If you weren’t selected for the 2023-24 Chevening cohort, you may be wondering where you went wrong. Here is the top feedback from the reading committees regarding this year’s applicants. Don’t be disheartened if you applied for a Chevening Scholarship but weren’t successful. In the search for our 2023-24 cohort, we received more than 70,000 applications! The standard across the board is always incredibly high, with many candidates applying multiple times before they’re selected.
To help you submit an even stronger application when the next round of applications opens in September, we’ve compiled some of the most common feedback received from Chevening’s reading committees. Here are some top tips:
- When providing examples, follow the STAR approach. This involves clearly explaining the situation, task, action, and result.
- When discussing personal achievements, use ‘I’ instead of ‘we’. If it was a team effort, focus specifically on what your role was within the team.
- Write in full sentences, rather than bullet points. This is your chance to tell a compelling story and convince the readers that you have what it takes to be chosen for Chevening.
- Make sure you proofread your work. Silly spelling mistakes don’t make for a good first impression.
Now that you have the basics, let’s delve deeper with some more specific feedback for each of the four application categories:
- Leadership and influence: Chevening is looking for individuals who will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. To score well on this criterion, take note of the following:
- When demonstrating your leadership skills, try to draw on recent examples from your professional experience. Many applicants in the last reading used examples from their academic experience, even as far back as their secondary school days.
- Don’t assume that occupying a particular position or role is sufficient to demonstrate leadership skills. Go a step further and explain how you successfully gained and maintained influence and what the outcome was.
- Clearly define the concept of leadership and provide examples of how you’ve exhibited it, linking it to both your study and post-study plans.
- Networking: Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship-building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. To score well on this criterion, take note of the following:
- Go into detail about your networking skills and mention the networks you have.
- Describe not only your ways of networking but also what you have achieved by using your networks, paying attention to the ‘R’ (result) in STAR.
- Link your answer back to Chevening and explain how you will engage with the global Chevening community to achieve your goals and effect positive change.
- Studying in the UK: If you hope to be chosen for Chevening, you should have a strong understanding of why you have selected your chosen courses and how they relate to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future. To score well on this criterion, take note of the following:
- Go into detail about all three courses in your answer, clearly explaining how they relate to both your past experience and future plans.
- Avoid just copying and pasting from university websites and relying solely on university and course rankings as reasons to select a course.
- Focus on the content of the courses you have selected (modules, assessment, etc.) and how this will help you achieve your goals.
- Career plan: Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. To score well on this criterion, take note of the following:
- Have an achievable plan for your career, with specific and measurable goals.
- Consider the role the Chevening network will play in helping you achieve your career goals and the opportunities it will open for you.
Applications for the 2024-25 Chevening cohort will open in September. Subscribe to GSO to be the first to know when the application opens.
Read more about the Chevening Scholarship here!
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