Top 10 Strategies for Writing Winning Application Essays

If you are in the process of applying to colleges, or if you are currently applying for scholarships, following key strategies for writing application essays is essential. Sometimes just thinking about writing application essays can be anxiety-provoking, but it’s actually much easier than you might think.

You might wonder why colleges and scholarship providers so often require an essay. They do so for a few reasons:

• A student’s application essay provides a window into who that student is. An application form can’t do that – but an essay written by the student can really bring that student to life for the reviewer.
• Colleges and scholarship providers want to ensure that students who are admitted or who are awarded scholarship dollars are “college-ready.” An essay can help them to determine who fits that description.

How can you make sure that you are in the running for getting admitted to your first-choice college, or for being awarded scholarships? Just follow our Top 10 Tips!

1. Adhere to essay guidelines

Always stay within the minimum/maximum word count requirements. I’m often surprised at how often students ask me if they really need to do this – the answer is yes! Essay reviewers love to be able to whittle down the number of essays they need to consider. If yours falls outside of the word count guidelines, your application will immediately end up in the “no” pile.

Make sure you read the essay prompt thoroughly, and break it down into pieces to be sure you understand exactly what is being asked. Stay on-topic throughout your essay, and make sure that your essay actually responds to the topic. All too often, students start on-topic but meander away from it later in their essay. Or worse, they will simply copy/paste an essay they’ve previously written, even if it has nothing to do with the topic! This happens far more often than you might think when students are applying for scholarships. Also, be sure you respond to all parts of the essay prompt. If you only cover one aspect of the prompt, your essay response will be incomplete.

2. Always do your research

When approaching an application essay, it is critical that you take the time to do some research. Now, you may be saying, “but an application essay isn’t a research paper. Why do I have to do research to write it?” So let me explain. Even though most application essays are not a “research paper,” you still need to do your due diligence and research the organization that is offering the scholarship, or that is accepting students for admission. If you are targeting a particular college for admission, it is imperative that you take time to research that college. What are they looking for when making admission decisions? Most universities will have this information on their website. While this is important when deciding which colleges to apply to, it is also important to do this when preparing to write a college application essay or a scholarship essay for a particular university. Having this information will enable you to tailor your essay, enabling you to showcase how you fulfill what they are looking for in a student, and how you’ll fit with their campus culture.

Doing your research is also important when applying for a scholarship offered by a non-profit organization or corporation. For example, let’s say you are applying for a scholarship offered by a company you’ve never heard of. You’ll want to research the company to find out who they are, what they do and what they care about. This will then help you decide how to focus and tailor your essay to ensure that the people who read your essay will feel more connected to your essay, and through your essay, to you.

After you have done your research, think about how you fit in with what the university or company or organization cares about, and jot some notes down about yourself as it relates to the research you’ve conducted, and then refer to those notes as you start working on your essay.

3. Start with an outline

It’s important that you begin your writing process by creating an outline. Start by copying and pasting the essay prompt on the top of your document, so that you can easily refer to it. Next create a rough outline, similar to the way you have created outlines for essays in school. Organize your outline according to the number of paragraphs you anticipate needing. If the maximum allowed word count is pretty short, you might only have 3 paragraphs for your essay – a short intro, a longer body paragraph, and a short conclusion. On the other hand, if  the maximum allowed word count is more flexible or longer, then your essay might have 4 or 5 paragraphs – an intro, 2 to 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Within each section of your outline, jot down ideas for what you would like to include. Be sure to review the essay prompt periodically to ensure that what you are including in your outline responds to the prompt, and to ensure that you are responding to the entire prompt, rather than just a portion of it.

Once your draft outline is complete, review what you have written, and think about what makes you unique – consider your academic abilities, your skills, talents, volunteer service, extracurriculars, etc. What will you be majoring in? How might your major impact what you write about in response to this prompt? Consider your personal background, and challenges you have encountered and overcome. Also refer to the notes you jotted down when conducting your research. Now look at your outline again, and check to see how much of this you’ve incorporated into your outline. If you feel that you have missed some things that you would really like to share, consider the essay prompt again, and see what you can do to incorporate some of this into your outline in a way that strengthens your response to the essay prompt. Avoid trying to “cram” details into your essay if they will pull you off-topic, but if there is a way to incorporate some of these details about yourself into the essay, while still staying on topic, update your outline accordingly. If needed, you can eliminate some things that were previously in your outline too, so long as you do so while keeping the essay prompt in mind.

