Scholarships

Scholarships are financial aid awards designed to help students pay for an undergraduate or graduate degree. Sometimes a scholarship is a one-time award. Other school scholarships are renewable and provide money for students each semester or school year.

Scholarships come from a variety of different sources, including government organisations, charities, foundations, businesses, colleges and universities, the government, and individuals. 

Scholarships aren’t awarded just to students with excellent grades. Each scholarship has its own criteria. Some scholarships are awarded based on need. For others, you must be pursuing a certain field, an exceptional athlete, or fit whatever guidelines the group awarding the money decides upon.

Regardless of whether you excel in academics or sports, you should be able to find several scholarships that work for you. You can continue to apply for scholarships during your collegiate years all the way up to your Ph.D. studies

While every scholarship provider is different and identify individuals with skillsets unique to their trade, there are common attributes that all scholarship providers look for in aspiring scholars. Being able to cultivate and meaningfully portray the following qualities will go a long way in helping you ace your scholarship interview! 

1. Passion

Grades matter less than passion to serve. A straight ‘A’ student without genuine dedication will eventually lose his/her sense of purpose and notice his/her energy levels flagging in the process of serving his/her bond. Scholarship providers are aware of this, and only shortlist individuals who are able to let their desire to contribute shine through during scholarship interviews.

2. Confidence

It is important that you put on a confident front at your scholarship interview, in spite of how anxious you are. Scholarship providers must be able to sense that you are an individual of confidence, for this will assure them of your positive conduct during uncertain times.

3. Composure

During your scholarship interview, maintain your composure even when you find yourself caught in difficult situations. If you are thrown a challenging question, pause to reflect on it before conveying your thoughts in a composed manner. It is better to ask for some time to ponder on a question rather than simply speak your initial thoughts like a bullet train and come across as hasty and disorganised.

4. Enthusiasm

If you are passionate about something, you naturally become enthusiastic about the tasks that await you. Enthusiasm is at the root of pro-activeness and willingness, and every employer loves a cheerful contributor. Be sure to reveal your enthusiasm at the prospect of a scholarship, but be careful not to go overboard – you don’t want to appear pushy and overbearing.

5. Ability to be a Team Player

In any organisation, goals can only be met if a collaborative culture is nurtured among team members and members of other departments. It will thus be good to highlight your participation in CCAs and project work at your scholarship interview, as well as the results you have attained as part of a team.

6. Analytical Skills

Analytical skills encompass qualities such as the ability to identify and solve problems. You’d be surprised – these are not skills restricted to engineers, IT technicians and mathematicians. Policy-planning, teaching, finance etc - they all require strong analytical abilities. For scholars who might be put on the track of policy-planning for example, it is imperative that they understand public concerns, identify the root issue from which they stem, and make sound decisions with information available to them.

7. Foresight

Coupled with analytical skills, good foresight will ensure that work plans can be implemented with minimal disruptions. If you were to be given a scenario to maneuver during your scholarship interview, ensure you exercise good foresight and think at least five steps in advance. Foresight is, after all, an earmark of a good leader, and a quality that scholarship providers seek in their applicants.

At the end of the day, these are qualities that every employer wants to see in their employees – scholar or not. However, as a scholar, more eyes will be on you and the consistency of your performance in the workplace. These are thus qualities that you, as an aspiring scholar, must possess and eventually sustain when you do start work in your sponsoring organisation. Find a job that is a combination of your passion and what you perceive as a purposeful role, and build the rest of these qualities as you go along.

1. What makes you unique? What are your particular interests and motivations?

2. How do your strengths and goals fit in with this particular scholarship? For instance, why you might deserve an athletic scholarship might be different from why you deserve a financial need scholarship. 

3. How will you make use of the scholarship funds? OR How will this scholarship help you? [Scholarship providers want to know their awards will make a difference. Show them how this money would really help advance your goals.]

4. How have you contributed to your community?

5. Tell us about yourself. [Sometimes this must be done in a certain number of words]

6. Tell us about a time you failed and what you learned from it.

7. What are your career goals?

8. Why do you deserve this scholarship?

9. Tell us about a time when you had an idea/belief challenged. [This is very often found in US Uni Common App essay prompts as well]

10. How are you unique?

11. Why do you want to study/pursue _________________? [insert relevant field/s of interest to you]

12. What impact has sports/VIA/CCA had on your life?

Tip 1: Link your passions to the scholarship

One of the first things to consider is to express who you are in your writing. Show scholarship providers why you deserve this scholarship by painting them a picture of who you are and what drives you. But remember to keep it related to the scholarship. For example:

• If you’re applying for a journalism-related scholarship, explain how you became interested in journalism, and what kind of journalism you hope to pursue.

• If you’re applying to a community service scholarship, explain what kind of community service you do and why you’re committed to it.

Tip 2: Show your grit

This is where your scholarship essay might get personal. You might deserve this scholarship because you have persevered through some personal struggles. Those struggles might be more serious–for example, related to family income (growing up poor) or physical obstacles (a disability or injury). Or it might be a more fleeting personal circumstance (like not getting that student organization position you were vying for).

In any case, focus on how you overcame these difficulties–and how the experiences have shaped who you are today. Also remember to focus it back on the scholarship topic at hand.

For example, if you’re applying to an arts scholarship, you might say:

Although I always loved art, growing up poor in a rural area made it difficult to have access to the fine arts museums (far away) or materials (too expensive). So I made do in other ways. I borrowed art books from the library and did virtual tours of the National Museum from my home computer. And since I couldn’t afford a fancy SLDR camera, I learned all the iPhone photography tricks I could, and used open-source software to do post-production on my photos.

This kind of statement shows how much the student loves art and the lengths the’ve gone to, in order to explore the medium, despite obstacles. A scholarship committee might read this and think: “This student is particularly deserving of our scholarship.

Tip 3: Share what you plan to do with the scholarship award

Why you are deserving doesn’t just have to do with your past achievements; it also has to do with your future plans and goals. Scholarship providers want to fund students who will go on to achieve great things or who wish to give back to their communities.

For instance:

"My wish is to help guide marginalised communities towards more opportunities. Once I am a lawyer, I will seek new opportunities to expand the help provided to immigrants. I will create programs that specifically target migrant workers/single mothers to know their own voice and to educated themselves about the law."