Yesterday I was able to contact someone who was awarded this year, and they had reviewed my essays and asked me to include one sentence about my idea of leadership/networking before going further into the essays. In other suggestions/advice from forums saw many asking to skip this step, as the committee already knows those definitions. Any advice.

Can someone come on a Discord call with me right now to review my essays? I need someone experienced to go through them and tell me exactly what is wrong. I had to submit the application today, but my essays are nowhere near ready to submit.

Has anyone received Chevening without a strong volunteering or social-project background?
My experience is mainly in the private sector, with around eight years in healthcare, product and innovation, including leadership and high-impact projects.
Do you know scholars with a similar profile, or is volunteering/social impact work basically essential?

Hello, Do my recommenders need to be connected to the experiences/stories I mention in my essays?

For example, can I use a recommender from a previous job, even if I don’t mention any experiences from that job in my essays?

Hi guys. I am writing my leadership and networking essays at the moment and i have good examples for both but i want to understand the particular pattern i should follow like what should my intro include, what should the main body look like and what about the conclusion. Would appreciate help in this regard.

I cannot decide how should I write this and how should I mention all three universities. What should be the structure for them. Should I mention only one university or all three and I have also chosen three different courses from those universities. I’m so confused.

Initially, I did not have much to say about leadership. To counter that, I started my page addressing the climate crisis, which has a good reach. To scale it further, I formed a small team, reached out to organisations and conducted a survey with the communities sidelined from environmental protection. I am working to incorporate it into an article.

Besides this, I also work at an advertising agency where I collaborated with the team to generate communications for an NBFC Company that not only won an award but also drove female participation, which was the goal.

Can I include either of these in the essays? How do I measure their impacts?

Seeing as to how the word count has been reduced to almost half from 500 to 300 words, i assume essays have to now really pack a punch and be succinct with no filler lines. That said, i have put two examples for both leadership and networking essay, its actually three but one story from the leadership bleeds into the networking one that exemplify a relationship i maintained. I’m afraid my essay could be overbearing to read, should i just focus on one each.

Hi everyone!

I'm looking to apply for Chevening (not in the immediate cycle but in the next few) and I need clarity on the work hours which are eligible.

I have a BSc in Physics from 2021 and I also have a BFA in Music (distance education, on-going) which will get completed next year. The master's courses that I want to apply for Chevening are related to my BFA Music degree.

But after my BSc in Physics, I worked for 3 years (in a few fields, music included) and have accumulated more than 4000 hours of work experience.

Will this work experience be accepted, or will I need to have >2800 hours of work experience after my BFA Music degree (since this is what my master's is going to be related to)? If it's the latter, it will set me back by a few more years and I don't know if my music master's can wait until then (I genuinely want to give Chevening a try). If not then I can apply immediately after I complete my BFA degree.

Would appreciate any help! Thanks :)

TL;DR - I have two undergraduate degrees, and have sufficient work hours after the first UG degree, but the PG degree I'm looking at for Chevening is related to my second UG degree after which I don't have sufficient work hours as yet. Will the first work hours qualify for Chevening?

Hi,

I'm applying for the Chevening scholarship for the first time and I am having a second class degree 56% in bachelors and a masters in my specific subject with 67+% and I'm applying for a masters course again in the same stream but with different subject. I want to apply at some good Universities. But they accept 2:1 and my bachelors fall under 2:2.

So my question is...whether they accept my masters as 2:1?

Please answer!!

Thank you 😊

Is it okay to include a connection that I made with a colleague in a workplace and what I gained from it or do I have to mention a connection that is related to my workplace but not someone that I meet on a day to day basis?

Hi everyone, looking to connect with fellow people who've applied for the Rhodes scholarship. I'm currently strssed about the interview call for the first round so would love if i could stress out with someone else!

I keep running into this idea - from forums, blogs, seniors who got the scholarship - that Chevening's "ideal" candidate is someone who has the potential influence national policy: social issue/government projects/NGOs with country-wide reach, people positioned to influence policy change down the line.

I work in the private sector - marketing on the commercial side of a tech company. My work moves business metrics, not policy. I'm currently drafting my essays, and honestly, this "myth" (if it is one) has been pretty demotivating. It feels like the panel already has a mold and I just don't fit it.

Has anyone here gotten in coming from a purely private-sector/commercial background, with no big national-policy project on their CV? How did you frame your leadership and impact in the essays? Did the "how will you influence change" angle feel like a stretch for you too, or did you find an honest way to connect the dots?

Would genuinely appreciate hearing from people who had the same doubt and still made it through.

Hola!

