In general, three fatal mistakes continue to make most students be weeded out of the scholarship pool.

1.GRAMMAR

Many scholarship reviewers will reject the application outright if they see any grammatical errors in it. 

2.WORD COUNT

I know that many of you don't like the number of words that the university has set for the scholarship essay. The number of words that the scholarship essay has set is manageable for the committee to review and ensure students stay on topic. To the scholarship committee members, no matter how excellent the essay is, no one will read it because it means the student is too lazy to read basic instructions if it doesn't match the word count. 

3.WRONG RESPONSE

As a reviewer, it is frustrating to see that the submission was written to apply for another scholarship program. In most cases, the students who put forth their best efforts (and pay attention!) will earn the scholarship rewards.