How to write a winning scholarship essay - Gen Tanabe, Kelly Tanabe 2018

How important is the essay to winning a scholarship?
Judges’ roundtable: the scholarship essay

For many scholarship competitions the essay plays a vital role. It allows the selection committee to get to know you beyond a list of courses and achievements. In some competitions, the essay alone is the deciding factor that separates those who receive awards from those who don’t.

Kimberly Hall

United Negro College Fund

“The essay is a very important piece of the application because it is often what the donor, who makes the final decision, will use to see the student’s aspirations. It gives us a sense of who the student is and what they want to do with the money. It gives us a more complete picture of the student as a whole person as opposed to just a name.”

Jacqui Love Marshall

Knight Ridder Minority Scholars Program

“In the end if we had to look at a student who had a little lower score and a little lower GPA but wrote an outstanding essay from the heart and had some experience or testimonials to back up their strengths, we’d be inclined to award the student with the strong essay. What really differentiates one applicant from another is a genuinely written essay.”