Through my time in school, I landed some of the most prestigious scholarships.

Throughout the course of my undergraduate years, I kind of had no idea what to expect going into the workforce and applying into programs and internships. My parents never went to school and finished, so when I was even applying to schools, I didn’t really have help realizing what was the right school for me.

However, I knew I wanted to study abroad in Korea, and found out about a fully funded State Department program: the National Security Language Initiative for Youth. I was rejected the first time I applied my junior year of high school, but my senior year I won the full scholarship and studied abroad in South Korea for six weeks before moving to college.

In college, I also had very little support. I won a full scholarship to the International Writing Program’s Summer Institute, which I found out about through chance. I attended a program in Iowa for two weeks and had workshops with writers and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

I kept applying to the Critical Language Scholarship, was rejected twice, and received it my third try. But because of COVID-19, I did not receive a full scholarship to study in India. Instead I was in my childhood bedroom studying Bangla.

Then, in graduate school, I had a major series of wins. I was named an alternate for a second CLS my first year, and my second year, I switched languages and won another CLS for Korean. Right after that, I found out I won a Fulbright Research Award for Arts in Kolkata, India, and a month after that, I won a Boren Fellowship.

Here are some of the biggest tips that helped me throughout all of these processes.

Know your story, and be ready to tell it. Let them know what makes you special.

When it comes to really competitive scholarships, I think you really need to be able to hone in on what makes you special. For example, there might be hundreds of other people with the same exact major as you, taking the same exact classes.

So what’s your story? What makes you different than someone else in the crowd? We all are distinguished by our stories, but sometimes the people who win the most at these kinds of competitions are the ones who can articulate their stories and goals the most.

For example, I always incorporate the fact that I am Iranian American who was raised in a low income household in Baltimore, and so memories I might bring up would be how I grew up in my family’s restaurant, or how my father cooking Iranian food on his day off was my lens into the world and the people living on the other side of it.

Before you sit down to write, look at the prompts and think about how you can make this personal. What brought you here, to this moment of applying?

Really look at the missions of these programs and understand how to tailor your experiences to them.

When it comes to scholarships for certain kinds of research, study abroad, etc., really take the time to go onto the program’s website and dig deeper. Maybe if they have an alumni base, look at who is on LinkedIn and see if there are any common threads connecting all of these people together.

Reach out to them if you’re brave. What really got the ball rolling for me was looking at other people’s essays—that’s when I began to see certain patterns and it clicked for me. I applied these lessons in my own, unique way, and that’s what ultimately got me these scholarships and fellowships.

As you go on the websites though, note down some of the key words in the mission. For example, the Boren Scholarship/Fellowship always asks questions about national security and how your project connects to it. You better make sure you put national security into those essays, or you’re not going to win the scholarship or will be at a severe disadvantage.

Don’t knock yourself out of the competition prematurely—just apply.

I talk to a lot of students for my job on campus when in graduate school, and I discover one of the biggest things I encounter, especially with students of color from low income backgrounds, is that they are not competitive enough for these kinds of programs.

When you have this kind of mentality, you’re never going to apply and win these scholarships. Sometimes you just need to keep applying around and see if something sticks. I applied to the Critical Language Scholarship a grand total of five times. The first two times I was straight up rejected. The third I landed it. The fourth I was an alternate. The fifth I won it again.

A common misconception is that these programs are for elites. I think you have the time and finances to do a CLS, for example, for a summer, you should just apply. There are an increasing number of students from diverse backgrounds I’m noticing.

Be ready to plan ahead and devote time to these applications.

I started my Fulbright application all the way back in March 2023, when the application wasn’t due until October 2023. A big part of application building, especially when you haven’t done it before, is to reach out to people at your school. All of these processes take time, and you should go through multiple drafts for the bigger programs.

If you have a writing center, go them and run over your essays with them. If you have a scholarships advisor, ask them for advice. Some schools even run programs where they help you extensively with these apps.

I go to an okay state school and was lucky enough to have an amazing scholarships office. For Fulbright, they paired me up with a professor who helped me with my essays and even walked me through the IRB process, although it was determined in the end that I did not need it.

Remember—don’t be too passive with your writing.

This is a general writing tip, but you don’t want to say “I may pursue a PhD” or use wording that loosely implies that you might do something or not.

Think about using “will” a lot, even if you’re not 100% confident you’re going to do something. Obviously you do not want to lie at all on these applications. Do not lie. But say “I will pursue a PhD in XYZ, utilizing the research/language/etc. from this scholarship to further my work there.”

That sounds a lot more concrete than “I am considering a PhD.” They’re going to go for someone with the same qualifications that asserted it more confidently because that shows a clear path, rather than someone who might not know.

In reality, none of us truly know fully what we’re going to do. So maybe don’t feel as bad about saying “will.”

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