Scholarships Tips

Admission Essay or Personal Statement for Scholarships

Michael Nzeribe1 Comment

A personal statement also called a statement of purpose or an essay, allows you to introduce yourself to a college admissions office or interview committee. There are various types of admission essays and they all serve the same purpose. It is an integral part of your college application and many consider it a deciding factor as well.

Whenever you apply for a job, college degree, or scholarship, there are certain factors that should be highlighted, including all of your academic transcripts, letters of recommendation, and personal statement.

If there are multiple applicants with the same level of academic achievement and positive letters of recommendation, then the personal statement can play a very important role in helping the admissions committee decide who to award the offer of admission or scholarship. Therefore, everyone who is planning to apply for such programs should be very careful to write a well-thought-out and structured admission essay, which can make them shine among all the other applicants. A good personal statement will require proper planning and preparation.

Importance of the Admission Essay for applications and interviews

  1. It is an integral part of any application to a college program or scholarship.
  2. It can make or break your chances of receiving a scholarship or an offer of admission.
  3. It serves as a way to introduce yourself to the admissions committee.
  4. You can broadcast all your academic achievements and qualifications, as well as your work experience. You can also talk about your academic and professional aspirations.
  5. You should bring your application to the attention of the admission committee, and they should have an idea of ​​what you are like and how suitable you are for their program or scholarship.
  6. Your essay will reflect your communication skills.
  7. The personal statement will play a role in determining whether or not you will receive an interview call.

Components of the Admission Essay or Personal Statement

Your personal statement will be a reflection of your motivation, aspiration, and sweat, which should be clearly expressed and highlighted within its content.

The following are the three basic components of a well-written personnel statement:

  1. What motivates you?
  2. What is your aspiration?
  3. Describe how you get your motivation

It may interest you: Letter of Motivation for Scholarships

How to structure a personal statement or Admission Essay?

If you’re about to start the process of writing a personal statement, you can use the key points below to learn how to structure your admissions essay, as well as what to include and avoid in it:

  1. Make sure you’ve done all your background research on the degree or scholarship you’re applying for before you start writing your statement.
  2. Make a list of the various aspects of the program or scholarship that you find most appealing so you can include them in your report.
  3. Use your essay as an opportunity to personally describe yourself to the admissions committee.
  4. You must identify what your goals and priorities are in life, as well as the factors that have motivated you to follow a particular program.
  5. You should also try to make links between the course you want to follow and your goals in life.
  6. As the name suggests, the personal statement should have a personal touch. It shouldn’t sound like an academic essay, but more like an interesting story.
  7. While it is important to talk about your educational background, you should also combine the skills you have acquired over time, as well as your experience that is relevant to the course you wish to pursue.
  8. You might also consider including any setbacks you’ve faced in life, which could be academic or personal in nature, as well as how you managed to overcome these obstacles.
  9. When writing your personal statement, make sure it is truthful and authentic. This is because if you get an interview call, there is a good chance that their admissions committee will base the interview on your personal statement. Therefore, all applicants are strongly advised not to include false or incorrect information in their personal statements.

How to write a Curriculum Vitae for Scholarships + Example

Michael Nzeribe3 Comments

How to write a Curriculum Vitae (CV) to apply for Scholarships in 2023

Applying for a scholarship can be a piece of cake, but preparing your documents to submit an application for scholarship funding can cause some problems. In such a process, the scholarship sponsoring organization may ask you to provide a CV with your scholarship application. So, now you will search for the methods and secret recipes to write an impressive academic resume for a scholarship. But the real task is finding the right ingredients to create a scholarship application CV that can really take you to the next level. An impressively written scholarship resume will definitely stand out from all the rest; eventually increasing the candidate’s chances of victory!

Now you face intense competition; the contest to win the scholarship of your dreams to finance your studies. Without a doubt, the resume alone will not dictate the overall outcome of your application. However, it plays a very important role, as it is your opportunity to present yourself as the most deserving candidate.

In short, a resume describes your goals, educational background, professional experience, skills learned, list of publications (if any), who you are, and what you aspire to.

