Scholarship applications aren’t easy to win. With so much competition for a limited number of slots, it takes more than academic strength to land one of these educational grants—it takes a combination of luck, skill set, personality, and talent. If you want to increase the odds in your favour, here are five things that can help you. Here’s what you need to do to get things done.
Apply Early
It is a sound piece of advice. Scholarships are competitive. You want to start preparing and putting together your application as soon as you can. The more time you have to prepare, the more likely you are to do your best work, to give it your best effort. With plenty of time to spare, you won’t have to be in a mad scramble to finish everything, which could lead to mistakes. You won’t be distracted. You can concentrate on filling out sections of that application with ease. You also won’t miss any deadlines. Many students who start too late find themselves unable to finish the application form on time. Being the early worm, in this case, will benefit you enormously.
Know Your Options
There’s more than one scholarship for school students. Find out all the options available to you. By knowing your options, you can apply yourself—your focus, dedication, and intelligence—to your application. Make sure you go over the requirements to check if you’re eligible. You wouldn’t want to waste time putting together a submission to a programme that you aren’t qualified for. Once you know which options are a good match for you, send out as many submissions as you can. The more programmes you try for, the better your chances of ending up with a scholarship. Even if your first attempt isn’t successful, try again. Keep going. You’ll improve with practice. With so many scholarships out there for every year you’re in high school, there’s no reason to stop exploring your options and all the more reason to keep going. If you do, and you keep working hard on those applications, you’ll get a grant sooner or later.
Be Yourself
Most times, the final stage of the process is an interview with the scholarship committee. How do you make sure they pick you and instead of all the other kids shortlisted for the grant? You’re going to compete against a lot of students with academic backgrounds and profiles similar to your own. How do you stand out? By being you. Be personable in that interview. When you answer the panel’s questions, find a way to provide answers that you can connect to stories or anecdotes that show them who you are, your beliefs and strengths, your weaknesses and other areas that you want to improve in yourself. Show them what you plan to do, how passionate you are about the subject, and what kind of future they’ll help create if they go with you. Don’t try to be anyone or anything that you’re not. If you seem inauthentic, that could tip the scales in someone else’s favour.
Read the Instructions
It’s easy to rush through the instructions, thinking you already understand. If you’re filling out the forms, you should go over all the sections and instructions in the first place. That way, you can avoid repeating yourself. Some succeeding sections might have answers that, for you, might touch on experience that you’ve already talked about in the first section. By reading everything before you get started, you can plan your approach carefully. Keep in mind that the form is one of the first things they’ll see and hear from you. It needs to make a strong impression. That’s only possible if you’ve got well-thought answers. If your personal statement essay is bland and doesn’t do quite a lot to show them who you are, or make you sound like any other applicant out there, you’re not going to stand out. They’re not going to remember you, and that could hurt your chances of getting the scholarship because when it comes down between forgettable and someone who stands out, they will go with the second option.
Manage Your Time Well
You’re going to have a lot on your plate when you start sending out applications. The amount of work you’ll need to do can seem impossible at times, especially if you’re also trying to do your best at schools in tokyo. That, plus the applications you have going, will mean that you’ll need to be strict with your time. Learn how to manage your time wisely and wisely, that means not just knowing how to prioritize. You need to know how to say no to distractions and even how to recognize distractions in the first place. You can also set up a daily schedule. Block off hours that you want to devote to any tasks related to your application. That will help you turn that into a habit. You’ll also always have time to go over your applications or put together your submissions.
if you make that a permanent part of your daily routine. By making time for your application every day, that also helps you mentally prepare for the process. It might seem tedious and a bit over the top if you’re genuinely running for a scholarship or educational fund. In that case, everything you’re doing must help you prepare for that outcome. By the time of the interview, you’ll be so used to thinking about the grant, that you’ll be less nervous when you face the panel. That’s because you know you’ve already put in the work. You’ve done the best you can. You know that if and when you get that scholarship, you’ll have no problem doing the work and being on top of your grades. And if ever you don’t get the scholarship, the amount of hard work and effort will reap benefits as they helped you build your experience so you can win the next one.
Ask for Help
It’s tempting to go at this alone. But it would be a tremendous help if you had someone to read your application. Ask someone you trust to read through everything. It could be your parents or your mentor or a dear friend. Having another set of eyes who have your best interests at heart can make a difference. They might be able to pinpoint several weaknesses in your application, so you still have a chance to improve them before you submit your application. They can also tell you which parts they liked most, and that can help you get an idea of what your application’s strengths are. Also, practicing with someone can do a lot to reduce your nervousness. Have your friend or parent do a run-through of the interview with you. Let them toss you questions, especially ones you aren’t prepared for. That will help you figure out what your initial responses are and to train yourself to improve them.
Good on trying to win that scholarship. Following these tips already means that you are going in the right direction.
