This document provides guidance on applying for scholarships. It discusses developing a strong application, including brainstorming career goals and how a scholarship could help achieve them. It recommends researching potential scholarships and considering applying before or after securing admission. The personal statement is identified as important, and tips are provided on its content, style, and dos and don'ts of writing it. Key points to address are educational and career background, future plans, and how the scholarship would help achieve goals. Overall, the document outlines the scholarship application process and strategies for crafting a compelling personal statement.

1. Career Counselling
Session
At Balochistan University of Information Technology and
Management Sciences (BUITEMS)
by
RAFIULLAH KAKAR

2. Preparing a scholarship
application
• Basic Thinking and Brainstorming
• What are your future plans/ career goals?
• Why do you want to apply for a Scholarship?
• How will the Scholarship help you achieve
your career goals?

3. Now that you have decided to
apply for a Scholarship
• Do some basic research
• What are the potential scholarships you
can apply for?
• Think about your course of Study/Degree

4. Potential Scholarships
• Two main methods:
• Secure Scholarship before securing admission
• Secure admission and then look for Scholarships/funding sources
• Famous Scholarships
• Fulbright
• Chevening
• Commonwealth
• Australian Awards
• Gates
• Lady Noon
• Weidenfeld
• Erasmus mundus
• HEC Scholarships
• Rhodes

5. Developing a strong
Scholarship Application
• Personal Statement (and Statement of
Purpose)
• References/Letters of Recommendation
• Resume/CV

6. How to write a Personal
Statement
• Potential Game-Changer and the only lever under
your control
• Determine your purpose in writing the SOP
• Keep in mind the audience
• Why is the scholarship important to
you?
• Then work on the actual content of the SOP
• Your SOP must be “personal to the core”

7. Content of SOP
• Answer the following three questions:
• How have you pursued your education?
• (inspiration/motivating factors, challenges; What has made
you what you are?)
• What are your future goals/career plans?
• (How did you develop the interest and what you want to do
with it? Suggest a future plan with some evidence of interest
and preparation?)
• How will the Scholarship help you achieve your career goals?

8. Style of the Statement
• Beginning of your essay
• An interesting story/experience
• Qoutation
• Catchy and appealing but no need for drama and spice
• Set the primary theme of your essay here
• Don’t jus recount your experiences
• You need to give more than mere descriptive account
• Describe what you learned from a particular experience and how
it changed you as a person

9. DO’s
• Be self-revelatory, honest and objective!
• Be specific, modest and realistic
• Maintain a coherent theme throughout your essay
• Include interesting facts that are not mentioned elsewhere in the application
• Correlate your academic background with your extracurricular experience so as to show how
they unite to make you a special candidate
• Do explain an extra-ordinary inconsistency in your score/career
• Devote almost equal space to different aspects of your life
• Give a Conclusion: Summarise the value and meaning of your experience, link it with future
goals and end it on an optimistic note
• Do edit and revise it (Grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalisation) (Minimum 5-8 drafts)

10. DON’Ts
• Don’t turn the SOP into an extended version of CV (Incorporate only the most
important and relevant aspects)
• Avoid sweeping statements (e.g., I like helping people, I want to bring change) and
overly-common words (fascinating, hard working, remarkable, valuable). DO EXPLAIN
and justify if you have to use them.
• Don’t lecture the reader (e.g. Communication skills are very imp in this field). No
condescending tone
• Don’t give unrealistic and lofty ideals/goals
• Don’t flatter the University or Scholarship Committee
• Don’t repeat any information unless very necessary to make a point
• Don’t try to be funny. It can backfire
• Don’t use slang, abbreviations and casual language

11. Conclusion
• Plan ahead
• Smart work is better than hard work
• Smart work = Hard work + Planning
• ALL THE BEST
• THANK YOU VERY MUCH