An impressive resume sets out, in short, the applicant’s presentation with goals, academic achievements, experience (if applicable), and experience in the relevant field. This seems like a lot to understand, but there should be no worries as this article gives you all the necessary information in a guide form that is easy to understand and execute.

Curriculum Vitae CV for Scholarships

An impressive scholarship resume should have information on research or study objectives, academic background information with scores, a list of publications, a list of achievements, work and study experiences, strengths or qualities of the candidate, a list of certifications, and an attached cover letter.

CV Outline for Scholarship

Here is the custom CV outline that can be used to create your resume specifically for applying for a scholarship:

  • Provide academic goals
  • Attach a photograph with a white or blue background
  • Create a table to display your academic information with scores
  • Include the list of publications (if any)
  • A list of extracurricular activities and conferences in which you participated
  • Skills acquired with the level of competence
  • List the software you can use fluently
  • Prepare to be the ideal candidate for the scholarship in question

It may interest you: Letter of Motivation for Scholarships + Example

Steps to Create a CV for Scholarship

Following are the important steps to writing an impressive yet winning CV for your next scholarship application.

#1 Know yourself

We all commonly think that we know each other quite well. But actually, we have a very narrow opinion of ourselves in our minds. To create a deep analysis of yourself you have to do two things:

  1. Sit down, take a deep breath and think of yourself as a person. First, consider yourself a good friend of yours and write your opinion. Then look at yourself through the eyes of a competitor and form an opinion. He uses these two and then creates a general point of view.
  2. Ask anyone, friend or classmate. Take note of what the person says and combine it with the content you already have.

Through this technique, you can easily create the introduction part of your CV. Remember, the presentation must show you as a positive person. A little criticism at the end would suffice.

#2 Gather all the necessary information

We all like to start without even thinking about the necessary preparations. However, in this case, keep in mind that you are thriving for a well-paying scholarship fund, and every step, big or small, matters.

Start with the basics. He writes on a sheet of paper whatever comes to mind; everything that is relevant to you. Then open the documents folder and extract key information from each document you see. Following this technique, create a list that contains all the necessary credentials, academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and professional experiences. Lastly, don’t forget to categorize the list based on priority.

#3 Transparency

Be direct and honest with yourself. Remember, no candidate applying for the scholarship will be perfect. Therefore, you don’t need to be perfect either. In addition, later they will question you about the information you have mentioned in your CV. Therefore, the interviewer will find the false statements anyway.

Exaggerations may seem interesting but they can cost you the scholarship. State everything that is true and try to create a realistic image of yourself for the reader. Keep in mind that your CV is a professional document, therefore you must present it in a very professional manner.

#4 Summary

Present all points and information succinctly. The examiner has a lot of applications to attend to and is never interested in reading redundant ideas. Address the point directly with the appropriate words. The summary part also tests your writing skills. The reader will surely be attracted by the CV that manifests a set of quality writing skills. After all, it’s a CV, not an essay about yourself. However, don’t omit the key points to summarize it. The idea is to keep the text short and easy to understand, not filter it.

It may interest you: Graduate Scholarships for Equatorial Guinea Students

#5 Organization

No matter how good your resume content is, if it’s not organized, it’s simply not worth the praise. The organization plays a fundamental role when giving a formal air to your CV. Organize the content in a way that makes the CV look more professional and therefore more worthwhile. For example: if you are listing your achievements, start with the most important and end with the least important.

#6 Review

A well-written CV will definitely increase your chances of success. All you have to do is make sure you leave no stone unturned to do your best. Read it many times after you finish writing. Look for errors and correct them. You can also seek the help of a professional. Maybe, someone, you know as your English teacher or you can use the help of a professional who offers online services.

