Scholarships for Literature or Writing Students
There are literally thousands of scholarship awards for students of literature, writing, English and any of the literary arts such as poetry and drama. It takes a bit of leg work and research to do a thorough scholarship search, but the payoff can be quite substantial.
The key to winning scholarships for literary work and achievement is to actually produce high quality writings. Most of the scholarships available ask the student to submit a piece of their work for assessment and judgment. The scholarship committees do not provide written reviews of the work submitted, they simply select the number of works in the number of awards available.
It is important to understand when doing a scholarship search for literary students that there are usually very limited numbers of scholarships awarded per organization. For example the “Adam Gordon Poetry Award for First Year Students” is available to freshman at Hamilton College in New York. That should be easy for an applicant to win, right? Not so, the college is a liberal arts school with an average class size of over four hundred students. The student body usually graduates at the top ten percent of their high school class. Even if ten percent of the class sent in poems for consideration, any student would be competing against almost fifty others for a single prize.
This demonstrates how important a good quality application and submission is to winning a literary scholarship. How does a student put together a strong application? First, as stated, is the writing. Next, a student should build an honest picture of their efforts and interests. Since some scholarships will be for incoming students, and others for students all ready enrolled, it is a good idea to keep a book or packet that documents any published writings by the student. This will offer evidence that a literary or writing student is really working to succeed. It will also demonstrate to a scholarship committee that the funds will go to good use.
A scholarship search for a literary or writing student should begin in their own college or university. Many academic departments have endowments or annual competitions that make some nice awards available to students. Check with the guidance office or department head for specific information.
Students can also visit their high school or college guidance officers for a list of suggestions. Most offices will also contain printed listings and computer search engines to help literary or writing students with their scholarship search.
Some students can also look for a summer scholarship to a workshop or retreat. While many of these may not provide college credit, they build a student’s skills and experiences, and look excellent on a resume or application for grants, prizes and scholarships at a later date.