Tips for Average C Students in hunting Scholarships
A majority of University students in Cambodia are average performers who have tried so hard to acquire two degrees at the same time and some even work part time to survive in this harsh reality. Due to this fact that your academic results do not outstand from the crowd, you doubt applying for a scholarship. You look around and see that people seem to get scholarship fairly easily. And you start questioning yourself why not me. There are secrets behind what seems easy. People who have realized their goals are those who plan them well ahead before they apply and they follow it. Mr. Menghieng Hun, an average performer, is going to share you his secret of how he got his Erasmus Mundus scholarship to study Master of Educational Science in Finland on his first try.
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| Doing some reading in the Library |
Mr.Menghieng said “I started searching for scholarship since I was in my second year at University. I started attending all scholarship workshops or sharing sessions that I can find. I went through many scholarship websites to see the requirement and to familiar myself with different criteria of scholarships to various countries. ” The most important point that he stressed was “You need to find out what the scholarships are looking for in a person. Most of them want to see their money spent results in helping humanity, building a better world or developing your country or poor institutions in your countries” so your A or A+ on the paper cannot always help you get a scholarship. Sometimes C or C+ is enough.
First of all. Ask yourself!!! What quality do you have that outshines the other candidates?
Extracurricular activity is accepted as a crucial quality for a student to be selected. You can start by volunteering with NGOs or Institutions whose works parallel to your study majors or professions. Showing your selflessness through volunteering convinces the committee of the possibility of your continuation to help the country upon your return from your study period. You will learn not just the practical skills related to your study but you have a chance to meet successful people who have already got their scholarships abroad. You also have a chance to socialize and build a good network and even ask for tips and process on how they got them. Through volunteering and workshops, Mr. Menghieng got a chance to work and talk to former Australian, New Zealand, Korean, Japanese, Fulbright, European scholarship holders and even the scholarship committees. You would never know who you would run into during your extracurricular activity.
Work experience is a big advantage that can overshadow fresh graduates. We all know scholarship is very competitive. Having many extracurricular activities sometimes is not enough because other candidates also have the same thing and they have work experience as a plus. So you have to show them that you have the leadership skills. Convince the committee that you have the initiative ability to start something on your own no matter how small it is. I personally quote my initiation of how I help organize a charity trip to my homeland and how I raised money at my work place to help underprivileged children and I fortunately won a prize for raising the most bikes. With the prize money I got, I organized a party for all staff involved to build team spirits. These are the simple and common quality that you can use. But what you have to remember is to write your own story that you have done. Do not copy other people’s ideas.
If you have the curricular activities, work experience, leadership skills, you have a big chance of winning over the committee. Having been selected is just the first step of getting financial support. Second is to get the admission to get into the university. English proficiency is a must. You have to meet the schools requirement. Many Universities require IELTS, SAT, TOEFL or many other international standard tests score to prove that you are qualified. Some people pass the scholarship but fail to get accepted into the university and end up losing the opportunity.
To sum up, all you have to do are collect all scholarship information as much you can, volunteer or intern where relevant to your current major to prove that you are committed to your field and the help of humanity and your country and work hard on your English or subjects required by universities you are applying to. Do not loss hope because you are average performers. Hieng is the proof that C average performers can win the grant as long as you plan your steps well. Don’t wait until you have graduated your Bachelor degree to volunteer and look for your scholarship, start to prepare from now on.