7 tips for writing a resume or CV for a scholarship

Some important tips to follow when you start writing a CV for the scholarship application are the following:

  1. Start the CV with credentials such as full name, contact, address, date of birth, nationality, etc.
  2. The classic font is always preferred for these types of professional documents.
  3. Don’t choose new words. Use easy and understandable language.
  4. The CV must not show redundancy. For example: indicate that you have a degree in accounting and finance several times.
  5. Refrain from having someone else write it. The selection committee at some point in the process will eventually find out. Yes, you know perfectly well what the result of such an action will be!
  6. Grammatical or spelling errors can ruin all efforts.
  7. Minor achievements should not be the focus of your CV. For example: win a marathon in 7th place.

Now you know the most crucial steps involved in writing an effective CV. Now it’s your turn to take these ideas home, implement them and create a CV that will win you the Scholarship!

What are The Students’ Academic Strengths and Weaknesses?

Michael Nzeribe4 Comments

We all know that school can be quite challenging at any age. When a student performs poorly in a subject, he tends to drop out of the subject. This is because they do not understand that each student has academic strengths and weaknesses that most do not yet identify.

These affect their performance positively or negatively depending on how willing they are to identify and improve it. When students fail to improve their weaknesses, they lack confidence and neglect the strengths that most need improvement.

Improving the academic strength of students helps them excel in all aspects. He eventually masters his weakness and builds a boost in his academic performance. 

If you’re curious about how to get that spark that drives your academic performance, let me guide you through this section as you learn all about students’ academic strengths and weaknesses.

What are Academic Weaknesses?

Academic weaknesses are handicaps in a child’s personality that result in problems in their academic fields. 

They are those things that you find difficult to do but that you are willing to change and correct. No one is perfect, so having academic challenges doesn’t mean it’s over for you. 

You just have to identify them, eliminate them and overcome them in your academic environment.

Examples of Academic Weaknesses for Students

You can only eliminate your academic weaknesses if you have them. There are several academic weaknesses for students, including:

Indiscipline:

This form of academic weakness occurs when students lack control over their behavior and act in any way they find agreeable, disobeying the rules and breaking the rules of their school. 

They may be expelled from school, suspended, or banned from attending a particular conference, this, in turn, will reflect poor academic performance.

Delay:

Students procrastinate when they keep putting off certain activities that need to be done at that particular time for no reasonable reason.

Procrastination makes them lose focus on what they are supposed to do, it also makes them disorganized, and some quit work eventually.

intolerance:

This can make working with others seem impossible for students. For example, if a member of her team makes a mistake during a group project, she becomes angry and frustrated, which can hinder group and team activities.

The boring:

When a student is dull, he or she lacks mental acuity or intelligence; they are slow, stupid, and dumb.

They find it difficult to express their views on schoolwork and projects, even if they know their answers are correct.

This is one of the academic weaknesses that undermine their academic performance.

Assault:

Being aggressive can be good in some situations, but at school, it can make you a bully with no one willing to be part of the same group as you. You can be a loner.

Lack of concentration:

You can lose focus when you are susceptible to being distracted by your surroundings and therefore have a short attention span.

We also see losing focus when you can’t finish your given assignment, sleep a lot during class, or prefer to study other irrelevant things.

Impatience:

This is when you have a desire for something to happen right away.

You can’t wait, you just want the school experiment to give you a neat result, and you just want the next class to start.

Such behavior can actually cause you to lose focus and result in negative situations.

How to improve the academic weakness of students

Before you can improve your academic weaknesses, you need to identify them and make a list of them. This is the necessary first step to improve those weaknesses.

Go through your created list and start thinking of ways you can solve them. Let’s look at some academic weaknesses and how we can turn them into student strengths.

Lack of concentration:

If you find it difficult to study for a long period of time, why not break it up into shorter periods?

This is a good point because when you break down time and work into smaller blocks, the task at hand seems more manageable.

You can’t concentrate if you try for several hours. Try for an hour or 30 minutes. With practice, you can increase the amount of time until it’s right for you.

Fear to fail:

You find it difficult to speak, ask questions, or participate in school activities because you fear being wrong, embarrassed, and criticized.

The right thing to do is practice speaking in your bedroom, with your friends, at family gatherings, or at events with a smaller group of people.

