Since scholarships usually have a lot of competition and entries, it’s extremely important to put together a great essay that will make you stand out. All scholarships, including the Hallie Gay Walden Bagley scholarship, are going to require you to write an essay of some sort. The subject matter might change, but you want to submit a great scholarship regardless. With that said, here are 5 tips to help you create a great scholarship essay!
Pick the Perfect Topic
To start, you want to make sure you pick the perfect topic. You should choose something that follows the guidelines of the essay, while also being something you’re passionate about. You want to make sure you know quite a bit about the topic, so you can write a great essay. The last thing you want is to pick a topic that you don’t know about just because it sounds good. The scholarship board will know whether or not you actually know what you’re talking about, so make sure you really do.
Follow Instructions
One of the easiest ways to be disqualified is by not following instructions. Before you even pick a topic and begin writing, read over the instructions a few times so you know exactly what you need to do. The scholarship board members will go through these instructions and make sure your essay matches exactly. If need be, write down the important parts of the instructions, so you can go back and double-check that everything has been met.
Readjust/Reuse
Another tip is to readjust or reuse your essays. Keep in mind, just because a scholarship, like the Hallie Gay Walden Bagley scholarship, has different instructions than another scholarship, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use the same structure for your essays. The best thing to do is save your essay and tweak it based on the instructions you need to follow. Not only will this save you a little bit of work, but you can also save some time. Some scholarships will have the same instructions, so you can use the same essay with little to no changes.
Don’t Ramble
It’s extremely important to ensure that you’re sticking with the topic and only writing things that’s going to help support it. While you should use real emotions and stories, you don’t want to start talking about something and go completely off topic. Not only does this look bad, but there’s a good chance you’ll get disqualified. To ensure you’re staying on topic, go over your essay to ensure everything is good.
Strong Finish
Finally, add a strong finish to your essay. There’s nothing worse than having a great essay that has a disappointing ending. You want to reiterate the things you said in your essay, while also bringing everything to a nice close. It might take a little practice, but you should keep trying until the ending is perfect!
These are only a handful of useful tips you can use to write a great scholarship essay, but they should give you a pretty good start. Remember, give yourself plenty of time to write and go over your essays. You might have to do this a few times, but you should do what you need to so you can have the best essay possible
