Many scholarship applications ask you to write a personal statement or essay. Sometimes you'll get a specific question to answer (about housing, for example, or clean workspaces), but what if you don't get any guidance beyond "write a personal statement" with a maximum word count?

If you're not sure what to write and how to structure your personal essay for scholarship applications, this guide can help.

Remember that your goal is to tell your story and share your uniqueness. We always encourage you to write your personal statement draft yourself (and avoid asking Chat to do it for you)!

5 aspects to include in your personal statement

A great personal essay usually contains the following aspects. When in doubt, start here. You'll want to aim for around 500 words total, as a rule of thumb.

1. Who are you?

This is your basic "elevator pitch," or your personal biography "in a nutshell."

Tell your reader who you are, where you're from, and what your interests are. This section can be pretty basic and descriptive. You might include some details about your hobbies or extra-curriculars, family and heritage, and plans for your education.

2. What are your goals?

This is important! Tell your reader about what you're hoping to achieve in the short and long terms.

Consider why you're applying for this scholarship, as well as your school and program more broadly. Why did you choose them, and what do you hope to accomplish on the way, and after graduation?

3. How would receiving a scholarship impact you?

Tell your reader what impacts receiving a scholarship would have on you.

Sure, getting an award usually means graduating with less debt and having more time to dedicate to your studies and extra-curriculars. Do your best to tie your scholarship win to your goals. Show your reader why your winning a scholarship will help you achieve your dreams!

4. How would receiving a scholarship impact your community?

This is the secret sauce for your personal essay! You want to connect your scholarship win to the community around you.

This can be tricky! Think about the ways in which your success ripples out to the people in your orbit. Maybe you'll inspire your younger siblings to follow your example in post-secondary, or perhaps your scholarship win would light up the faces of the folks in the retirement home that you volunteer at.

The basic idea is you want to draw a connection between yourself receiving scholarship funding, and your community thriving as a result.

5. Don't forget the "personal" in "personal statement"!

Remember that scholarship admins want to learn about you, so be sure to include your unique character in your work. In most cases, your writing shouldn't sound like an academic treatise! Use correct spelling and grammar, of course, but don't be afraid to let your personality come through in your writing.

Writing and rewriting

You may be tempted to have Chat write your essay. We caution you against that! Scholarship admins want to hear from YOU, not a predictive text model.

So, even if you feel like you're not the best writer, take a shot at writing your essay yourself. You can always feed your work back into Chat later, and give it a prompt to provide feedback on your scholarship essay. Give the AI some context on the award, and it can help you sharpen your work with thoughtful edits — rather than writing it all for you!

Better yet, politely ask a teacher or two to read your essay. They can provide useful feedback to help you strengthen your work. You don't have to take every suggestion you receive, but a second (or third!) pair of eyes can be helpful. After all, writing is rewriting.

Short example personal essay

Below, find a short example essay to illustrate these ideas. This is only a couple hundred words, so your essay will likely be longer, but give it a look to see how it addresses the four aspects of a personal statement, while including some of the writer's character throughout. Here's the example:

My name is Mia, and I'm a recent Ontario high school graduate. I've always been curious about how technology works and how it can be protected. My interest in cybersecurity began when ABCO, a local community organization, experienced a phishing attack. I helped its volunteers strengthen their passwords and recognize suspicious messages, and I discovered how technical knowledge can make people feel safer and more confident online.

This fall, I'll start my computer science degree with a cybersecurity focus. In the short term, I hope to develop practical skills in network security, ethical hacking, and digital forensics while participating in student cybersecurity competitions. My long-term goal is to become a security analyst who helps public institutions and small organizations defend sensitive information.

Receiving this scholarship would reduce the financial pressure of tuition, textbooks, and commuting. It would allow me to spend fewer hours working part-time and more time studying, completing expensive certifications, and gaining more hands-on experience. It would also reassure me that others believe in the future I am working to build.

I want that future to benefit more than just me. As my skills grow, I plan to organize free digital-safety workshops for seniors, newcomers, and local nonprofit groups. This scholarship would support my education while helping me make cybersecurity knowledge more accessible within my community.

Finding scholarships

Now that your personal statement is ready, it's time to start applying! You can browse scholarships on ScholarshipsCanada to find the right award for you, or check out 7 keywords to include when applying for even more advice on your application.

If you don't have your reference letters sorted out, be sure to read how to get a great scholarship reference!

Good luck and have fun on your scholarship applications.