Applying for bursaries and scholarships – student tips
Want to apply for a bursary or scholarship but not sure how the process works? We asked students to share any top tips they had on securing funding.
Plus, here's how you find out which bursaries and scholarships are available – and what you'll need to budget for once you're actually at university (handy to help with estimating your costs – see below!).
Identify all available funding
It is almost always a good idea to apply to as many funding bodies as possible, and to remember that a person or an organisation giving you large amounts of money is usually looking for something in an applicant; leadership, for example, or social involvement, which would be good starting points to base application essays and interview answers on.
Apply early
If you’re applying for a scholarship, many of them have a series of interviews or test results that need to be completed before the start of term so make sure you know what you need to do to be eligible for the award and that you are not too late to apply for it.
Get estimating your costs
Just an online form I had to fill out, but it asked me about predicted costs for next year, and as I hadn't started university yet I had no idea of actual values. But the form was general so I gave a sensible guess and that was enough. Make sure you’re organised and have all the right documents; this will save a lot of stress.
Consent to share your income
I applied for the university bursary which was relatively simple; on the student finance application you just had to be sure to agree to share information with the university. Any problems I had with this were resolved well by the student centre.
Not another personal statement...
I had to write a personal statement to support my application outlining why I deserved the bursary; get help and advice from your parent or a tutor for this.
Get interview-ready
The application process for my scholarship involved submitting a personal statement, giving a presentation and an interview. The interview was a new experience for me which I found quite daunting. I would recommend thinking of some likely questions and how you would answer them.
Stuck? Chat to an adviser
Any questions were quickly answered by a friendly and knowledgeable person on the end of a phone.
Next:
- Making sense of student fees and finance in the UK
- Don't forget to check out our video on how to survive on a student loan
