“British Council 70th Anniversary Scholarship”
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure” — Colin Powell
I had received unconditional offer letters from Five of UK’s renowned universities. As every aspiring student I was confuse which university to select as I had applied for those five universities after lot of research and keeping every aspect in mind.
However, I didn’t had to dwell more on that because on 1st Feb I had received mail from “Loughborough University ,UK” stating that:
UK universities have been asked to nominate five students who have applied for a Master’s degree in a STEM subject, and can demonstrate academic excellence. I am delighted to inform you that you are one of the five students that Loughborough University has nominated to the British Council. Congratulations!
I was thrilled and reached on mountain top and smack right down on earth when the words “Nominated ” and “Next Step” made sense. For the next step I had to complete an application form and submit it to the British Council.
In application form I had to fill the personal details along with some answers for the 4–5 questions.One of the striking feature I loved about British council is their well planned organization and most importantly Acknowledgement response.
This is to acknowledge that we have received your applications for the British Council 70th anniversary Scholarships.We will write to you with the next steps soon.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language; encouraging cultural, scientific, technological and educational co-operation with the United Kingdom; and changing people’s lives through access to education, skills, qualifications, culture and society runs the global IELTS English-language standardized test.
It was pretty tough when I realized the analysis of statistics to compete with students’s from 44 Universities in UK. Still I didn’t give up and decided to give my best and received below response:
Congratulations on being shortlisted for the British Council India 70thAnniversary Scholarships. We are pleased to invite you for a interview leading to the final selection as per the details below.
I was astonished, happy, ecstatic and suddenly nervous with upcoming interview. But again due to British council’s constant contact I was at ease and Interview went “OKAY” according to me.
On 1st March I received below mail:
Dear Sayali,
Congratulations! Following your scholarship interview, we are pleased to offer you the British Council 70th Anniversary Scholarship at Loughborough University. The scholarship will cover your tuition for the subject that you were nominated.
I cannot believe or count how many times I had re-read this mail .Thousand questions were thundering in my mind like a storm “Did they send it to wrong recipient ? is this for real?”
Gathering courage I sent a reply “I accept this offer“. while crossing my fingers and praying “Please don’t tell me I am not intended recipient of this email “and finally viewing their below response , it stuck me that “Yes!!! OMG!! I have received Full Scholarship” and received below invitation for award ceremony.
Further to your acceptance of the British Council India 70thAnniversary Scholarships, we would take this opportunity to invite you at the British Council India Founders Day celebration.
Dates: 16 and 17 March 2018, Venue: British Council, 17 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi — 110 001, India
Again , British Council was very generous to cover my flight arrangements.
“Thank you very much British Council for this Scholarship for giving me ladder to pursue my dreams and carve my own niche.”
And perks of getting this scholarship other than finance is:
1. Loughborough University Published this story
Alan Gemmell OBE, Director India, British Council said, “The women we’ve selected to be our 70th Anniversary Scholars will be the ambassadors for these ambitions. They’ll also be fixing global problems from climate change to drug discovery all the while building the societies we all will want to live in.”
2. Sakal Times
3. Hindustan Times 2nd Page 22 March 2018:
So here are the Tips :
- Apply to Every Scholarship offered by University for which you are eligible
- You will be out of competition for plagiarism so “Don’t copy contents”, be yourself, be honest , be YOU and you will rock it.
- Work on your application carefully as you have to pour your whole life within word limit restrictions which is really difficult but try to focus on highlights, strengths, achievements, mention team work and social work activities etc.
- Decide your Priorities.Come out of your comfort zone and never think that “I will never get this Scholarship or Its really tough or other students seems better than me”. just try your 100%.
- Even if you are not successful in one scholarship you are prepared for other scholarships and interviews and with little bit of modification you can use this application for other Scholarships.
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” — Chris Bradford.
All The best !!!!!!!!
Copyright © 2018 by Sayali Avinash Chavan. All rights reserved.
