Find scholarships for college students and get tips on how to apply.


I’m involved in my school’s Leadership Council as leader of our events committee. We plan and execute school dances and create effective donation letters. I see this as a stepping-stone for my future, as I plan to double major in Women’s Studies and International Relations with a focus on Middle Eastern studies. While I have received a full scholarship to attend Georgetown, my financial aid package does not include money for my airfare, school supplies, or books. The funds from this scholarship would help cover those costs.


But it could have been easily revised to fit this prompt if the author chose to simply include a couple details describing how she’d use the scholarship funds. Like this, for example:

Approach #1: Use the resources above to write a great essay that spells out your big dreams, then end with 1-3 sentences describing specifically how you’ll use the scholarship money. (We’ll call this the “I have big dreams and you can help” approach.)

There are many resources to help you find no-essay scholarships.

By ending with her career we get a sense of where she is headed. Tip: You can list your current dream even if you change your mind later. No application reader is going to reference your essay later and say, “But you said you were going to become a nutritionist” if one day you decide to do something else. It just needs to make sense given the experiences you’ve described.

Side note: Often, scholarships have corporate sponsors, and it doesn’t hurt to understand the mission of the company/organization and ham it up a bit. An example that comes to mind is . Here the organization is a group of life insurance companies, and their prompt specifically tells you to mention their mission. But even if it didn’t, it would probably be wise to give a nod to the importance of insurance in your essay.

Getting super clear on the specific idea or belief that was challenged can help give your essay a structure. One possible structural approach to outline your essay:

Make sure to clarify the specific idea that was challenged … and how it was challenged … This may seem obvious, but I often find that students working on this prompt can get a bit foggy with what the specific idea or belief was.


Find scholarships for college students and get tips on how to apply.

This $4,500 scholarship ($2,250 per semester) is allocated to pay for tuition, fees, room and board, and is renewable, contingent upon successful completion of the student’s first academic year at UAlbany. It cannot exceed the student’s cost of attendance.

Winner of the Scholarships360 $10,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

This $6,000 scholarship ($3,000 per semester) is allocated to pay for tuition, fees, room and board, and is renewable, contingent upon successful completion of the student’s first academic year at UAlbany. It cannot exceed the student’s cost of attendance.

Essay Length/Specific Eligibility: 500 words

This $7,500 scholarship ($3,750 per semester) is allocated to pay for tuition, fees, room and board, and is renewable, contingent upon successful completion of the student’s first academic year at UAlbany. It cannot exceed the student’s cost of attendance.

Essay Length/Specific Eligibility: 500 words

These scholarships are awarded to transfer students with 24 or more transferrable credits and a cumulative GPA between 3.0 and 3.49 from their previous college or university.

This $2,000 non-tuition scholarship ($1,000 per semester) is allocated to pay for fees, room and board expenses, books and other personal expenses, and is renewable, contingent upon successful completion of the student’s first academic year at UAlbany.

(bad) With a scholarship, I can change the world.

These scholarships are awarded to transfer students with 24 or more transferrable credits and a cumulative GPA between 3.5 and 4.0 from their previous college or university.

This $3,000 non-tuition scholarship ($1,500 per semester) is allocated to pay for fees, room and board expenses, books and other personal expenses, and is renewable, contingent upon successful completion of the student’s first academic year at UAlbany.

Essay Length/Specific Eligibility: 500 words

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is pleased to offer the following merit scholarship opportunities to new transfer applicants seeking to enter during the fall 2025 semester. Financial need is not a factor and there is no separate application.

These scholarships are renewable for three additional consecutive academic years, provided the recipient remains continuously enrolled at UAlbany full time (at least 12 degree-applicable credits), while maintaining and .

These awards are determined at the time of acceptance, are for non-tuition expenses, and will be combined with any state or federal aid for which students might qualify. GPA requirements are based on those at the time of acceptance and based on cumulative performance at all colleges and universities attended.