How To Write A Scholarship Essay That Will Actually Get You A Scholarship!

Are you getting ready to apply to college? If so, you may have experienced a bit of a sticker shock when you saw the price tag. News flash; college is expensive! But instead of crying into your pillowcase or hyperventilating, let’s focus on how to minimize the cost. There are literally thousands of organizations willing to offer scholarships for you to go to college. If you really take the time to do some research and write well-crafted essays, you can take a big chunk out of the cost of your tuition. These tips will help you write a winning scholarship essay.

1. Follow Directions

I know, I know. This one seems obvious. But you would be shocked at how many people submit scholarship essays without following the rules. If the essay requires you to write about your high school accomplishments, don’t waste valuable space talking about the hardships you faced as a child or the financial need you are facing.

2. Get Some Help

There are so many great tools online that can make the writing process easier. If you need some help coming up with ideas, you can contact NinjaEssays. Their writers can also help with editing, proofreading, and formatting. Need help making a works cited page? Visit citation generator. And DO NOT turn in any paper with plagiarism. Use plagiarism checker to find and eliminate plagiarism before you submit your essay.

3. Make It Personal

This doesn’t mean to write your deepest darkest secrets to a potential scholarship committee. It means to make it your own. Do not be generic. Don’t write about how you have grown as a person throughout high school unless you have a real story to tell. Spend some time thinking of what makes you unique. The people reading your essay will read hundreds of others as well. Make sure yours doesn’t blend in with the crowd.

4. Read It Out Loud

Just because it looks good on paper, doesn’t mean it will read well in someone else’s head, especially when that person knows nothing about you and has no context for the essay. To combat this, read the essay aloud. Read it to someone who can offer feedback. If they are left with questions, you can bet the scholarship committee will be too.

5. Search For The Best Fit

Really spend some time thinking about the essay question. Do you have enough to offer on the topic to make the writing worth your time? If an essay asks about your volunteer experience and all you can write about is this one time where you worked a day at a soup kitchen, be realistic and recognize you’re not going to get that scholarship. Instead, move on to one that gives you a fighting chance.

6. Double Check The Eligibility Requirements

There is NO worse feeling than sending hours of valuable time writing a scholarship essay only to realize you aren’t actually eligible. It happens all the time. Carefully read all the requirements before you sit down to write.

7. Watch The Deadline

It doesn’t matter if you are literally Mother Theresa applying for a humanitarian scholarship. If you submit the essay after the deadline, you’re not getting the money. Become obsessed with deadlines. Write them on your calendar. Pay attention. And no matter what you do, make sure you submit your paper a few days before that circled date. There are SO MANY scholarship essays out there. Nobody says it’s going to be easy to weed out the good from the bad, or to spend the time writing and re-writing them. But when you get to avoid taking out massive loans because you put in the effort to find those scholarships, it will all be worth it. What are you waiting for! Get started today!

Robert Morris is an online tutor from NYC, he loves yoga, travelling and writing. Follow Robert on Google+!

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