Scholarship Essay Format
The organization and format of your scholarship essay play a key role in how it’s received. Following the scholarship provider’s formatting rules—like font size, style, and spacing—isn’t just about formality; it shows your precision and commitment to their standards. By paying attention to these details, you highlight your dedication and underscore how much you value the opportunity, helping your application shine.
You may be wondering what format you should follow if the scholarship you are applying for has not provided any formatting details. When this happens, you can use this general format below to make your essay look professional.
- For the font style, stick to a standard font, like Times New Roman, Arial or Tahoma. Avoid fancy fonts, comic sans, or using more than one font in your essay.
- Just like with school assignments, a 12pt font is the perfect size for a standard document if no specifications were given.
- Double-space or 1.5-space. More space between your lines makes your essay easier to read.
Remember, the format should not stand out. That takes attention away from your story which is the most important part of your scholarship essay.
How to structure a scholarship essay
You have probably learned that strong essays have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. The scholarship essay is no exception to that rule. Winning scholarship essays are not necessarily identical in structure, but there is a standard structure you can use to get started.
- Introduction: You have 1-2 paragraphs to work with for your introduction. The goal of this section is to entice the readers and clearly present your thesis statement, which should answer the essay prompt.
- Body: Your writing style and the essay minimum/maximum word count will have a strong influence on the length of this section, but 1-3 paragraphs should be your target for the body. In this section, you are going to present evidence and supporting details that reinforce your thesis statement. Specifically, you will want to expound upon your thesis by presenting a different piece of evidence in each paragraph.
- Conclusion: Here, you want to bring your scholarship essay to an end and connect the theme back to your thesis statement. Keep reading for scholarship essay samples.
How to start a scholarship essay
The beginning of the scholarship essay is your first opportunity to grab the attention of your reader. With a hefty hook, you can build great momentum for your body paragraphs. You want to hook the reader with the first sentence. Short stories like anecdotes can be used to accomplish just that.
An intriguing personal story showcases your personality and helps the reader start to connect why you would be a good candidate for the scholarship. You may have to go through several ideas before landing on a hook that works well, but it is definitely worth the effort.
If you have trouble coming up with the hook, remember that you do not have to write it first. You can always work on the body of your essay and come back to the introduction later. No one will know when you wrote the introduction.
Sample scholarship essays
The sample scholarship essays below were submitted for a scholarship essay contest we hosted and chosen as winners. Read through their essays, and we will give you some pointers to help craft a strong scholarship essay of your own.
Sample scholarship essay #1
By Grace G.
ESSAY PROMPT: Submit an essay of 350-500 words to tell us ONE thing you are, or were, most concerned about regarding preparing for college, and what you've done, or are doing, to overcome the challenge.
Preparing for college is extremely stressful; figuring out your exact major, which college you will attend, taking the SAT, finding the means to pay for it. To me, the most stressful of them all is the financial side of it. College isn't cheap, I don't want to be paying off student loans for the rest of my life. So I've had to get a little creative to find the money.
First of all, I have been selling baked goods and beauty products that I make, to friends and family. The biggest hit is my pickles. I grow the cucumbers, dill, and garlic for them in my garden, so they're very crisp. I've also made quite a bit from crocheted baby beanies. I don't just sell the beanies though, I also give them to families whose babies are in the NICU. It seems to mean a lot, and makes me feel good for helping them.
I'm also a traveling babysitter for my family. Basically, they pay for me to fly to them sometimes, then pay me to watch my little cousins while they're at work conferences. It's more fun than work to me. Me and my cousins get to go do fun stuff while my aunt and uncle are gone, like: go to the park, museums, aquariums, and more. It's a lot of fun.
I want a part-time job, but I have been so busy lately. My brother has something wrong neurologically, and we're driving back and forth from here, Georgia, to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. My mom has to drive him back and forth to college, because he can't drive right now. I still only have my learner’s license, because it costs too much on the insurance with all of the medical stuff. So I can't get a job yet since I can't drive myself, and my mom is too busy to drive me.
What would really help me financially is this scholarship. It would truly be amazing. I'm saving for school, but I don't have enough to pay for it, I don't want to get loans. I plan on going to East Georgia State College starting in August 2019, and I'll be majoring in Biology. I hope to work in a medical laboratory, where I can work with microscopes and help diagnose diseases.
Why this sample scholarship essay worked:
- It answers the prompt. In the first paragraph, Grace calls out the typical stressors of preparing for college, and after naming a few of them, Grace identifies that the “financial side of it” is what her essay will be about. Also, a big part of the essay was not just writing about a challenge in preparing for college, but articulating what you have done, or are doing, to overcome that particular challenge. In the very last sentence of the first paragraph, Grace lets us know that creativity was her way of tackling her financial anxiety.