4. Give yourself plenty of time to write your first draft

Think about what you learned in school about writing essays. Essays require time and planning. Don’t rush, especially with an essay this important. After starting with an outline, you’ll proceed to writing your first draft. Then, you’ll review and edit your essay in a second round, and do it again for a 3rd round, and possibly a 4th or 5th if needed. Bottom line – don’t start your application essay the night before it’s due!

That said, while it is always better to apply early, if you have waited to the last minute, you should still apply, especially if you are applying for a scholarship. You can still use the tips and strategies in this blog post to help increase your chances of earning the scholarship. Because if you don’t apply for a scholarship, you have no chance of earning it. But if you do apply, you do have a chance, even if you are applying at the last minute.

5. Don’t bore your essay readers

When creating your rough draft, start with the essay prompt at the top of your document. If you are using the ScholarshipOwl platform to apply for a scholarship, you can use our text editor to write your essay, and you’ll see that the essay prompt will be accessible through a link in the upper-right corner of the doc. Also, with the ScholarshipOwl platform, you’ll be able to view your word count and character count in the bottom left corner of the text editor, which can be super helpful.

When you begin writing your introductory paragraph, use your outline as the starting point. Remember that strong essays have a hook that pulls the reader in, helping to engage their interest. With that in mind, spend some time on this first paragraph, and do your best to set a “hook” to capture the reader’s attention, while also ensuring that your first paragraph appropriately conveys the key points that will be discussed in your essay. PRO TIP: Sometimes students struggle to write the introduction. If that happens to you, just write a very basic intro to get started, and then work on the body of your essay. Once you have completed the first draft, come back to the introduction and re-write it, because by then, you’ll be warmed-up and will find it is much easier to write the intro.

Once you have your first draft introductory paragraph written, move on to the body of your essay, using your outline to get you started. Your job is to engage the reader throughout your essay. The way to do this is to “show, not tell.” This is really important. It is easy to say, “I love playing soccer. I have been a competitive soccer player for the past 7 years, and I have made significant contributions to my high school’s varsity team.” But it takes more thought and care to truly show the reader how and why soccer is important to you. The best way to do this is by sharing details and examples that demonstrate your commitment to the sport. A UC admissions consultant with a blog called “Ask Ms. Sun” said it this way in one of her blog posts: “Follow the format of “this is what I want you to know. This is an example showing you what I want you to know. This is what I just told you.” Here is an example:

Soccer is truly integral to my life. In addition to training with my team every day, I also devote my personal time to training, running drills and practicing shots on goal in my backyard before I get ready for school. I also do weight and cardio training at a fitness center to build strength and endurance. My younger sister is an avid soccer player as well, and I take time to work with her and her team every week as well. I am a top-ranked player in my state, and would love to be a Duke University Blue Devil, as I know I would be part of an elite team that would truly challenge me.

See the difference? And this is important for both college application essays and scholarship essays.

7. Write a compelling conclusion

Once you have completed your body paragraph(s), move on to the conclusion. Make sure you summarize the points made in the preceding paragraphs, while also ending with a compelling final sentence. Within this paragraph, you’ll want to refer back to the essay prompt in what you write, ensuring that the reader connects the dots appropriately.

Review your essay in entirety, tweaking the phrasing where needed. Adjust your introductory paragraph a bit, now that you have written the entire essay. You’ll have greater perspective, and will probably have a better arc throughout if you modify that first paragraph.

Finally, check your word count. If your essay is significantly under the maximum word count, go back into your essay and build it up further with more detail. If you are significantly over the word count, check to see what you can easily trim down. If you are over the word count, but not significantly over, then congratulations! You are where you should be for a first draft!

