How to apply for our scholarships Contact: Siavush Shahrizad, [email protected] Date: 30 December 2013 Contents Contents ....................................................................................... 2 Introduction ................................................................................. 3 Key facts ....................................................................................... 3 Writing the personal statement .................................................. 3 Submitting your application ........................................................ 4 Introduction Every September, we award an MRS Advanced Certificate Scholarship and an annual MRS Diploma Scholarship. These annual scholarships give everyone the chance to take a course with us and gain an MRS professional qualification. Research Academy scholarships are open to everyone. However, we will give preference to candidates with demonstrable economic need, e.g. working for a small agency (turnover of less than £1 million), on a low income (less than £26,000 per year), or working on a freelance basis. The winner is chosen by a panel of our tutors and supporters. Key facts The scholarship entitles you only to free tuition with the Research Academy. You will still need to pay MRS registration and exam fees, and any other fees (e.g. deferral fees) that may be incurred. The deadline for entries is the third Tuesday of July every year. Winners are notified on the second Tuesday of August. To apply for a scholarship, you will need to do the following: 1. Fill in the scholarship application form, 2. Write a personal statement of no more than 500 words explaining why we should award the scholarship to you, and 3. Submit both documents to us at the same time. Please contact Siavush to request either the MRS Advanced Certificate scholarship application form or the MRS Diploma scholarship application form. You can reach him on [email protected]. Writing the personal statement Your personal statement should explain why you'd like to study for the relevant qualification and what it will do for you/your career. The personal statement, above all, is your chance to persuade. Its key purpose is therefore to make an argument: why a scholarship should be awarded to you, over all other applicants. You are free to make this argument in any way you want. You may appeal to reason; you may appeal to emotion. But we have four pieces of advice for you. First, we award our scholarships to make a difference to people’s careers. We do not award scholarships to people who already have impressive academic qualifications, nor to those who think the qualification may be useful in some vague way. We only award scholarships to people who can demonstrate how the qualification will be useful, which may involve doing research and providing evidence. Second, put yourself in our position. If you were the reader, would your argument move you? Would you be able to get a feel for the person who wrote the application? Would you find the structure straightforward? Would you find the text easy to read? Third, we look for personal statements that reveal something about who you are. We award our scholarships to individuals, so it helps if we can get to know you a bit. Fourth, applications should be well written; that is, easy to read and free of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Submitting your application To submit your application, please email the completed scholarship application form and your personal statement to Siavush at [email protected]. The personal statement can submitted as a Word or PDF document.