campus building where there has been a disaster save, say to yourself “There’s the disaster save building. This is my favorite part of campus because it is the place where everything I study in my EMT courses is going to result in being put into practice.” This allows the judges to understand everything you were involved with at the campus and allows them to see that you are really passionate about this organization. Think about areas where you have led changes through your leadership in activities: you could have achieved certain results or helped things move in a positive direction. These are the things you need to emphasize.

Academic achievements, including class rank, and all those extracurricular activities taken all through the years, are needed. Set certain qualifications for the essay, in other words, suppose about how the judges would love to benefit from getting to know you, yet at some point of reading a good-term funding. Then, weeks earlier than the deadline, commit yourself to putting some stable time into writing a pleasant essay. At this point, you have to simply need to write.

5. Conclusion and Final Tips

I am relating this information because I have recently written a college scholarship essay in which I believe I was highly successful. I do not mean to brag, but I threw all my eggs into one basket for an AMS (American Mathematical Society) scholarship available specifically to math students who are members of NCTM, and the result was that I received that scholarship as well as two scholarships from my school of higher education. My goals in writing this essay are to pass on some of my knowledge on how to make yourself an excellent candidate for any scholarship and provide a list of writing tips based on my own experience as a student.

College scholarship essay writing is a critical step for any student taking a path to higher education. The simple fact of the matter is that there is money available to a wealth of students who qualify for scholarships, but the students must do everything in their power to make themselves stand out from the very large crowd of other scholarship hopefuls. This is particularly true when you are applying to company/organization based scholarships. Many of these companies have a large number of scholarships available, and in order to qualify for the scholarships, you must be a child of a science, math or English teacher (parents must be members of NCTM, NCTE or NSTA) or student pursuing a degree in education. Thus, you must make yourself stand out from a small selection of individuals who share a common credential.