Prepare Reusable Essays for Scholarship Applications
Use existing essays and writing others to submit powerful scholarship applications
Some scholarship committees will require that you submit essays written on topics different than “why you deserve our scholarship.” While some topics remain for several years, others change every 3 years or so. The high school guidance counselor responsible for scholarships may help you discern typical topics being required at this time. You may also discover current topics on Reddit.com or an article on CollegeEssay.com. This article discusses where to find essays and an outline for writing them. You will need 5-6 reusable essays for a strong scholarship campaign
Modify Existing or Assigned Essays
Essays that you have already written remain the first source of good scholarship essays. Non-traditional students will find this tougher since their essays may be several years or even decades old. Current high school and university students, however, will possess essays they wrote in the past few years. Review essays you wrote for school assignments (assuming you saved them. If not, check your parents to see if they saved them). Look for essays written on the topics listed in the article sources listed above. Review them for structure, grammar, or obsolete problems. Edit them to perfect them. Modify parts of the opening and closing paragraphs to customize them. Then, add or delete quotes, statistics, or stories to bring the essay to each scholarship’s focus. Save the modified scholarship as a PDF with the name of the scholarship and your name in the file name.
Additionally, current students will receive class assignments to write essays based on the teachers’ schedule. I suggest that you ask the teacher the following question. “I’m going to apply for 30-70 scholarships that will require essays. Here is a list of typical essay topics committees require. Would you please select one of these topics as a substitute for the assigned topic and let me write the essay on that topic. I will work to change it according to your suggested edits and perfect it.” Some teachers will not accept the offer, but many will. You won’t know until you ask.
Write New Essays as Needed
While you may reuse school essays, you will also probably need to write some new essays for scholarship applications. Once written, add them to your file of reusable essays, to submit appropriately to other scholarship applications. Once again, modify the opening and closing paragraphs to customize the essay to a specific scholarship. Add or delete quotes, statistics, or stories to adapt to required length for each committee.
May I suggest the following structure for your essay to allow easy adaptation:
Opening paragraph introducing the subject and outlining 3 aspect you will cover in the essay
Body of the essays consisting of one paragraph for each of the 3 aspects outlined in the opening paragraph. Use quotes, statistics, or stories to emphasize the principles or details for that paragraph. This will allow you to adapt the length of the essay easily by adding or deleting a quote, statistic, or story as needed
Closing paragraph summarizes the three aspects you outlined in the paragraph. It also draws a conclusion or recommendation for future action
This structure allows easy modifications and customization. I remind you that you will need 5-6 reusable essays for a strong scholarship campaign.
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