How To Write an Outstanding Scholarship Essay

UPDATE: This article was originally posted on November 29, 2021. It has been updated with new information and tips below. 

There is no single winning formula for writing a successful scholarship essay, especially considering how much the questions vary. In addition, you may be writing to a third-party funding organization or the school itself. In short, there are a lot of considerations to make as you approach scholarship essays.

What is important, however, is that you make your response relevant, unique, and well-strategized. This includes figuring out what content will be most effective for proving that you need and will take advantage of the scholarship, communicating that clearly and passionately, and organizing your essay correctly.

In this post, we guide you through all of these aspects of brainstorming and writing a scholarship essay. Using our tips, we guarantee that your essay will stand out and show the scholarship committee that you will use their opportunity wisely!

 

Read (and re-read!) the question

It may seem obvious, but you have to be sure you’re answering the question that’s being asked — we have seen many clients write their first drafts and have to completely rewrite their responses because they failed to provide an appropriate response. So, before you even start brainstorming, it’s essential that you completely understand what the question is asking.

Identify any values or themes that the question is centering on and try to understand what the purpose of the question is. In other words, you will want to ask yourself: how will the scholarship committee be using this question to determine who does and doesn’t receive the award, and how can I use this question to my advantage? 

 

Know your audience

Once you’ve figured out the direction your response should go in, the next step is knowing who you’ll be writing it to. Knowing your audience is essential for any piece of writing, especially when you are competing against hundreds of others for a selective scholarship.

For this step, we suggest doing some of your own research into the values and activities of the funding organization or department. For example, if you are applying for a scholarship that is funded by an organization that values diversity and inclusion, you may want to see what kinds of initiatives they promote so you know what kind of diversity-related topics and approaches they believe in. In turn, this will help you choose what ideas and examples you write about.

 

Brainstorm relevant strengths, values, and skills you can highlight

Now, it’s time to think more concretely about how to link these bigger ideas to you. What strengths, values, and skills of yours connect to what the scholarship committee is looking for? And how can these demonstrate that you will take full advantage of the scholarship?

For this step, we recommend that you write down as many of these aspects as you can think of and why this would be valuable for your scholarship application. (If you have already established your personal brand, this is a helpful starting place.) Then, think about how you can relate these main ideas to what the question is asking. 

For example, let’s imagine the question is asking why gaining new perspectives is important for leadership. While you might have great analytical skills, you might also want to list out how you have learned from and utilized your collaboration strengths to learn from others. Focusing on an aspect of your leadership that relates to new perspectives will not only show that you have a versatile set of skills and strengths but also that you are a good fit for the scholarship and its community.

 

Write down examples in STAR format

Now that you have an idea of what strengths, values, and skills you may be able to use for your essay, the next step is to think of corresponding examples from your personal and professional life. Using examples in your scholarship essay is key to painting a clear picture of how your ideas have played out in your own context and showing the readers why your strengths and skills are important and valuable in relation to the scholarship. 

So, for each idea that you are using to respond to the question, we suggest at least one example of how you used that strength, skills, or value. Each of these should be in STAR format. This means that you should be detailing the context and/or challenges, your responsibilities, your actions, and the results of your efforts. We also suggest adding in the impact of your intervention in a way that relates to the question. 

Continuing from the example above, if you are telling a story about how you used collaboration to drive innovative results at your company, you will want to explain the challenge your team or company was facing, what your plan or tasks were to utilize collaboration to overcome the challenge, how you carried these tasks out — ideally, detailing the unique ways that you leveraged a wide variety of perspectives — and what the results of your actions were, including what you learned about the value of combining different perspectives on the problem at hand. 

Remember, the examples you choose to highlight should demonstrate clearly how you put the values and ideas that the scholarship committee is looking for into action.

 

Use keywords from the prompt

As you start to hone down on which ideas and examples are the best fit for your essay, it’s also a good idea to consider what keywords from the question you can integrate into your essay. 

Using keywords from the question (as well as the funding organization or school’s values) will demonstrate your commitment to the committee’s values. It will also ensure that you are clearly connecting your ideas and stories to the question. 

 

Write an engaging introduction

We always suggest writing essay bodies first so your main ideas are clear and fleshed out. Once you have done this, it’s time to think about how to add the final touches: an introduction and conclusion that engage the readers and make you stand out.

There are many possibilities for writing an introduction with a great hook. For example, you may want to invoke imagery of a moment that impacted you and motivated you to be invested in the values that you will be writing about. One of our clients’ introduction sentences for a diversity-oriented scholarship, for instance, was this: 

My mother, a successful businesswoman from Brazil, and my father, a medical worker from India, have always shown me the valuable things that can be achieved from cross-cultural collaboration and diverse perspectives. Together, they have come up with amazing fusion meals, enhanced their careers by learning from each other’s different views of success, and raised me to be an open-minded and team-oriented person and professional. Thanks to my parents, I have a unique and deep passion for diversity and inclusion, which has evolved into my career, allowing me to produce outstanding and innovative results through collaboration.

This introduction demonstrates a clear and well-founded motivation for diversity and inclusion through a specific picture of the applicant’s background. It’s an excellent window into why diversity means so much to this person and, what’s more, leaves the scholarship committee wanting to know more about how they have integrated this lesson into action by the end of the introduction paragraph.

 

Write a conclusion that synthesizes your ideas

Once you’ve written your introduction, you can move on to your conclusion. Rather than being a simple, repetitive summary of everything you’ve written in the response, this should be a synthesis that looks forward to the future. In other words, you will want to reiterate the main ideas you’ve presented but then show how you will bring your demonstrated skills/strengths/values forward using the scholarship.

Thus, to write a captivating conclusion, you will want to emphasize why you are a good fit for the scholarship and be sure to say how it will help you achieve your objectives related to the question.  For example, if you are writing about the importance of constant learning, it would be a great idea to write about what the scholarship will provide you that will allow you to keep making growth-oriented achievements during your master’s program and, if applicable, what opportunities or aspects of the scholarship’s community you could leverage to nurture your/others’ development.

 

Get expert help to write a winning scholarship essay

Considering all the work you’ve put into the MBA application process, writing even more essays for scholarships may feel like an overwhelming task. This is especially true considering that each essay will likely require its own set of expectations and examples.

Luckily, Ellin Lolis Consulting’s team has the experience and storytelling power to help you turn your ideas into successful essays that earn you the scholarships you’re applying for. From brainstorming the right stories that will impress the scholarship committee to polishing your essay’s structure and grammar (and even helping you negotiate scholarship offers!), we are here to ensure perfection.

For example, Fernando used our services and was admitted to Michigan Ross’s Erb dual degree program on a full scholarship. Here’s what he had to say:

“Ellin’s amazing contributions to my application led me to be admitted to my top program on a full scholarship. I can comfortably say that the return on my investment was bigger and faster beyond my wildest dreams!

If you are looking for an MBA consultant that is capable of understanding your story comprehensively rather than giving quick glances to your essays, go with Ellin.”

To learn more about our essay editing options and how we can help you write an outstanding scholarship essay, click here.