You must discipline yourself to do your best, ask questions in class, answer questions and face your fears; you don’t have to think about other people’s opinions about you.

Delay:

In the act of procrastinating, they tend to be unprepared for what they might face next.

To avoid this weakness, be well prepared for that seminar talk or assignment. Divide your time and work into manageable blocks.

Get ahead of your schedule, review, and take a look at that task again.

Create a time range to solve each problem or complete any activity and reward yourself when you achieve your goal.

Being disorganized:

To achieve this, students must create a list of everything they want to achieve and give details of how they can achieve it.

The wording of this list must be backed up by actions and efforts to make it work.

Not talking to a tutor or mentor:

What could be better than having someone listen to your problems and look for a solution?

When faced with an academic weakness, look to people smarter than you for solutions, such as your parents, department chair, siblings, friends, and parents.

This group of people can easily motivate you and teach you how to deal with those weaknesses.

What is the Academic Strength of a Student?

This is just the opposite of academic weakness. They are the positive traits that make you stand out from others in an environment.

Basically, they help you get better grades than you expected. They are inside of you and tend to come out when you need to show how good you are in a particular field.

Examples of Student Academic Strength

Discipline:

This is one of the important strengths of students that helps increase their academic performance and enhance their skills.

Being disciplined allows you to muster the courage to do the right thing at the right time, control your emotions, and reject procrastination.

Being open-minded:

When you have an open mind, you are willing to learn, unlearn and see things from a different perspective.

This is the strength of the students that allows them to grow and be recognized among others.

Time management:

Now, this is the opposite of procrastination. Why waste time when you can plan it and stick to it?

Time management keeps track of your activities and tasks and helps you achieve your goals and expectations.

Leadership:

This is the act of being able to guide and lead a group of people or an organization to achieve its goals.

In terms of projects or group assignments, a good leader gets the job done, keeps the team together, and understands teammates.

Creativity:

When you can recognize possibilities or ideas, develop them, and use them to solve problems, interact with others, and entertain people, this is called being creative.

Planning skills:

This act of knowing what to do, how to do it, and when to do it is the strength of the students that helps them mentally travel through time.

It makes possible the achievement of one’s goal within a stipulated period.

Socialization:

Socialization is a unique strength of students that involves whether a child can freely enjoy school activities, talk, or become bored.

It starts from infancy and progresses to adulthood. When a child is sociable, they become close to others, they find it easy to approach or be approached, speak their minds easily as they do not feel shy around people.

How to find the academic strength of students

Identifying students’ academic strength improves their academic and overall performance.

They become aware of their surroundings and how to use their strengths to their advantage. When you are trying to determine the academic strength of the students in your class, there are certain steps to take to achieve this result.

This includes:

Self-appraisal:

You can hand out strength assessment templates to students and have them fill them out and return them within a period.

This template should contain a list of student strengths; In addition, the listed strengths should be well explained to give you an idea of ​​the meaning of each one.

Feedback:

Another way to determine the strength of students is to have an individual meeting with their parents or guardians.

During the teacher has a one-on-one talk with the student about the booklet given to be filled out by them.

Talk to someone you trust:

Students may feel shy or awkward around their teachers or tutors. When this happens, they can’t open up and fasten everything inside.

At this point, advise them to simply talk to someone they feel they trust to pour out their problems.

This is one of the most difficult but easiest ways to identify the strength of students at any level.

How to improve the academic strength of students

Now that you know the academic strength of the students, you have also listed it after several talks or consultations, but does it stop there?

No. You have to know how to improve these strengths and channel them into something useful for your academic performance.

Here are some ways you can improve students’ academic strength:

‘SMART’ goals:

What are ‘SMART’ goals? This is shorthand for your goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound, respectively.

Instead of using your academic strengths to get good grades, why not use them to set goals?

Specific: they must be able to know what exactly they really want to achieve

Measurable: how long can it take or is it impossible?

Can your goals work? Is it something that is difficult but can be achieved?

Realistic: is it real? Not just based on his favorite fairy tales or movies.

