Five Scholarship Essay Tips

For most scholarships, a student's essay is the most important part of the application. Yet, it's usually the part of the scholarship process that students struggle with the most. Here are five scholarship essay tips to wow the judges:

Tip 1: Answer the Prompt(s)

Scholarships usually provide an essay prompt that applicants must respond to. Ensure that the essay answers the question being asked. Some essay prompts ask more than one question. When that's the case, make sure the essay responds to all parts of the prompt.

Tip 2: Grab the Judge's Attention

Scholarship judges read dozens, hundreds, or sometimes even thousands of essays. Your essay needs to grab the judge's attention from the start. Here are just a few ways that you can grab the judge's attention:

• Drop the reader into the middle of the action (similar to how many Marvel movies start)

• Write something funny

• Use a controversial quote

• Mention a surprising statistic

Tip 3: Check Spelling and Grammar

One of the fastest ways to turn off a scholarship judge is to submit an essay with spelling and grammar errors. Use the built-in tools in programs like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Apple Pages to ensure the essay is error-free.

Tip 4: Don't Use AI to Write the Essay

While using a spelling and grammar check is important, don't let AI rewrite or write your essay from scratch. The more authentic your essay, the more likely it will impress the scholarship judges.

Tip 5: Be Unique

The point of the scholarship essay is to make yourself stand out from the other applicants. To do this, you can't write the same things that most of the other applicants will write. For example, "This scholarship will help me pay for college." Literally every other student could write the exact same thing (and many will). Don't do this!

These five scholarship tips will help you stand out from most other scholarship applicants. If you would like more personalized help with scholarship essays, check out our Scholarship Navigator Programs. Each of these programs provides reviews of scholarship essays.

To have scholarship success, you are going to need to write compelling essays. However, there are some legitimate no-essay scholarships that do really award prizes. Click here to learn about our favorite no-essay scholarships.

Apply for the no-essay Smarter College Scholarship