More often than not, the most important aspect of winning a merit scholarship is an essay that impresses the judges. Writing an excellent essay can be a challenge, but a unique and engaging report that captures the judges’ attention can make you a winner. The following guidelines can help improve your odds of winning:
- Follow directions. An astounding number of applicants get eliminated because they failed to follow the directions on the application. If there is a prompt for the essay, read it carefully. You may even want to rewrite the essay question in your own words to ensure that you completely understand it. Failure to follow the directions tells the scholarship judges that an applicant is either not attentive or not willing to meet requirements.
- Make an outline. Always do an outline of your essay first. An outline helps focus your thoughts, which is a key factor in creating a “picture of the whole.”Judges look for clear and concise examples that support your argument. An outline can be extremely helpful in ensuring that your examples relate to the topic at hand.
- Never waver from your topic. One of the most damaging errors in writing an essay is to stray from your topic, especially when the scholarship is highly focused on a specific issue. Many applicants are quickly eliminated because they fail to stay focused in their essays. Don’t make the mistake of trying to show the entire depth of your knowledge in an essay; it’s far more important to do a good job on the narrow topic called for in the essay description.
- Be relevant. A scholarship application is not the place to list everything you have done ever. For instance, it’s not terribly important that a female played on the basketball team and excelled as a member of the chess club unless these things can be made relevant to winning a scholarship for women. For example, it matters if you can explain how playing chess empowered you as a woman in a field typically dominated by men.
- Talk yourself up. Honesty is a noble attribute, but there is such a thing as being honest to fault. For example, if an application asks you to cite your weaknesses, you should answer truthfully; however, never portray your weaknesses as a “bad” thing. For instance, if you’re shy, you don’t want to say that talking to people is extremely difficult, so you would rather communicate through letters. A better approach would be to acknowledge your shyness, then emphasize how you go to great lengths to overcome it. You might even write about how your shyness has benefited you in some way. Every negative has a silver lining. Search for the silver linings and use them to your advantage.
- Get a second opinion. Always get a second opinion. If you write an essay, have a friend, parent, teacher or other trusted person proofread your work and offer feedback. Be sure to provide the essay prompt that guided you so the reader can evaluate how well you’ve stayed on target.