“Scholarship application is not a therapy session. Don’t express your poverty and personal problems seeking for sympathy and mercy”
- Ernest B. Makulilo
At the very early stages of my scholarship journey, I clearly understood what I am up to in terms of competition. I knew for sure, I was not the only one on this planet who was looking for scholarships around the world. There are millions of people around the world both in Developing Countries and Developed Countries are looking for different ways of getting financial support.
In the United States,
for instance, the cost of education is extremely high. From kindergarten to
high school, education is free. There are no tuition and fees associated with
education. But when you go to college, it’s very expensive. For public
universities, for instance, just tuition and fees are starting from $10,000
before adding costs of accommodation, food, and other expenses. There are lots
of universities where tuition fees start from $30,000 and above. This was the
case for my graduate studies at the University of San Diego in California where
tuition and fees for a master’s degree in peace studies and conflict resolution
is $36,000. Then you come to add the costs of books, transportation,
accommodation, food, and other personal expenses, making it extremely
expensive. How can a person like me afford such costs? And even millions of
Americans can’t afford such costs associated with it. The only way I was able to
go to the University of San Diego was because I received over $60,000
scholarship money.
Many families in America, for instance, tends to start saving for tuition and fees for their kids when they grow up. There are several packages on how to create a college fund for your kids. But all in all, it’s not easy, very expensive. This makes students start thinking about colleges and funding at their very early stages of their lives. They tend to start creating a competitive profile so that when the time comes to go to college, they are sure of getting scholarships. This works for many families because they can’t afford to save for college tuition for their kids, many opt to go to scholarship consultants to know what is needed for their kids to prepare from even junior high school. Kids start improving grades and volunteering, participating in different programs that can make them more competitive and stand out from other applicants.
When
I was in high school, I did learn more about capitalism. This mode of life is
still very foreign to many people in Developing Countries. Post-colonial
African countries, for instance, had a communal way of life. Some countries
like Tanzania even went on to officially practice socialism (Ujamaa in
Nyerere’s context). But no matter the form, people lived as one community,
identity themselves as one, taking care of the community, and just being as one
big family. This changed in the 1980s when liberalism and multiparty politics
started to raise in Africa. Unfortunately, this wasn’t growing organically, as
many countries were technically forced. But till today, even though we are into
the competitive life of capitalism, many people in Africa and other Developing
Countries are not that competitive in the very early years of their lives. Some
even with degrees still want people to do things for them despite given
directions on how to go about it. You find out many bring lots of excuses and
not using their education to complete at the highest level.
It’s
not all bad about capitalism. It’s the jungle with all kinds of animals
including the big five scary animals. It’s the survival of the fittest. The
weak will completely be wiped off and the strongest will survive. It looks like
no order at all, many see this is not good at all. But the good thing if this
capitalism, you are the one to decide which kind of animal you want to become
in the jungle. If you choose to be a deer you will be eaten at one point by
lions, cheetahs, etc. But if you choose to be a lion or cheetah, no one will
take advantage of you and destroy you. That’s how the scholarship application
process is. It’s the survival of the fittest. You’re the one you decide whether
you want a scholarship or you want to waste your time and get wiped off when
competition arises. If you have decided to be competitive, you have chosen to
be that lion in the jungle. Therefore, stop any excuses you may have and take
charge of your life.
“The
Loan boards’ effect”
At the beginning of the 2000s many countries, especially in Africa, started to
find ways to fund education. Many governments started to create loan boards
following conditions from IMF and other Western Countries as the condition to
get aids was to start what is famously known as a cost-sharing policy instead
of governments to provide free education. I remember in 2005-2006, the Higher Learning
Students Loan Board of Tanzania was established. Other countries had theirs at
different times, different names but saving the same purposes. They all had and
still have what was termed as means-testing. The means testing is determining
if you can pay tuition and fees on your own. In other words, the means-testing
intends to find poor people to be eligible for student loans. In some
countries, if you studied in certain private schools or these English medium
schools with high fees, you are technically eliminated from people who will be
given scholarships. So being poor is “embraced” and applicants have to provide
pieces of evidence to show how poor they are. You find others even including
letters of explanation that they walked several miles back and forth to
school or didn’t have shoes while growing up, or they were not able to get
school fees during secondary education.
When
you are applying for scholarships in Developed Countries, there is one
important component of the application. This is called a Statement of Purpose or
others call it a Motivational Letter. This brings a lot of confusion to many
applicants as they still have that mind of loan boards application in their
heads. It didn’t affect me at all, because I tend to do research on many things
if I want to write. But in the course of 10 years which I have been helping
people on how to apply and compete for scholarship opportunities, I see
thousands of applicants, especially from Africa, think that poverty is the
reason for them to be given scholarships. They think people will have sympathy
for their sad stories. So instead of clearly stating what motivates them to
apply or why should they be given such scholarships, they spend most of their
time expressing how poor they are and waiting for mercy.
The
funny stories I read every day, you see people who are even in their 30s
expressing that they are orphans. My head right away starts spinning, an orphan
at 35? Really? The person who has even a wife and kids is writing I am very poor, an orphan, and looking for scholarships. Cut down that nonsense, you’re an adult and take
responsibility, take charge, compete and never wait for sympathy. The more you
wait for sympathy is the time you have decided to become that deer in the
jungle, you will never survive. In the end, you will start complaining to God
and saying the world is not fair or saying those who get scholarships are
favored because of other reasons of nepotism and so forth.
So
when I wanted to start applying for opportunities around the world, first and
foremost I went on exploring the rules of the game. I wanted to know what it takes
for someone to be given thousands of dollars by an institution that doesn’t
even know you. It was at this point, I know there is a very huge difference
between what I used to know as applying for a loan board in my country versus
applying for scholarships elsewhere. While the loan board emphasizes more on your
poverty as the basis of giving you student loans, the scholarships on the other way
focusing on your competence, and what will you bring to the table once you get
selected. It was an awaking call as to never in my life, in this capitalist world,
to use my poverty as why I should be given something, especially scholarships.
I had to create a competitive profile of my life, I had to position myself to a
situation whenever I apply something, I get it because I qualify and most
importantly I go above and beyond the minimum requirements. And that’s what I
have been telling people every day.
English proficiency test, for instance, is required for many
schools when you apply for scholarships. Over 99 percent of all scholarships
will require you to submit either TOEFL (Test Of English as Foreign Language)
or IELTS (International English Language Testing System) results. There are very
few scholarships that can provide waivers or don’t have that requirement at
all. But to me, if you’re looking for scholarships, it is a must to take the
test before you apply. Just assume, there are two applicants, you and another
person. You don’t have English proficiency test results, and the scholarship
doesn’t require, but you have the same grades and qualifications as the other
candidate. But the other candidate, though not required, submitted TOEFL
results which he scored over 85. The other candidate will be given high
consideration as he has gone above and beyond the minimum requirements.
Ernest Boniface Makulilo
EBM SCHOLARS
Missouri, USA
www.youtube.com/ebmscholars (for English Videos)
www.youtube.com/ebmswahili (for Swahili Videos)
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