Timed: At the end of your goal setting, how long does it take to reach each step.

These enhance your academic strength and literally support it.

Study more:

Most students only study at exam time or when a class exam is coming up. They tend to ignore how often they need to study.

Studying often helps sharpen students’ skills, it also exposes underlying skills.

When they develop the ability to devote more time to studies, their intellectual capacities expand, they become more creative, and other students tend to listen to them.

Get a mentor:

The best aspect of improving students’ academic strength is getting them a mentor or tutor. This set of people can easily identify student strengths over time.

They tend to focus on helping students understand and manage their strengths by providing them with broad knowledge about a particular [aspect or course of study.

Take Extra Class:

They can enhance their strengths, such as intellectual skills, proper reading, creativity, etc., by signing up for extra classes or sessions.

When they’re good at math, they can sign up for coding classes, but if it’s music, then they can sign up for poetry classes.

This is simply saying that they should sign up for things related to what they love to do.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

I am very shy with my friends and that makes it difficult for me to interact with them. Is that a weakness and how do I stop it?

Yes, being shy is a weakness. You can eliminate it through discipline and also by trying to talk when you are with friends or age colleagues.

I made a list of my academic strengths and weaknesses, what’s next?

Ok, now that you’ve made your list, look for ways to improve your strengths and reduce your weaknesses.

Is there a person without academic weaknesses?

Nobody is perfect. They may appear to have no weaknesses simply because they enhance their strengths and find ways to overcome their weaknesses.

Does having the right planning skills help reduce academic weakness?

If it does. Proper planning skill reduces procrastination and gets you right to work.

Are academic achievements associated with student strength?

Yes, identifying, finding, and using your strengths in academic work improves your academic performance above average.

I tried to do my homework but I have no idea what to write. I usually skip it and send blank sheets, how can I overcome this?

Try to have additional classes in that particular course, get a mentor and take time to study the course.

conclusion

Students’ academic strengths and weaknesses are positive and negative traits that interfere with their performance in positive or negative ways.

The first step to improving your strengths and weaknesses is to identify them and work on them to be successful in any academic field.

Tips on How to Apply for Admission, Scholarship, and Visa to Study in Canada

Michael Nzeribe1 Comment

Looking for information on How to apply for admission and visa to study in Canada As an international student? Do not close this tab! Check this article and get tips on how to apply for admission and a visa to study in Canada.

Many students around the world seek academic excellence and are often faced with the choice of where to study, taking into account many other factors including the size of their budgets and the quality of education they wish to obtain.

If you want to get an excellent education in a friendly environment, Canada is a good option to choose your tertiary education.

Canada is the largest country in North America and is the second country after Russia in the world. It shares a border with the United States.

Canada has open arms and welcomes students regardless of their country of origin or religion, it is excellent for its cuisine, diversity, and lifestyle, which distinguishes this country and makes it an excellent destination for tertiary education.

If you want to study in Canada, then you need vital information such as admission advice, living expenses, and more. Read on to learn more about securing admission and more.

Admission Tips

Securing a slot for tertiary education at the universities of your choice is the first step to focus on. It is important to meet the requirements of the institution of your choice and applying is the first step toward achieving this goal.

It is important to note that all institutions set the admission requirement and display it on their website.

Also, check the website of the institution you want to apply to see if you meet the requirements to contact your admissions counselor.

While institutions set custom requirements, there are general principles that apply to all institutions, such as a test for English Proficiency and submission of past results.

To begin your journey, you will need to complete an application and submit the necessary documents to complete the process.

You will be asked to provide your high school transcripts (for undergraduate studies) and a CV stating your personal goals and activities you have been involved in since finishing your studies.

You may be required to submit a letter of intent explaining your reasons for choosing the institution you applied to.

Courses are offered in French and English, although most institutions offer courses in English.

Submitting the result of an aptitude test is absolutely important. IETLS is accepted in most schools, while some schools accept TOEFL. The IELTS score required to decide admission is usually determined by the school of your choice.