- Her creativity shines. Grace goes into detail on the creativity mentioned earlier. She earns money for college by selling baked goods, beauty products, and homegrown pickles! On top of that, she makes crocheted baby beanies that she sells or gives to families with newborns. She has found creative ways to get money for college and give back.
- She explains why. One of the best parts about Grace’s story is the details. You get to see why Grace has had to be so creative in preparing to pay for college. A part-time job is not an option for her, for there are many obstacles: her brother’s condition, her mother’s schedule, and her lack of a license. This makes Grace’s creativity make sense. By the end of the essay, we not only know that the scholarship would help Grace pay for college, but we know that she has taken extensive steps to overcome the challenge of paying for it.
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Sample scholarship essay #2
By Alison G.
ESSAY PROMPT: Submit an essay of 350-500 words to tell us ONE thing you are, or were, most concerned about regarding preparing for college, and what you've done, or are doing, to overcome the challenge.
After living independently since I was fifteen, my biggest worry was not only paying for college, but learning how. After filing for financial aid by myself, my senior year, I never imagined the stress, confusion, and paperwork that was to come.
I discovered I was randomly selected to send in extra requirements, including W2 forms, IRS statements, appeal essays, notarized paperwork, and more. I not only had no idea what these forms were, but I had to learn how to send a fax, to contact the IRS, to request tax reports etc. Although I believe these are important tasks to learn, it was exhausting to figure it out on my own. Every other day I would get an email from financial aid, asking for a new form or telling me the last one I sent in was incorrect. Every little thing went wrong, the IRS was unavailable for a whole month, one person wanted everything over email, the next wanted everything faxed, my W2 form was missing; I quickly felt frustrated and defeated. I had put so much focus into getting my financial aid completed that my grades struggled and I quickly fell behind.
I visited my school counselor almost daily, asking how to get certain forms or what they meant. I asked friends and peers if they had to do the same requirements or if they knew how and every time I got the same answer, I don't know, my parents did it. I reached out to financial aid but often didn't get much help or was spoken to poorly. I persisted by asking questions and for support. I tried my best to get every form filled out correctly, and sent in as soon as I could. After six months of emailing about six different people, it wasn't until August, a month before college started, I finally got my award package.
I still have a million questions about how to pay for college, and I am now planning to meet with someone from my school to help after I move in. I am aware my experience with financial aid was more stressful than most students, and I hope to bring awareness to independent students like me.
Why this sample scholarship essay worked:
- Now that is a hook! Not only is this hook attention-grabbing, but it fits well with the challenge that Alison must overcome: learning how to pay for college. Living independently means that she will have to figure out this process with limited help and prove that she is indeed independent.
- Keeps her essay focused. In the first paragraph, Alison mentions that learning how to pay for college was her challenge. Throughout the rest of the essay, she gives examples of the different steps she had to take to learn how to pay for college. She had to learn how to get paperwork notarized, how to contact the IRS for tax reports, how to send a fax, etc. Outside of her school counselor, there was not much help, and she had to learn a lot on her own. Contacting financial aid did not help, and neither did her friends, for they had their parents to do for them what Alison had to learn how to do for herself.
- Every paragraph counts. This essay contest had a word count range from 350-500 words, and in four paragraphs with 367 words, Alison does a great job of answering the prompt, staying on topic, and closing out the essay. She answers the prompt in the first paragraph of the essay. She then spends the next two body paragraphs detailing the struggles that she faced in her attempt to learn how to pay for college. At the end of the essay, we find out that she has a lot more to learn, and she is going to continue learn while helping others do the same. It is short and sweet.
Tips for writing scholarship essays
Your strategy for writing a scholarship essay is going to vary from essay to essay depending on the prompt. However, there are some things that you should always do no matter the scholarship essay you have to write.
- Answer the prompt. You do not want to spend so much of your time writing an essay and accidentally forgetting to answer the prompt. Many writers have interesting stories to tell, but that story must make sense and help you answer the prompt. Additionally, doing this in the first paragraph helps the reader know what you plan to address throughout the rest of the essay.
- Do not plagiarize. Not only is plagiarism just a bad idea in general, it will disqualify your scholarship essay. It is quite easy for scholarship essay reviewers to check your essay for plagiarism, and many will. Besides, telling someone else’s story is not the way to go. No one can tell your story like you can, and in your scholarship essay, you want your story to shine through as you answer the prompt.
- Proofread your essay. Do not let typos or weird wording in sentences ruin the flow of your scholarship essay. Reading your essay aloud can help you discover errors, as well as running your essay by a trusted teacher, parent, or friend.
