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Common Scholarship Essay Questions and How to Reply with Best Answers

by Omale Philip
Common Scholarship Essay Questions and How to Best Answers Them
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Many scholarships today give you questions and need your responses. The Best Answers provided to the Scholarship Essay Questions will determine how successful you will be in the selection. Your answers to the Common Scholarship Essay Questions may either be right or wrong based on the way you approach the scholarship essay during your application or conducted interview.

Today we will explore some Common Scholarship Essay Questions which are definitely the most common prompts and how to reply them. You are expected to address a scholarship essay if the topics are given randomly and you are expected to provide detailed information, be sincere in details given to the screening committee.

Other scholarships do come with an interview that requires answers to scholarship questions either oral, written responses.

What are the Common Scholarship Essay Questions to Expect?

These common scholarship questions and how well you provide best answers to the questions or prompts will give you the experience that will be useful down the path when you applying for other scholarship and grant positions.

Here are the Common Scholarship Essay Questions and How to Reply with Best Answers

  • Tell us a Challenge you Encountered and How you overcame?
  • Why are you applying for this scholarship essay?
  • Who is your Favorite Movie Character and Why?
  • Who is your Role Model and Why the Person?
  • Why should you be given a Scholarship?
  • What are your Greatest Personal Achievements?
  • What are your Long and Short Term Goals?
  • What Should be Expected of you?
  • Why do you deserve this scholarship?
  • Why do you Choose and Want to Study in this College/University?
  • What are your Greatest Strenght and weaknesses?
  • In Ten Years from Now Where do you see yourself?
  • What Stereotypes are people from your country known to have?
  • If you are to Change an Event or Day in your Country Which and Why?

Having listed the expected common questions to look out for in a scholarship interview, Let’s see the common scholarship interview questions in full details and the answers to give them.

How to Reply Answers to Common Scholarship Essay Questions

Do you know how to reply the best answer to those common scholarship interview questions? many are open questions that seem rather simple. Do know that your answers could ultimately make a huge success or fail.

The questions may appear simple in many cases until you begin to think about how to compose and answer them.

See our common scholarship interview questions and tips to best answers them. Explore the scholarship questions that are popularly below.asked and answers to provide.

In Ten Years from Now, Where do you see yourself?

Look and sound easy, hey watch it. First This question can be phrased in many other ways such as: How will your current achievement and goals contribute to your overall goals? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? what are your long and short term goals? The reason for the question is to know if you do plan, have plans now and for your future.

Sample Answer: In ten years i do love to achieve the ultimately goals of being a professional experienced engineer after taking a degree program majoring in engineering and taking professional qualification program such as Safety, and membership in Engineering Institute.

The answers to the given question should reveal you do in fact have a plan and there are both short term and long term which correspond to your degree program.

Wait a minute do you know what are short term and long term goals. Thinking, let’s help it. Your short term goals are within 6 months in duration to be achieved or less than. While long term goals are 1 year above in duration. Do take note that short term goals do or will lead to long term goals.

Create an answer that’s sincere and shows realistic goals that are achievable through continued study program.

You may need to have and provide the answers for these questions before the real scholarship essay questions.

Ask yourself the question beginning from your short term then long term career goals. A clue here, what do you visualize yourself to have or be in ten years from now. what are the needed things that will shapen you and your main future objectives?

Brainstorm on the answers possibly with draft answers to them, you may start with the current challenges that lead to your inspirations and plans to pursue your selected course or plan taking a degree study program. Capture the mind of the scholarship selection committee by telling an interesting plan with a story that lead to the current and future goals such that it sinks to the readers’ mind.

You should best outline both goals in your essay and provide further details of how and when you intend to achieve them.

Why Should You be Offered The Scholarship?

Look simple to give them answers, No this one is also tough. No long story should be told to the scholarship selection committee about your financial challenges and troubled life. Every student who applied do have a financial need that why they applied.

Get this because if you simply tell them it’s because of financial struggle or family low income, it’s not really convincing. You can start by answering them how the scholarship fund will help you achieve your study plans including short and long term goals.

Sample Answer: I currently do seek to become a mechanical Engineer and be an expertrate in this engineering field, ever since there has been notable limitation to human efforts and power in achieving desired responsibilities. These are among human challenges today and in years to come.

I do love to help manufacture machines, equipments that will help carry out most task to less the human activities while making the work easy. But Engineering course is expensive to pursue in most universities, and this scholarship will enable me achieve my dream goal of becoming an engineer and helping fellow human carry out their responsibilities faster and with less efforts.

