Applying to University

Preparing Your CV

You may be required to supply a CV with your scholarship application. A scholarship CV should be purpose written. It should demonstrate your suitability for the scholarship by including relevant information. Note that the competition to win scholarships is very tough and you should be better prepared to present your case in such a manner that it makes you stand out among the hordes of other CVs for the same scholarship

You can find out what the selection panel members are looking for by reading through the regulations of the scholarship you are applying for. The scholarship regulations will usually tell you what the selection criteria are. If possible, your CV should demonstrate your qualities in all the areas listed in the regulations.

If you are including a covering letter or personal statement, your CV should complement this. Your CV will provide the facts and background information, your covering letter/ personal statement will let you introduce yourself and emphasize the most relevant aspects of your CV.

Below are listed some steps that will help you compose professional looking CV for scholarship:

• Gather All The Relevant Information: Don’t just start writing scholarship CV, it would be wise to gather all the necessary relevant and important information before starting. Make a list of all your educational qualifications, honors and awards (if any), achievements, extracurricular activities and information that you think might help. Afterwards critically analyze your list and categorize which information is worth featuring on your scholarship CV and which can be left behind.
• University- / Research-related Activities: When writing a CV with an academic focus, it should not look as though you are applying for a job. Do not make the main focus of your CV a list of your current and past employment. You should still list your employment history, but it will normally appear later in the CV. However, if you have undertaken employment or other activities with an academic focus you should make this fact clear. It would also then be a good idea to place the employment section earlier in the CV. Relevant employment or other activities may include working as a tutor, lab technician, or research assistant, being a class or course representative, or attending or presenting at a conference, etc. Including relevant employment history will also allow you to demonstrate transferable skills, such as organizational, communication, computer, and research skills.
• Community / Cultural Involvement / Leadership : Some scholarships will ask you to demonstrate community or cultural involvement or leadership. This should be more than just a list of pastimes. Your CV should describe your current and recent community or cultural involvement or leadership. Your involvement might be campus, community or family based; it may be voluntary or paid, or related to your research in some way. Information about community or cultural involvement should come under a clear heading in your CV and you should use the wording used in the regulations. For instance, the scholarship regulations may be looking for applicants who can demonstrate leadership. You would then include ‘Leadership’ as a heading in your CV and bullet point your leadership experience, followed by a brief description. As always, you should list your most recent involvement first.
• Organizing Scholarship CV in Right Order: After finalizing your list, it's time to organizing it in a manner that will seem objective, professional and leaves good impression of you. You should list your achievements in descending order, meaning you should feature your current achievements foremost and then others.
• Information on CV: Mention all the required information such as your name, phone number, address, email, date of birth, nationality, education qualifications, marks or percentage scored, school activities, languages known, computer skills, extracurricular activities, hobbies (only those that matters) or job experience or internship etc. You could also mention the objective and how attainment of scholarship will help you achieve your goal. If you are thinking about simply stating you are applying for so and so scholarship then better not mention it. Don’t provide personal information such as marital status, religious affiliation, political views, gender or sexual orientation etc.
• Be Truthful, Honest and Specific: Temptation to write a CV, embellished with achievements that will instantly stand out is usually great. However, just to make your CV stand out you should never add information that you can’t back with facts or actions. Be honest and truthful when mentioning your skills; don’t write down skills you don’t process. Also, refrain from blowing your own trumpet. Yes you want the scholarship committee to consider you but over embellishing facts, going on and on about your minor irrelevant achievements and not presenting an objective view of your achievements will not help you win that scholarship.
• Checking for Mistakes: Before sending your scholarship CV to its destinations, make sure you have included all the relevant information and have edited it to make it error free. Small grammatical or spelling mistakes will reflect poorly on you.
• Most importantly, refrain from asking someone else to write it for you, even if you think you are no good at it. Do research on scholarship CV online, get some examples, re-write your copy until you get it right and finally have someone check it for mistakes.
• Also, remember, CV isn’t a place to show your drawing skills, Do not use colored paper or special binding for your CV. All applications, including CVs, are photocopied before being sent to the scholarship selection panel members. Use plain white paper fastened with a paper clip or bulldog clip.

