How I Won Chevening
To be honest, I’m still beyond words about the recent email regarding my selection as one of Chevening scholars 2022/2023.
As some of you might know, this is my third attempt applying for a Chevening scholarship. Before going into details about the four essays and my interview, I must say the most important thing (for any scholarship) to prepare is to have a very, very, very clear set of goals in the future and a current career that can support your plan and study.
1. What have you been working on? What are the examples of your works? What are your takeaways from your job? In my case, I have become a communication specialist that works for gender equality in an organization that has a strong vision on that. (Make sure it is related to the rest of the questions below)
2. What challenges are related to your industry or work that you want to encounter? In my case are gender equality and a lack of knowledge about communication for the development of many marginalized organizations to speak up about the issue
3. What and who do you want to be? In my case, I want more grassroots organizations to have good communication skills so that they can participate more meaningfully in the development, and I want to promote a more ethical practice of journalism from the NGO side
4. What and why do you want to study? I want to learn Media, Communications, and Development to fill my gap in knowledge about Communications for Development
5. Why must a Master’s Degree? Because much knowledge regarding C4D is not available in Indonesia. Learning practices from other countries through education is very much important
6. What are your short-term and long-term plans? I will not tell you this one but let’s say I already have a clear set of goals.
Answer these six questions clearly (they do not have to be long, but they have to be answered). And answer these six first before you write an essay, do IELTS, writing and personal statement.
Now onto the essay parts
Chevening demands the future candidate to outline or write four essays: leadership, networking, study plan, and future plan. Let’s discuss this one by one
1. Leadership: you can showcase what leadership means to you and show two examples of your leadership experience. Use the STAR method — situation Task Action Results. You might want to add some challenges and lessons learned too. Be concise and clear. Remember this is limited to 500 words only. In the end, explain how Chevening can make you a better leader.
2. Networking: Like above, showcase what networking means to you and show 2 examples of how you build and leverage your network. Use the STAR method — situation Task Action Results. You can find people talking about STAR for Chevening in lots of YouTube videos. Don’t forget to mention how you and your networking skills can contribute to Chevening and how will you use your network both during the study and future plan
3. Study plan: you will have to choose three different courses. My advice is to choose similar courses from 3 different universities. Not three different courses in 1 university. Explain the challenges briefly you found and how you want to counter them with the education you will earn. When explaining each University, tell the readers why this Uni? But please don’t say the rank; the committee already knows that. Say some of the modules, programs, activities, or even the lecturers at that University are very much in line with your knowledge gap and future plan.
4. Future plan: lastly, ensure a very clear short-term and long-term plan. You can start briefly by describing the issues that you want to address in the future. Then you explain the step-by-step measure of how you will undergo your plan in both of your plans. Use the 5w1h approach. When, where, what, who, why, and how. In the end, also add why it is related to the UK. When funded by the UK government, you have to show the correlation of your focus to what the UK govt does in Indonesia. In my case, the UK government has many programs in Indonesia that focus on women’s empowerment in the technology industry. You also have to add how you can benefit the relations between UK-Indonesia through your study.
Some important notes to remember are to make sure from leadership to future plans; there is a red line that showcases the area of your interest. Have your mentor re-read your essay not once and not twice as frequently as possible until you feel that your essay is perfect. Remember, among thousands of applicants, only 10% made it to the interview session.
Now onto the interview parts
If you make it to this stage, meaning you’re so much closer to your goal and meaning your goal and everything are right. It’s time to prove that you are what you wrote in that essay. I only have a few tips
1. Practice, practice, practice. There are lots of predicted questions available online for you to practice. If you need some, feel free to contact me
2. The questions are all related to your essay; some are additional questions that I’m sure all of you can answer if you are truly prepared. There are no weird questions at all.
3. Be specific about what you want to do in the UK besides studying. Don’t just say you love football and eating. Say something else about the internship, maybe? Or anything else that is available in the UK and can help your career
4. A plus point. Give something unique about yourself; for example, I said that I love classical music and say my name is Moudy, not moody. That way, they remember you of something. Another example is alumni who even gave a brief story of his name background.
5. Lastly and most importantly. I believe that I was chosen because I’m quite an efficient speaker. I always say things to the point and never take a long time to tell a story. Therefore, when answering every question, be effective, efficient, clear, concise, kalau bahasa Indonesianya jangan muter-muter, but make sure all points of questions are addressed. Don’t ever answer a question for more than 2 minutes, in my view. The more efficient you answer something, the more questions could be given by the panel, which means they can get to know you better.
For the references, I would suggest having your bosses become your references instead of your former lecturer. Make sure they can vouch for your experience and skills.
What Did I Do Wrong and What Do I Do Differently Now?
Three years ago, my essay got shortlisted, yet I failed the interview session. Two years ago, I was so busy with my job I did not have time to write a good essay, so I failed before getting shortlisted.