Having said all that and you reading it, here is where your statement of purpose must be told and explained to the scholarship interview committee. Those goals must align with the scholarship purpose, kindly ensure they are never against the organization or scholarship aim.

Applicants who provide goals that align with the sponsors aim are best considered and termed successful candidates. You can standout by convincing the scholarship review committee that your target ambition serves scholarship established aims.

Note and write down the questions and scholarship purpose while you answer the essay question. This will help you stay focused and avoid unnecessary writeup.

Pointing out your achievements, skills and contributions made inorder to persuade the interview committee that you are a good fit for the scholarship. Never exaggerate, be sincere and promote yourself while staying calm. Making known your top skills, leadership, extra activities, achievements and contributions to your community will definitely help to achieve your next scholarship.

Students who don’t show any the above find it difficult to be a strong competitors with other candidates and stand the chance of losing the scholarships and grants even if score well in other scholarship selection criteria and process. In most cases, candidates who show and demonstrate leadership, participate in extra-activities are given preference placed top candidates in the list of candidates.

Telling them projects you took or co-participated with proofs and evidence through publishment on jornals, videos, link to projects and how you contributed to the project do greatly help to be successful.

When you talk about finance or mention financial need, what matters most is how you overcame them, ability to provide solution to the challenge encountered. Scholarship committee mostly want to take note the approach the solution you applied to solve the financial need, which student demonstrate financial needs the most and have little to no resources.

Be emotionally balanced and avoid sobbing when highlighting your family low income and limitations.

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Why Did You Choose to Study in This College/University?

Scholarship sponsors either from government or private organization and school -colleges and universities do ask candidates to give reasons by telling why the university was particularly selected.

Knowing well a college search must have been conducted and a careful prioritization was carried out to organize selected schools. As it’s highly unlikely you just selected a university at random. You should be able to best answer them with ease.

Sample Answer: My Uncle and two of my sisters all went to the University of Edinburgh, So since my teenage and study in high school the University tops my list of university choice, because it’s engineering course program is one of the best. I took science classes and participated in science projects that all paved the path and cemented my dream of wanting to be an engineer.

The campus environment after my campus tour and interview with some of the student make it a good learning environment from home. I also do keep consistent and frequent contact with the university and some staffs including the admission officer by following their Twitter and LinkedIn social accounts.

Who has been your role model or source of motivation?

Don’t pick role model or motivator by google search. if you don’t have a role model don’t rush picking someone by google search. If you have someone who motivates you and no close connection and contact. Try get as much information about the person as possible, make sure you consider this one beforehand.

Never attempt to start with impacts and values he has, do an introduction.

Sample Answer: My camp commander Engr Dickson is the model i looked up to. He is very friendly and granduated from University of South California (UCL) with a master in robotics engineering. He as a friend and role model is amazingly is self motivated and knows how to keep the camp motivated and work as team. When my team was given a challenge and i the team head find it complex.

Engr Dickson came to me and made me understand how to pay attention to details, solve complex challenges, coordinate my team to solve the challenge. He was just more than the responsibilities, more of leadership, good organisation. He even volunteer in community services! Mr Dicksons positively make a huge remarkable impact in my childhood, and i hope to use these skills to impact more on the people around me after my degree study.

This is one perfect answer to respond to them on this common scholarship essay question – a short way to come up with your source of motivation or the model you look up to.

The role model is someone you know or emulate in life – this person must have achieved and accomplished some remarkable achievement too. Sometimes you may slightly know the figure or heard about his history from some sought of compiled information. “Einstien”

There must be something peculiar about the person that has inspired you, made you look, speak or act similar to them.

Having a role model and knowing about them saves you the time and stress for an emergency response. If you don’t have a model do get one and possibly someone who achieved what you dream, and do plan to accomplish.

You may give quote of you role model that passess a clear message, hold true information e.g (Not everything that count are counted, and not everything that are counted really counts) this were from Einstein my role model then begin to introduce your role model and give further illustration and description about the role model or person that motivates you.

Furthermore, you may tell of a particular action carried out by the person and the result of the action. This way the audience/scholarship interview committee will agree that this person is truly a role model for you and tell how lucky and privileged to have such a role model.

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What is your greatest personal achievement that makes you proud?

The reason for this is to know if you have made any achievement in life since your birth and if planning or embarking on more achievements. This boosts your chances when combined with the scores obtained from answers given to them from the previous common scholarship essay questions.

You might have made some achievement, but can’t tell which is the greatest because you haven’t count or critically thought on them.

The achievement you should include are the one that you consider as the greatest. which took you plans and drastic measures to achieve.

