Tips for a strong scholarship application
By Vincent Elliott · Published · Updated
What will actually set your application apart from everyone else, beyond just meeting the requirements.
Answer the actual question specifically
Scholarship committees read hundreds of essays that could be swapped between applicants without anyone noticing. The biggest thing that makes an application memorable is specificity. Writing about a particular moment, a detail, or a reason you deserve the scholarship will take you farther than a general statement about working hard or caring about your community. If a sentence in your essay could apply to anyone else, it's worth rewriting.
Start with the smaller, less competitive awards
A $500 or $1,000 local scholarship often gets a significantly smaller number of applicants than a well-known national award does, which means your odds are better even though the payoff may be smaller. Applying to several smaller scholarships alongside a few larger ones is usually a solid strategy, rather than concentrating all your effort on the most famous ones.
Reuse your writing, but don't just copy and paste
It's completely normal to adapt one strong essay across multiple applications. That's how most students manage applying to all of their scholarships. Before you submit, make sure the version actually answers that specific sponsor's prompt. A well-written essay that answers the wrong question reads as exactly that to a review committee.
Give recommenders time and context
If a scholarship asks for a letter of recommendation, ask well before the deadline, and give whoever is writing it something concrete to work with. Tell them what the scholarship is for and anything you would like them to mention. A recommender with more context writes a more specific, more useful letter.
Track deadlines somewhere you'll actually see them
Missing a deadline by even a day usually disqualifies you entirely, regardless of how strong your application was. If you're signed in, we'll email you two weeks out from the deadlines of scholarships you've matched with, but it's still worth keeping your own list for anything you're actively working on.