Different institutions set different criteria for offering admission, so contact the institution to which you are applying to find out if you meet their stated requirements. MBA students are required to have work experience of not less than 24 months.

Also, admissions to any school in Canada, for undergraduates, requires at least 12 years of education, while for a graduate program, a minimum of 16 months of education is required.

Cost of studying in Canada

Studying in Canada is affordable, unlike in other Western countries. It is important to know that the cost of expenses in one institution differs from another.

Living expenses, transportation, and lifestyle are also factors that affect the budget and it is necessary to prepare for these expenses. As an international student, his expenses can vary between $17,000 CDN and $33,000 CDN per year.

Payment of studies

All universities control their tuition fees individually. The choice program you apply for has everything to do with the cost of tuition, not all programs incur the same expense.

Engineering and medical programs incur higher fees than Social Sciences. Medical and Engineering Programs can incur approximately $24,000 CND annually, while Arts and Humanities can cost around $18,000 annually, although it also depends on the institution of your choice.

When you enroll in graduate studies, the cost of tuition fees is higher and executive MBA courses cost up to $40,000 dollars.

Tuition is paramount and requires you to provide evidence that you can afford it because it is a large part of your academic budget. It is imperative to plan for books, food, living expenses, and housing.

Housing costs

Most institutions in Canada offer on-campus housing. The cost of accommodation is independent of the tuition costs. They will need a separate housing application if they wish to study in Canada.

The cost of an apartment on campus varies from one institution to another, the proximity to your institution and your meal package also influences the cost of housing.

Most of the students stay away in the cities renting flats or apartments. If you decide to stay off-campus, you should budget for your living expenses, living expenses generally affect the cost of housing, so it is important to make the proper preparations.

Apartment rentals typically cost between CND$700 and CND$1,800 per month, depending on the area and the type of apartment. Most universities offer housing services both on and off-campus.

Transportation and Food

Whether you live on or off-campus, transportation plays an important role in your successful stay in Canada. Some cities have a very good transport network and students can use affordable means of transport such as ferries, trains, and buses.

Some providers offer discounts and you can choose the mode of transport that suits you best. Transportation costs can reach $110 per month.

Although the food is not too expensive, it depends on personal preferences. Eating out can be expensive if you want to eat food outlet meals, a couple of daily meals and drinks cost about 24CDN. A cup of coffee sells for $3. Eating or cooking is entirely up to you to decide.

Deadline to submit your application.

Studying in Canada, a significant number of institutions resume the academic calendar in October. Quick submission is important so that you have enough time to process the admission. ,

It is important to know the deadline to submit your application so that you are not left out, and all schools set a deadline.

You must meet the criteria set for your course, therefore it is important to check in advance that you meet the demands of your program of choice.

Application begins in August, try to apply early to secure an admission spot. You must also inform the university of the choice of your intentions by early May.

Some institutions charge an application fee while others do not, an admissions counselor can provide you with information on which schools charge this fee and which do not.

Student VISA Application

To access the studies, it is mandatory to present a visa. The documents required to obtain a visa are:

  1. You must obtain a letter of acceptance from a recognized institution.
  2. The next step is to obtain a Canadian student visa application package online using the CIC website or by going to a local visa office or consulate in your country. You will be asked some questions to find out if you are eligible for a student visa and others to obtain the visa application package.
  3. You will be sent a personal checklist code with a page containing a code needed to submit your online application that is only valid for 60 days if you are eligible. The printed page also contains tuition amounts, an application guide, and a list of documents to submit with your application.
  4. Create a MyCIC account by providing your checklist code, where you will be given your personal document checklist that allows you to upload all your documents to CIC.
  5. After uploading the necessary documentation and paying your fees, submit your completed application to CIC.
  6. Some students from certain countries require a biometric legend.
  7. Applying for a student visa would need proof of funds to support yourself during your study.

So if they grant your application, they will issue you a student visa permit for 5 years depending on the period of your studies.

CONCLUSION

I hope the tips listed in this article will help you know how to apply for admission and a visa to study in Canada. You can also check out the opportunities listed below.

Good luck!!!