Making Scholarship Writing Easier

Work Smarter Not Harder! 

I want to talk to you about making your scholarship writing easier. As students you are very busy and your time for writing scholarships is limited. So I want to share with you a couple tips that will make your scholarship writing more efficient. 

First start by keeping good records of the activities you will want to showcase when writing your scholarships. Use our handy tracking sheet to help you keep track.

 Keep good records of your:

• Volunteering including the organization(s) name, your supervisor(s) name, and your duties and hours.

• Work Experience including your employer(s) name, your supervisor(s) name, your duties, and the dates and hours you have worked.

• Extracurricular activities such as sports, and school and community organizations you participated in. Be sure to list the amount of time participated, your duties and accomplishments. 

Also gather ahead of time important documents that will be asked for on scholarship applications.

• Get Letters of Recommendation Early usually you will want to ask for these from your teachers; however, for certain scholarships you may want letters of recommendation from coaches, volunteer supervisors or employment supervisors. Be sure to provide your teacher with any relevant information such as your GPA, extracurricular activities, accomplishments and career goals, use this form to make it easier. Ask for multiple signed copies of each letter. Check out this video for more information on reference letters.

• Get Copies of your high school or college transcript and ask for multiple official copies.

Place copies of your letters of recommendations and transcript in file folders. Also scan and keep electronic copies on your computer. 

Some scholarships will allow you to send your letters of recommendation and transcript directly to them. Other scholarships will require your letters of recommendation be sent to them directly from the teacher or coach etc. and the transcript be sent directly from the school. 

Scholarship Tracking Form

When you are ready to start writing your first scholarship, create a separate word document and name it Scholarship Paragraph Bank.

On this document type the following headings in bold: Academic Achievement, Extracurricular Activies, Educational Goals, Work Experience, Volunteering, Community Involvement, Leadership, Essays and Need. Leave some space between each heading.

Each time you write a scholarship, copy and paste the paragraphs under the appropriate heading in your scholarship paragraph bank document. Your 1st scholarship will take the most amount of time because you will be writing every paragraph from scratch, but each subsequent scholarship will take less time. In many cases when writing subsequent scholarships, you will be able to simply copy your paragraphs from your scholarship paragraph bank document and paste the paragraphs directly into the scholarship for which you are applying. With certain scholarships you may have to make adjustments to your paragraphs, but your work time will be greatly reduced because you’re not writing each paragraph from scratch. 

Reach Higher Montana is passionate about helping Montana high school students achieve personal success in education, career, and life. Our advisors can help guide you along your individual path. To find the closest advisor to you, click here. Stay informed, sign up for our newsletter and like our Facebook and Instagram page so you don’t miss out.