What happens when you don’t get the scholarship that you wanted?‎

Okay . . . so you didn’t get the scholarship you wanted. Are you still upset and angry that you weren’t ‎selected? Well, not succeeding in everything we do happens to the best of us. We can’t all succeed in ‎every competition, all the time. Even the famous American tennis stars, the Williams sisters, have ‎been defeated many times in their careers. There are many factors that contribute to not succeeding, ‎and most, if not all, rest with the applicant. There’s just one thing to do if you really want that ‎scholarship. Go back and take a good look at the program’s eligibility requirements and mission. If ‎you weren’t qualified this time, carefully review all program documents to see if you can meet the ‎program’s requirements in the future, and if you can meet those requirements, then improve yourself ‎and try again. ‎

Here’s what you might be able to improve for the future:‎

•Test scores – your standardized test scores don’t meet the minimum requirements. ‎

Recommendations: You might be able to increase your test scores. Take EL classes; take ‎refresher classes “even if you’ve already learned the material before”; and then enroll in a ‎TOEFL prep class and/or other standardized test prep class. If there aren’t any classes ‎available when you’re free, check out online programs. Work hard and improve your scores.‎

•Letters of Recommendation: Your recommendations don’t say much about you. ‎

Recommendations: Get more work experience and build solid networks and relationships. If ‎your recommendations weren’t particularly strong, get more experience and work harder to ‎impress your supervisors and make their letters stronger. When you request a letter, give the ‎recommender information about your experience, ideas, and qualifications that you feel are ‎important to stress in the letter of recommendation. Nowadays a lot of recommendations can ‎be uploaded online confidentially so you’ll not know what the recommender writes. So, ‎make sure that you have solid work experience to back up what you hope is written and that ‎you have a good relationship with the writer.‎

•Resume and Curriculum Vitae: Your resume has lots of errors. The most common errors are ‎spelling mistakes and not listing relevant information or in a logical format. ‎

Recommendation: Review websites on how to write a good resume. Here’s one good site for ‎steps to consider for your college resume: http://www.gocollege.com/financial-‎aid/scholarships/apply/resume.html.‎

•Essays: Your essays didn’t answer the questions, or they indicate weak analytical skills. ‎

Recommendations: Get a friend or acquaintance with experience writing essays to look at ‎yours. Let the words be your own but get assistance to make sure that the information is ‎clear and that you answered the questions and addressed the topic(s) correctly. ‎

At the same time, if you’re not a native speaker, reviewers will expect to see some mistakes ‎or structural issues in your writing. While it’s important that the essays are clear and ‎understandable, having a perfectly-written essay will alert the reviewer that either you had ‎someone write it for you, or you may have plagiarized the essay. Both are sure ways to get ‎rejected from a scholarship program and it is easier now than ever before to search for ‎plagiarized text with the Internet and other computerized search tools.‎

•Interviews: That interview didn’t go as well as you thought. Well it might have gone fairly ‎well, but chances are someone else had a better interview than you did. ‎

Recommendations: Since there aren’t scholarships for everyone who interviews, you ‎probably need to practice, practice, practice—both listening and extemporaneous speaking ‎skills! Half of the story is your ability to understand the question and provide a clear answer ‎that is not rehearsed. So, read up on interviewing skills and then try out practice interviews ‎with friends.‎

Of course the above list presumes that you can fix certain things to be more competitive next time ‎around. The reality is a scholarship involves a competition, and nothing is handed out on a silver ‎platter so you have to work for those improvements. ‎

However, there are things that you can’t fix. You need to be honest with yourself about such ‎eligibility requirements too. The short answer is that, in some cases, you may simply not be eligible ‎for the particular scholarship you’re applying for. ‎

•Other Eligibility and Scholarship Mission Requirements: Did you read all the requirements and ‎notes about the program carefully? Do you have the required work experience; do you have ‎the right sequence of life events; or are you aware of your employment situation or other ‎obligations that may be disqualifiers?‎

Recommendations: It’s important that you review every piece of information about the ‎requirements, mission, and your own personal situation. If for example, you have a two-year ‎home residency requirement to fulfill (because you already had a U.S. government ‎scholarship and a J-1 visa), then meet it before looking into new options. ‎

Also find out the mission statement of the scholarship program and think about how the ‎mission will impact you. For example, if you are applying for a U.S. scholarship and you’ve ‎already been to the U.S, find out if the program prefers to award grants to individuals without ‎prior U.S. experience. If that is the case, then be prepared for the possibility that if there are ‎candidates without U.S. experience (even ones you may personally feel aren’t as qualified as ‎you are), then your application may not be as competitive. The mission of the scholarships ‎program is very important so learn what it is.‎

What other things you probably can’t, and shouldn’t try, to fix:‎

•Grades: Your grades were good but they are just not good enough. Or, you got a D your ‎freshman year of university, and it’s coming back to haunt you.‎

Recommendation: You need to look for another opportunity that doesn’t have the same ‎Grade Point Average (GPA) requirements or focus on another opportunity that looks at ‎experience. But remember a lot of scholarships focus on the GPAs AND actual grades. People ‎don’t become honor students with Ds on their transcripts. Here’s where you have to be ‎honest with yourself. You might otherwise be a good candidate but if you don’t have the ‎strong grade basis, you’re wasting your time and that of the interview committee. ‎

Also, don’t try to alter your grades—aside from the fact that you are depriving someone who ‎deserves an opportunity (yes there is always someone who is better than you are), you’ll ‎eventually get caught. Falsifying documents is not cool, and it’s against the law and will ‎definitely assure that you never qualify for the scholarship program that you applied to.‎

•Age: Some programs have age requirements. It’s pretty simple. Are you the right age or not? ‎

Recommendation: If you’re too young, no problem. Wait a year or two and work on improving ‎the other points mentioned above. If you’re too old, , then move on and think about a Plan ‎B, Plan C or Plan D, but not this one. And like above, don’t falsify documents. In the long run, ‎it hurts you.‎

In short, not every program is a match, so keep looking until you find a match. And when you find a ‎match, then work hard to make sure you understand the eligibility requirements and the program’s ‎mission. Don’t assume that one is less important than the other. ‎

Finally, once you get your opportunity (if you work hard, things will happen) make sure you do all the ‎right things to hold on to the opportunity. If you don’t, as you probably can remember from the initial ‎application process and all the other steps of the process, there are usually a lot of people waiting in ‎the wings for this chance.
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Good luck on your journey!‎