Hints: You can identify an achievement how you suddenly moved from having poor grades in some major sciences subjects to continuously scoring A or B. or tell about a project you built by yourself or co-participated to make it a success, if available provide url links or photos, videos of the project achieved.

Note: Be sincere while answering them the common scholarship essay questions. don’t exaggerate an achievement or tell of a personal achievement that is false and claiming to be proud of them.

Secondly you have an opportunity of stating an achievement which is your short term goal and link it to your long term goal.

Sample Answer: I am naturally an excellence academic performing student. However, I am not bold in answering or solving problems. I do also love sciences and innovations. These two parts of me as a student came to play when my science teacher first nomitatted me to represent in a science contest.

I really do love it but on the other hand was scared, what if i failed and dissappointed them by missing answers or not given the correct answer. It was a difficult decision which i nearly backed out. I took to practice science questions and answers to help work on my boldness and time management. I worked with hard book and online sciences practice, at first missing and not able to attempt some practice, timed up because i couldn’t manage provided time.

But sooner i grew more confidence attempting practices test, online with my computer and from hard books,then moved over to managing time when solving science pracitice test. I then see my self been able to slove more practices test, the more i continued, the easier i remember some test that are re-occurring and most frequently asked.

Securing the third place in the state science contest was a great achievement for me which am proud to represent my school. If you do tell me at the beginning i will make the stage level at the state science contest and also score those grades in science subjects in high school i wouldn’t believe. But i did and am very proud and honoured to be given the opportunity to accomplish such achievement in my life.

This example of achievement tells of your current achieved goal and how it will help to reach your long term goal/plans. Any achievement be it education, financial, personal is very important provided it solves a problem in your life or going to help solve any future related problem to your long term plans.

What are your biggest strength, weaknesses or both?

This is an open common scholarship essay questions that need carefully organizes best answer. Don’t be quick to answer them here if it’s oral physical contact or video scholarship interview. You need to be honest while given them response and make known how you have turn or turning it to a major strength.

Since you applied for the scholarship and seek to be offered scholarship, you still want to create best answer that will make you stand out and successful above other candidates. Turn it to an opportunity to be receive and offer. Ok here is a Hint.

Sample Answer: Currently i have limited knowledge on any weakness.  However, I do know i have now ability to keep trying until it’s become a success. I must say tenacity, attention to detail, boldness, determination, good team spirit and several others are top strengths. But with my degree,  i will be able to something and do it right.

So I’m willing to put in more effort and time to see how this particular opportunity go through to enable me start my degree program in college.

My science teacher will say ” if there is anyone to fix or solve it, give Philip a try he will come up with a solution in short time”

Yes you just read how i best answer them the common scholarship essay question given. And for any known weakness you have see tell them how you working on it or best reply how you have developed and turned your weakness into a major strength that is enabling you to achieve your current goals and planned future goals.

Note: Everyone do have a strenth and weakness, there is not problem having a weakness but there is a major problem when your weakness is taken over your strength or you not planning to work on it. Telling the scholarship screenig committee about a weakness directly can disqualify you and possible prevent you from what the grant or scholarship funding organization is supporting student to achieve.

Rather allow the interview committee to recognize and be conscious of your weakness that it has been solved by describing an event that demonstrate a possessed weakness. Don’t forget to let them know how you tackled the weakness in another event, this shows you have developed and turn the weakness to a strength.
Never go by to say “my major know weakness is procrastination or currently i am having this weakness of keeping to time”.

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What activities are you currently taking or involved in?

Here is an opportunity to let the scholarship committee know how you are engaged with activities besides reading and studying. Do attempt to answer them how you do more with your time other than reading and study. Sure you will want to take this path which is totally a good decision but not the best.

So, this is a great opportunity to showcase through demonstration and how you are very open to working with other people. Show that you have a good teamwork spirit at any responsibilities and more tell how you are currently involved in extra activities or group project or community volunteering services. Let’s see a hint to guide you.

Sample Answer: I volunteered in a community service in my neighborhood to keep the environment clean every Saturday. more precise one day a week for 3 hours. I have been path of the part of the community service since my 9th grade and i do love it so much because it helps me to keep the environment clean and give me the knowledge of good personal hygiene and proper environmental clean up and most importantly good housekeeping. These, in turn, make me organized as a student who dreams of becoming an engineer.

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Conclusion

Having said all these, I believe you found these common scholarship essay question and how to best answer them helpful to help you pursue your next scholarship. Don’t stop applying for scholarship opportunities because you can’t tell the scholarship application that will help build your knowledge and make you acquainted with the common scholarship essay questions and how best to answer them because the more you apply the more you meet some scholarship essay question and the better you develop your answers to be able to receive the grant and funding for your study.

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