5 Scholarship Application Mistakes to Avoid

You might think the odd typo here or there is no big deal, but the details really can make a big difference. Those reading your scholarship application are likely to be influenced – whether consciously or not – by mistakes such as spelling or grammatical errors, missing punctuation or words, or even just glitches in the layout such as mismatched font sizes. Find a willing friend, family member or mentor with a good eye for detail, and ask her/him to proofread each scholarship application before you send it off.

Even if you’ve perfectly answered the scholarship essay question, and erased every last error from your text, there’s another challenge to address: the sheer number of applications each committee will receive. To be in with a chance of standing out from the crowd, you need to be sure your application grabs the reader’s attention, and keeps him/her engaged. Kick off with a compelling statement, and ensure your text is lively throughout. Keep paragraphs short and well-connected, and make it memorable through the inclusion of relevant details, quotes or examples.

There are thousands of scholarship schemes around the world, each with a clear set of eligibility criteria. Sifting through the options to find those which are relevant is a mammoth task, and you might be tempted to send off some applications without thoroughly checking the criteria. Unfortunately, if you apply for scholarships you’re not eligible for, you won’t be successful even if you’re written the world’s best ever application essay. Instead, make use of scholarship listings and databases to identify schemes that closely match your own profile.

And a bonus mistake…

A surprising number of students simply don’t apply for scholarships at all, due to a plethora of myths and misconceptions. Often, students think they won’t stand a chance of success, that the process will take too long, or that there isn’t a scheme out there to match their own background and ambitions. But when we speak to QS Scholarship winners, their most common piece of advice is simply to remember that everyone else starts out with the same doubts – and to persist in trying anyway. So: apply, apply, apply!