Now you can begin writing your CV after composing a clear idea about your needs of a good scholarship CV but you need to know how to build a good structure for it. Here are some basic rules of thumb when writing a CV for a scholarship application:

• Keep it short – preferably one and usually no more than three A4 pages. It is best to use white paper and an easy-to-read font like Arial or Times New Roman.
• Start off with your name and contact information. Your email address should sound reasonably sensible – while ‘naruto_rulz4eva@geemail.com’ might have been a good idea when you were 11, it won’t look too smart on a scholarship application. It’s simple to register an email address with a free web mail service for this purpose. Make sure you check the account regularly in case the scholarship provider uses it to contact you.
• Start with a concise summary of your educational and career goals – what you hope to study in university and what you want to do for a living.
• Your educational record should be listed first, in reverse chronological order – i.e. starting with your most current school and exam results.
• Then list your school organizations and extra-curricular activities. Note any leadership roles, such as team captain.
• Following this, list your awards, honors and certificates earned in activities pursued in and outside school.
• Note any part-time jobs or work experience, charity work and so on.
• List your skills, especially any foreign languages that you are fluent in.
• Lastly, provide the names and contact information of at least two people not related to you who have agreed to attest to your personal character and academic ability, such as teachers or current or former employers. It’s good to have one academic reference and one character reference.

It can be easy to add pages when you consider what goes into a CV. The CV lists your education, work experience, research background and interests, teaching history, publications, and more. There is a lot of information to work with, but can you include too much information? Is there anything that you should not include on you CV?

Don't Include Personal Information. It was once common for people to include personal information on their CVs. Never include any of the following:

• Social security number
• Marital status
• Height, weight, hair color, or other personal attributes
• Number of children

Allow yourself to be judged only on your professional merits and not on your personal characteristics.

Don't Include Photos. Given the ban on personal information it should go without saying that applicants should not send photographs of themselves. Unless you are an actor, dancer, or other performer,. Scholarship application is an academic endeavor. You're being evaluated on your academic merit. Your appearance doesn't matter. In fact, it is inappropriate to include a photo in your application.

Don't Add Irrelevant Information. Hobbies and interests should not appear on your CV. Include only extracurricular activities that are directly related to your work. Remember that your goal is to portray yourself as serious and an expert in your discipline. Hobbies can suggest that you're not working hard enough or that you are not serious about your career. Leave them out.

Don't Include Too Much Detail. It's an odd paradox: Your CV presents detailed information about your career, but you must take care not to go into too much depth in describing the content of your work. Your CV will be accompanied by a research statement in which you walk readers through your research, explaining its development and your goals., explaining your perspective on teaching. Given these documents, there is no need to go into minute detail describing your research and teaching other than the facts: where, when, what, awards granted, etc.

Don't Include Ancient Information. Do not discuss anything from high school. Period. Unless you discovered a super nova, that is. Your curriculum vita describes your qualifications for a professional academic career. It is unlikely that experiences from university are relevant to this. From university, list only you major, graduation year, scholarships, awards, and honors. Do not list any extracurricular activities from high school or university.

Not List References. Your CV is a statement about YOU. There is no need to include references. Undoubtedly you'll be asked to provide references but your references do not belong on your CV. Don't list that your "references are available upon request." Surely the employer will request references if you're a potential candidate. Wait until you are asked and then remind your references and tell them to expect a call or email.

Not Lie. It should be obvious but many applicants make the mistake of including items that are not entirely true. For example, they might list a poster presentation that they were invited to give, but didn't. Or list a paper as under review that is still being drafted. There are no harmless lies. Don't exaggerate or lie about anything. It will come back to haunt you and ruin your career.

Criminal Record. Although you should never lie, don't give employers a reason to dump your CV in the trash-pile. That means don't spill the beans unless you are asked. If they're interested and you're offered the job you may be asked to consent to a background check. If so, that's when you discuss your record - when you know that they are interested, Discuss it too soon and you may lose an opportunity. Don't Write in Solid Blocks of Text

Remember that employers scan CVs. Make yours easy to read by using bold headings and short descriptions of items. Do not include big blocks of text. No paragraphs.

Don't Include Errors. What's the fastest way to get your CV and application tossed? Spelling mistakes. Bad grammar. Typos. Do you prefer to be known as careless or poorly educated? Neither will help you advance in your career.

Don't Include a Touch of Flair. Fancy paper. Unusual font. Colored font. Scented paper. Although you want your CV to stand out, be sure that it stands out for the right reasons, such as its quality. Do not make your CV look different in color, shape, or format unless you want it passed around as a source of humor.

