Episode 12: Randy Levin discuss how to write a better scholarship essay
Randy Levins is a full time college essay coach and the founder of www.writetocollege.com. He works with students all over the country every year. He helps them discover important stories to share with colleges and how to write stories effectively.
Levin encourages students to tell stories that give scholarship judges a sense of their personality. He said it is important for students to tell the truth and to make a personal connection.
“Students assume you need some dramatic story about when you were five and abducted by aliens. You don’t need that. It needs to be what is true to you. Colleges are not impressed by the drama of it as they are the authenticity,” he said.
Students can find good stories to share about themselves by talking to friends or family members. It is important to brainstorm possible topics for an essay, but it is also important not to overthink the process.
Students will separate themselves from the other applicants, not by being overly dramatic, but by being honest.
For students who do struggle with writing a personal essay need to realize that there is a difference between sharing stories of accomplishment and seeming arrogant, but when a scholarship committee wants to know your achievements or successes, you should not hold back.
“If you don’t show you at your best, the guy next to you will,”said Levins. “It is not bragging, it is just these happen to be the things you accomplished during their high school years.”
Levin’s said students should always avoid cliches in an essay.
“If you write that you are hard working, ambitious or driven, well you and everybody else are, and it really is just a given. If you are applying to a scholarship you better be hard working ambitious and driven. Telling them that is sort of meaningless,” he said.
However, students should write about their qualities rather than just a written resume of extracurricular activities, grade point average and successes.
He also encourages students not to be too creative with these essays, and to avoid sounding like you swallowed a thesaurus.
Finally, students should always keep their writing positive.
“The essay is your first impression, and you want to make a good first impression. There can be zero negativity. You can’t bash your school, your peers or anything,” said Levins.
If you have a negative experience you want to write about or have to write about such as failure, it is important to incorporate it into a positive message.
When writing a experience-focused essay it is important to give yourself time to work through the creative process, to brainstorm, and to edit.
“Students have been conditioned that the night before an essay is due, they just pull an all-nighter and pop out the content at 3 a.m. You can’t do that with these essays, there is just too much at stake here,” Levins said.
Finally, Levins encourages students to get out and look for scholarships even if you don’t think you will be qualified.
For more information on Levins and his resources visit his website www.writetocollege.com
Feature Scholarship
This creative content scholarship requires a 2 minute video, and you don’t have to be a talented filmmaker to participate. I encourage everyone to check it out.
Action Items
1. Make all of your essays positive, and exclude anything negative. If you are discussing a topic negative in nature, make it into an overall positive narrative.
2. Give yourself time to craft the essay. I recommend at the very mimimum 10 days.
3. Finally, start working through some experience-focused scholarship essays. Try and submit three within the next month.