8. Leave enough time for subsequent drafts

If at all possible, wait at least one full day before starting your second draft of the essay. You’ll have a fresh perspective, enabling you to have greater insight into what edits are needed. When reviewing your essay:

• Make sure your essay appropriately answers the entire prompt.
• Assuming that you have exceeded the maximum word count somewhat, look for ways to trim your essay down to the appropriate length.
• Review and fix any grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors.
• Make sure that you haven’t used any specific words repetitively, and also make sure that your content in general isn’t repetitive. This is a common problem, especially for students who have written essays that are under the word count. If you find that you have overused certain words or ideas, make the necessary revisions to resolve.
• Check to ensure that you come across as emotionally connected to what you are writing about. This is important – if you seem emotionally disconnected from your subject, your essay will feel flat to the reader.
• Refer to your outline and notes about what you wanted to cover in your essay. Have you hit all the points you planned? Did you leave anything on the table? And if so, do you want to make changes to incorporate anything that’s missing? Or do you feel that the missing points can be omitted? Address any of these issues and finish up your edits so that you have a completed second draft ready.

9. Obtain feedback

It is important that you obtain feedback from at least two people – you can ask a parent or guardian, a teacher, a guidance counselor, college admissions advisor, your friend’s parent, etc.

Once you have received feedback, consider it, and incorporate the recommended edits that you agree with, keeping in mind the word count, as well as your own view of the recommendations that have been made. Remember – this is your essay, and it should reflect your own thoughts, ideas and experiences. Refrain from allowing someone else to re-write your essay for you. Admission reps and scholarship application readers are pretty savvy, and will likely be able to tell if someone else has written much of your essay.

10. Take the time to review and finalize your essay

After all the effort you’ve spent on this essay, it can be tempting to rush to upload it and finally click the “submit” button on your application. But it is so important that you take the time to review your essay again, and ask your reviewer(s) to do the same.

If possible, it’s best to print your essay out and read it that way rather than reading it digitally – you would be surprised how easy it is to miss things if you’ve never printed your essay. It’s also a great idea to read it out loud. You’ll find that it feels different when you read it out loud, and you may discover some things you want to change.

Be sure your essay is error-free. No spelling errors, and no punctuation errors. If you have been using track changes in Microsoft Word, or if you have been editing within Google docs, you may find that while making the changes, you’ve accidentally omitted a comma or a period. Be sure to review your essay thoroughly and fix any issues you find.

You should also re-read the instructions for the essay, and confirm that your document is formatted per the requirements, and confirm that you are within the required word count.

Most college application essay topics and scholarship application topics led themselves to a personal narrative, meaning that you may not have had to search for information online to write it. But there are some essay topics that may require that type of research. If this is the case for your essay, you’ll need to cite your sources.

Once you are certain your essay is the way you want it, you should be good-to-go! You can then follow the upload instructions on the application or copy and paste it into the essay window. Next, go through the entire application to be sure that you have completed everything and attached any required documents. Once you know that the application is complete and accurate, and your essay or essays are attached, click the “submit” button on your application!

Tips to Remember

• Write about something that truly matters to you, and that also responds to the essay prompt. If you are writing about computer science, what is it about that field that fascinates you? What do you hope to accomplish once you have your degree?
• Be emotionally connected to your subject, and show that in your writing. I have read many draft application essays, and I find that this is one of the most common issues I come across – that the writer seems disconnected / indifferent in their emotional tone. Show your passion and determination – choose words / phrases that let that come through in your writing.
• If there are things you want to communicate about yourself, find ways to put a bit of that into your essay, without going off on an obvious tangent. This can be challenging if the essay prompt isn’t really related to what you want to discuss. You might not be able to convey everything you would like to, but you may be able to integrate one or two points that support the topic.
• If possible, incorporate a brief anecdote that demonstrates your emotional connection to the subject, and that also can showcase your ability to problem-solve a situation.
• Review your use of figurative language, syntax, vocabulary etc. Your writing should be collegiate in style and tone, while still being personal, reflecting who you are, and what you care about.
• Always proofread carefully, and get feedback on your essay.