How To Write the BOBS Design Scholarship Essay

Before drafting, strip the prompt down to its actual demands. Circle the verbs. If the prompt asks you to describe, you need concrete detail. If it asks you to explain, you need reasoning. If it asks why you are a strong candidate, you need evidence, not adjectives. If it asks about design, animals, service, creativity, or future plans, make sure each of those ideas appears in your planning notes before you write a single paragraph.

Then define the reader takeaway in one sentence: After reading this essay, the committee should believe that I have used design with purpose, learned something real from that work, and will carry that purpose into further study. Your exact sentence may differ, but you need one. It will keep the essay from drifting into a list of interests.

Do not open with a thesis statement about how passionate you are. Open with a moment the reader can see: a sketch on a desk, a design problem that would not resolve, an interaction with an animal, a volunteer setting, a client need, a classroom critique, a failed prototype, a campaign that finally worked. A concrete opening gives you somewhere to think from.