Best Tips to Write Scholarship Essay & Letter for any Scholarship

This is a great article about scholarship that will guide you on how to write the  eat scholarship essay or letter to secure any scholarship you want. This article is meant to educate you on everything about scholarship.

Applying for a scholarship is one of the best ways to help cater for your educational needs especially if you’re from a poor background.

But sometimes, there are challenges that come with scholarship application because scholarship bodies always expect the best from their applicants.

As an applicant of any scholarship, you’re are expected to convince the scholarship body about your financial situation and why they should offer you the scholarship.

With this in consideration, applying for a scholarship requires carefulness and excellency and that is why I have made this article to assist you.

This article will guide you on scholarships trends, scholarship statistics, how to write the best scholarship essays, scholarship essay examples, how to write scholarship letters that will attract favour.

Scholarship Trends and Statistics

Scholarship has been one of the most helpful source of financial aid to students. There are over 1.7 million scholarships available for students.

Now, let’s take a look at the scholarship growth from 2015 till date and the expected scholarship growth from 2023 to 2023 as shown in the chart below.
From the chart, the average rate of scholarship across the World has grown from 500,000 in 2015 to over 1.4 million and it’s expected to fall a bit in 2024 and rise to 2 million in 2030.

There are many factors that affect the rate of scholarship in each year and such factors includes the rate of private scholarships, government scholarships, governmental policies, and global outbreaks.

Types of Scholarships and Which One you Should Go for

There are basically two types of scholarships but this two types can further be categorised into 10 kinds. The two types of Scholarships are Government and Non-governmental Scholarships.

1. Government Scholarships
2. Non-governmental Scholarships

1. Government Scholarships

Government scholarships are scholarships that are awarded by Government agencies, government programs, government organizations and so on.

This kind of scholarships are offered based on government policies. Government scholarships are usually activity-based and need-based scholarships.

2. Private Scholarships

Every other scholarships that are not classified into Government scholarships are categorised into Non-governmental scholarships or sometimes called private scholarships.

The are so many private scholarships available and some of such scholarships are NGO scholarships, religious-based scholarships, institutional-based scholarships, identity-based scholarships, etc.

Statistics of the Most Applied-for Scholarships

There are many kinds of scholarships which ranges from merit aid scholarships, need-based scholarships, identity-based scholarships, government scholarships, NGO scholarships, sport/athletic scholarships, activity-based scholarships, military scholarships, private scholarships, religious based scholarships, institutional-based scholarships, etc.

Each of these scholarships have a percentage of applicants that can benefit from it. Below is an image that shows a chart of the statistics of the most-applied for scholarships over time.
From the chart, you can arrive at the fact that the most applied for scholarships are Non Governmental scholarships which includes all private scholarships that are not sponsored by government.

I fact, all other scholarships that are not financed or sponsored by government fall into this category.

How to Identify the you Scholarship that is Suitable for you?

A scholarship can be described or identified by what it offers. As such, a scholarship can be best described or identified by the kind of financial assistance, grant, payment or waive it provides.

Scholarships are usually awarded based on different criteria depending on the type of scholarship and the terms and conditions of the scholarship.

Most scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement while others are awarded based on personal needs, personal skills, race or religion.

The best scholarship that will be suitable for you is any fully funded scholarship that is eligible in your country, available for your course, offer huge amount or reward and handle full sponsorship.

How to Write a Good Letter of Scholarship About Yourself?

When writing a scholarship letter about yourself, it is important that you present yourself in such a way that the person who will review your letter will find it appealing and see you worthy of the scholarship.

To help you achieve this, below are some important factors hints and points to writing a good and appealing scholarship letter about yourself:

1. Introduce yourself:

Start by introducing yourself. Your introduction should include all of your bio information, your origin, nationality and so on.

2. State your Skills:

I love skilful students and so will many scholarship bodies do. Your skills have a lot to tell about your future.

Your skills can help the scholarship body to place your on the best scholarship program that will suit your needs.

If you are applying for skill-based scholarship, then it is important to show a level of proficiency in the skills you state.

3. Start your leadership qualities:

You’re expected to be a leader after graduation and you’re expected to start showing your leadership qualities even before you graduate.

If you have earned any leadership experience or skill or have played a major role in leading others, then clearly state them, it’s an advantage.

4. List your personal achievement:

Before dreaming big, you should be able to achieve small with the small you have around you.

So when writing scholarship letter about yourself, make sure to state some of your personal achievements as a person or in group.

5. Express your Educational interest:

You are not going to school for nothing and as such, it’s important to express your interest for what you are studying or planning to study.

Express your level of enthusiasm and categorically state why you are so much interested in going to school.

6. State the reasons for your Educational Pursuit:

This should include what your potentials are (what you are planning to achieve with your educational qualification), the problems you want to solve, and how your career can be of help to your society.

7. State your financial inabilities:

Of course, you need a scholarship because you can fund your education yourself, well, that’s cool but not good enough to convince even me.

As such, you have to state your financial inabilities, make references and tell stories of your challenges while including evidences where applicable.

8. State why you need financial Assistance for your Education:

Like I stated earlier, many scholarships are need-based meaning that you must be able to categorically state your needs and how the scholarship can help you achieve them.

You can also explain how you are planning to spend the awarded fund or you can state the basic academic equipment that you need to achieve your academic goals.

9. Express what your outcome expectations are:

Having the a strong sense of being chosen and having the boldness that you are expecting a positive outcome is a way of expressing your confidence and bodies like this love people with confidence and boldness.

Meanwhile, you have to be careful of how you express your confidence to avoid making it sound like your are full of entitlement.

10. Give a vote of thanks

At the end of your writing, make sure you give a vote of thanks and appreciate the scholarship body as if you have been given the scholarship already.

Such act of can express how appreciative you’ll be if finally chosen. And know that scholarship bodies love appreciation too just as you do.