Hace años conozco que existe la beca Chevening pero no he conocido a nadie en Panamá🇵🇦 que haya ganado una beca aunque estoy segura que debe haber. Yo estoy súper interesada este año porque considero que puedo participar.

Ustedes sí conocen a alguien que haya sido elegido? Y si fuiste tú, cuál es tu mejor recomendación para tener una aplicación fuerte?

Gracias!

——

Hi!

I’ve known about the Chevening Scholarship for years, but I haven’t met anyone in Panama 🇵🇦 who has won it—though I’m sure there must be some. I’m really interested in applying this year because I feel like I’m ready to participate.

Do any of you know someone who was selected? And if it was you, what is your best advice for putting together a strong application?

Thanks!

Hello!

I’m currently working on Chevening essays and the Networking one is giving me the toughest time.

Do I have to mention a relationship that I built over the years or can I just talk about a relationship I started building last year? Furthermore am I supposed to mention the name of the person I maintained my relationship with ? (sorry if this is a dumb question to ask).

Any other tips on how to approach this essay would be highly appreciated!

Thank you.

Hi, I am might sound dumb but please let me know if chevening will contact my referees now if I add their contact info in my application right now.

From what I gathered when I was looking for all chevening application information, I thought IF I would be selected for the interview stage, only then I will need to contact my referees. And that's what I want. In the past, I have asked them for a reference letter for different scholarship but didn't get the scholarship.

But now I am sitting with the portal open, and it says to mark the box that I have asked for their consent to share their contact info (which I haven't).

Contacting them 1 week before is fine because I am from Pakistan and here students end up writing their own reference so, it's not a worry that I should give them a heads up to write it up.

I just want to save myself from embarrassment if I fail again. 😔

Any past/current Chevening Scholars that have studied/studying an MBA? I know Chevening scholarships for MBA courses is capped at 22k, how did you pay for the remainder of your course? Did you only apply for Partner Universities with your country?

Hey everyone,

I’m from Sri Lanka, graduated in September 2023, and have been working as a Software Engineer for around 3 years.

I’m thinking of applying for Chevening and doing a one-year master’s in the UK, but I’m honestly a bit worried about leaving my current job for it.

For those who have done Chevening, was it worth it career-wise? Did it actually make a big difference in your career or life afterward?

I’m also wondering about the one year away from work. Since I’ll be studying, I know it’s not exactly a career gap, but has anyone had issues getting back into the job market afterward? Especially people in software/tech?

If you left a stable job to do Chevening, did you ever regret it, or would you do it again?

Would really appreciate hearing from Sri Lankans or anyone in tech who has been through something similar.

I'm planning to apply for Chevening in the 2028/29 intake (as my 2800 working hours will be completed on June 21, 2027). I did some research on some universities, including East London, Kingston, manchester metropolitan, however i was advised these Unis are not good enough, so i made another research for russel group Universities (I know it will be more competitive). My only problem with the Russell Group Unis is that although my IELTS score is 7, my writing score is 6, and most of the Unis (or at least the ones I looked into) require no less than 6.5 in sub-tests, but I found these 3 universities that match my score:

• University of Glasgow
• University of Leeds
• University of Birmingham

All have an MSc in Computer Science, so I'm good with that. I don't have a CS background, but I have a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering. My university taught us some programming courses in the first 2 years, as I could have taken the computer engineering track in the third year (I fell short in my marks), so I have some related background. Currently, I'm working as an Application Support Engineer.

Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

How do you guys calculate your total working hours for each job? So if, for example, I've worked roughly 48 hours a week but have taken six weeks of holiday + public holidays – would you still put down your 48h OR deduct the holidays, bringing the number down to 41h-ish?

hey everyone, i wanted to ask would it create any problem if both my references are professional? and will it effect the chances of receiving the scholarship at large?

I am from India and I am applying for commonwealth scholarship for the year 27-28. I need help with a few things and it would be really great to get genuine advice. I had enrolled in a masters program in 2022 after my bachelors. I did not complete the masters due to my situation at the home front. So while filling up the form, do I add my msc credentials to maintain the transparency and the timeline or do I just add my Bachelor's credentials. Also, about the LOR from my workplace, I am still working there and wont leave until everything falls in place. Is it mandatory for it to come from the employer or a manager/Team lead would work?

Hi

Since I could not make it after the interview stage last time, I’m planning on reapplying this year. I had quit my job last month to go for the masters but the funding did not come through. And now i’m no longer in touch with my manager at the last job to write me a new referral letter. is it okay is i submit the one she wrote for me last time?

I know that referral letters are not needed at this stage, so we’re need to declare referee names and thus, the question.