Writing Your Cover Letter

When you apply for a scholarship, in most cases you will need to supply detailed information such as a completed application, transcripts, and an essay. In addition, though, you may also want to include a brief scholarship cover letter or to introduce yourself and state why you are applying for the scholarship. It may or may not be required, but this little bit of extra effort can set you apart from other applicants and make it more likely that you will be the chosen recipient

Before you write your letter, make a list that answers these important questions. Choose words that are useful to describe yourself in the best possible light.

1. What are my academic strengths? Some phrases to consider:
   • Honor Roll and/or Principal's List
   • Maintaining an "A" average in core subjects
   • Contribute to class discussions in a meaningful way
   • Manage my time effectively
   • Model exemplary academic behavior
   • Work well with others and independently
2. What are my short and long range academic plans?
   • Short range - outline area of study as far as you know it
   • Long range - possible career choices
   E.g. Criminologist - Short-term goal - I am taking a variety of general arts courses with a focus on anthropology, sociology and psychology courses with the long-term goal of obtaining a B.A. with a major in psychology before pursuing a graduate degree in psychology.
3. What are my major accomplishments?
   This can be as "major" as captain of the basketball team or a winner of a writing award or it may be something that may seem insignificant at the time but has been crucial in your development such as overcoming your fear of public speaking.
4. What have I done to make my community a better place? What have I done outside of the classroom that demonstrates qualities that universities might be looking for?
   HINT: Many applicants have very good marks, but have not had much community involvement.
   • This is the time to "spin" what you have done.
   • Helping others with school work is also a plus
   • You can even rely on the "good old" - "I have participated in a wide range of valuable volunteer experiences ....
5. Why do you need this money? Is your family able to pay for your education? Do you work?
   It is common knowledge that post-secondary education is expensive and it is perfectly okay to mention that you need financial assistance.
6. Further Tips:
   • Many scholarship donors will ask a question or give a topic to which they want a response. Try to answer this effectively while highlighting your qualities.
   • Take your time with this letter.
   • It gives the scholarship officers their first look at your writing ability.
   • Be original
   • Type your letter
   • Have someone read your essay for clarity.
   • Edit carefully and use spell-check during and after writing.
   • Use vivid and precise vocabulary
   • Use transition words
   • Create a strong conclusion - this is your last chance to make a good impression!
   • Scholarships have deadlines and these are NOT flexible - don't procrastinate.

Now you have a clear vision about what the cover letter contains and how to present yourself as an excellent candidate for the scholarship, but what about the structural formatting or how to list the most important information in a good form??

The following pieces of advice can help you write an effective and interesting letter that encourages the person reading it to move on to reviewing your CV

• DO try to limit your cover letter to a single page – short, simple and to the point!
• DO use correct English, spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.
• DO address your cover letter to the correct person or award committee by name
• DON’T use contractions (I’d, didn’t, it’s )
• DO be sure to sign your letter (in ink) before you send it.

And remember:

• The purpose of a scholarship application letter is to summarize your academic, social and personal attributes.
• Most scholarship officers spend 1-2 minutes reading your letter, so it is important to grab their interest in the first two sentences.
• Include Future Plans. Because donors often look upon their scholarships as investments in the future, they like to hear of plans beyond the four years of university and evidence that their candidates have the ability and tenacity to make their dreams a reality. Scholarship candidates should write cover letters that offer career goals that include benchmarks they will use along the way to assure their success. For example, a student hoping to become an architect might first speak of appropriately rigorous course work in high school, then to academic clubs he intends to join in college or internships he hopes to attain.

What You Need in Your Recommendation Letters

When a student applies for a scholarship, recommendations from university faculty often factor into the sponsor’s decision of whether or not to award the scholarship. If you want to have a scholarship recommendation letter, there are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

1. The writer must be familiar enough with the student ability and achievement to write an evaluation.
2. You might be asked for your CV or resume
3. Individuals who are asked to write recommendation letters may ask you some questions before writing your recommendation such as:
   • To whom should the letter be directed?
   • Where should the letter be sent?
   • How should it be transmitted?
   • For what position or scholarship are you applying? (description of the position, scholarship …etc).
   • By when will the letter be needed?
   • What specific skills and abilities should be emphasized in the letter?
   • What makes you a good candidate?
4. The writer should write the letter in formal way and be in a suitable position to recommend you; never ask your mom to write it.