Best Practices

Be authentic

Throughout your application, bring out your authentic self. What this really means is that you must be honest and genuine. Faking it is going to only break it. When your experiences don’t add up to what you write, the reviewers will figure out that you’re bluffing. Being authentic, honest is the best way for you to put in a good application.

Bring out your focus theme

After your research and thought exercise, you should have finalised on the focus theme for your application. This would be a particular skill of yours that you wish to bring through and also a goal of yours to tie the story to. Through your essays, resume and recommendations, ensure that you keep reinforcing on your focus theme using examples and personal stories.

Be specific

Being generic, particularly in essays is very easy. But remember than one key way of making your application unique is by being specific about what you have done and what you intend to do further. You can do this in two ways:

1.By using personal experiences and stories - Quote an incident that suits where you demonstrated a skill. Share a personal challenge you went through.

2. By using numbers - You may also add in numbers to emphasise on the impact you have created.

3. By mentioning specific points and actions you plan to take - In places where you are expected to explain how you plan to use the opportunity and the rewards you get, be specific about what you plan to do, why and how you are going to do it.

Stick to Word limit

Most essays have a word limit. And such a limit has been kept because they want you to honour it. So stick to it as far as possible.

In some cases, if your essays go over the word limit, you may not be allowed to make a submission also. It is best to avoid such circumstances and instead stick to the limit.

Think from the Reviewers perspective

As you write your application, do keep in mind about what more the reviewers would need to complete your picture in their mind. This will help you account for most questions the reviewers might have while going through your application.