In my view, I failed because of failing to answer the six questions I wrote above. Let’s give an example. I have given a glimpse of my Chevening essay this year above. So I will tell you about my essay three years ago and where I failed.
I worked in a PR agency, yet I applied to the Development Studies program at LSE. Working in a PR agency, I did not know any development issues holistically and thoroughly. So I went there and went on an interview with the Chevening panel, yet failed to prove the development problems and how I could address them. I could only give a vague future plan like ‘I want to be a development practitioner to address poverty. Which btw is not good and clear enough. Be super-specific and realistic. I believe in my first attempt, my leadership and networking essays were not that problematic. Yet my study and future plan were vague and wrong in many ways.
Going onto the second year, I failed to get shortlisted. My best guess is first, in the study plan, my three-course choices are development studies and international communication. So so so different. Alumni told me, ‘why don’t you find something in between that combines the two studies? If it’s like this, it doesn’t show any focus and seems like you’re confused’ finally, I listened to her for my third attempt.
Another point is definitely my future plan. I did not know what I wanted to be and said I want to continue to work at my current office and be an Executive Director without a clear explanation. The same alumni asked why why why. And yet I could not answer due to having a personal identity (LOL) crisis.
Now, I know what and who I am. What are my strengths, what do I have, and what are experiences that can support me to achieve my goal and study plan. When everything is so clear, I think the panel of judges can sense that too.
That’s a bit of explanation about Chevening. Next is about beyond Chevening.
Another important point to note is to prepare everything else and not just Chevening itself.
1. You must be prepared with your University application. Make sure you do it simultaneously and NOT wait until you are shortlisted (or even selected as the scholars). Having an LOA during your interview is an advantage which showcases that you take this seriously
2. University selection: please don’t be too lazy (or mager in Indonesia) to research the program that you need, according to your interest. You have to prove why this Uni is perfect for you and not just ‘this school has a good ranking
3. Make sure you write the personal statement accordingly. Put your achievements there, what you have been working for that are related to the course you’re applying for, your plan and how this course will help you get there. In my case, LSE gave three questions outside the personal statement I wrote (like why do you need a theory, what do you think about the new media etc.), so make sure you read the whole website page of your chosen course THOROUGHLY.
4. More critical, PLEASE HAVE A MENTOR that had studied your field check on your personal statement too. You might want to know what is lacking from the expert.
5. IELTS. Many people came to me and said they would start their scholarship journey from IELTS. For me personally, the answer is no. When you are applying for a scholarship, ALWAYS PREPARE FOR THE WORST. This is my third attempt applying for it, and because three attempts mean three years, I had to do IELTS twice. Meaning more money to waste. Imagine some of my fellow scholars who had to go through six years round of Chevening applications. Some of you might find IELTS costs a lot of money. So when you are applying for Chevening, please be aware that you might fail and calculate how many times you want to take IELTS. I suggest taking IELTS 1 month before you apply for the Univ (I applied for the Univ 4 months after I applied for Chevening). That way, you know that your IELTS will not go wasted. Don’t let your IELTS sit there for over three months.
6. To learn IELTS, I used several methods.
a. Reading: practice several free tests, which can be found on Google.
b. Speaking: watch some YouTube IELTS speaking examples and make friends with foreigners to practice your English.
c. Listening: open many free tests on Youtube and practise once a day.
d. Writing: THE HARDEST PART BECAUSE THE STANDARD IS UNKNOWN. Subscribe to writeandimprove.com to know your predicted score and how to improve (it’s not so expensive around USD 8 I think). And do watch Youtube about writing tips according to each and different writing questions in IELTS
7. Prepare for everything else. 2 days after securing a slot at Chevening; I already know the accommodation that I will choose in London (and have been saving to pay the deposit). I took the TBC test 5 days after the love letter was received.
8. Prepare your passport way before. You don’t want to race with the clock, trust me. Have it at least in February like me. Unlike IELTS, your passport expires in 5 years
9. Have a mentor or even two if you could. A friend of mine even has different mentors for different University applications. So ambitious, right? But that’s the right mentality.
10. Join Facebook, Telegram, and every group to find the latest information about the application. And to watch your competitors, too lol just kidding
11. Finally, don’t just apply for one scholarship. You always have to have a backup plan. I will be making a different story for LPDP.
That’s it, all in all, Chevening will be opened soon so don’t forget to apply!!!!
Let me know if you have more questions outside what I have written above.
Annexe
My Chevening timeline
1. Mid-August: had written all rough essays of Chevening and personal statement for LSE
2. Late August: applied for ID Chevening Alumni mentorship program (do follow their Instagram)
3. Late October: submitted my Chevening application
4. December: took IELTS at British Council Senopati
5. 14 February: got shortlisted by Chevening
6. February: I renewed my passport
7. 21 February: applied for LSE
8. 25 March: got into LSE
9. 29 March: went to Chevening interview
10. 30 June: got selected for Chevening
