Student Blog

Tired of tedious part-time jobs and constantly imposed by financial burden? Unable to unlock your potential and understand your strengths and weaknesses through daily academic tasks? Don’t worry! Since SPA has got your back with an article series on steps to earn APU and non-APU sponsored scholarships, you can be relieved from financial burden and able to enjoy your APU journey to the fullest. Let’s hunt for some prestigious scholarships with the first article on the types of after-enrollment scholarships and application tips.

1. Types of available scholarships

From my personal experience as a scholarship hunter, I have to admit that APU is truly a ‘scholarship mine’ that financially and mentally supports enrolled students. Thanks to the scholarships, my life as well as those of many other students have changed for the better since we can focus on academic studies and contribute to the local community.
Overall, there are two main types of scholarships offered to APU undergraduates and graduates who hold outstanding academic performance or enthusiastically participate in extracurricular activities: APU sponsered and Non-APU sponsored.

All candidates for these scholarships will be assessed through Student Office Surveys(Essay) and interviews, or evaluated directly by non-APU scholarship sponsors. Details of application procedures can be easily accessed through the Campus Terminal and APU Student office Webpage.

My advice is that you should pay close attention to Campus Terminal notifications, since the application periods of different scholarships vary widely and some of the scholarship applications will even start in the middle of your summer or winter break. Watch out for the notifications and do not let opportunities slip out of your hands.

For more information, click the hyperlinks below:
For international students: https://bit.ly/2ZzC0Jo
For domestic students: https://bit.ly/37AWINv
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ANDO Momofuku Prize applications are now open!
(close 2021/4/2715:00 JST)

2. Application tips

The scholarship application tips mentioned as follows are provided by various scholarship recipients at APU. Not every tip can be applied to all available scholarships, but you can expect these to present you an overview of the factors that APU and sponsors are looking for in their candidates and recipients.

2.1 Essay writing tips:

Every scholarship application process at APU starts with the essay-writing task, whereby applicants usually have to submit four short essays through Student Offices surveys. The topic of these essays is designed to ask the applicants one crucial question: “Who are you?” Managing to answer this question faithfully, logically, and strategically will increase applicants’ likelihood of being chosen as potential candidates or recipients.

Tip 1: Answer faithfully with your experience:

The number one rule mentioned by most scholarship recipients is that applicants should not lie about their experience, future studying plans, or career goals. Admittedly, if you are a convincing writer, you can definitely write about untrue events and persuade APU selection committee members or sponsors, and get admission to the second round. However, that will not benefit you in the long run since the sponsors can background check your submitted information and fake information will harm you during direct interviews and result reports. Instead, make endeavors to write convincing and empowering essays based on your past experiences and future plans.

Tip 2: Answer logically with your ideas:

Another piece of advice is that all four essays should be closely interrelated so that sponsors can visualize who you are, what you have learned, and how you are applying lessons in reality. Whenever applying for scholarships, I start with choosing a cohesive theme for my essays, such as cyberbullying, disaster education, or violence, before drawing a mind map to organize my ideas. By doing this, my writings will not go off-topic, which helps me to present myself as a unique individual rather than one of a hundred finance-seeking applicants.

Tip 3: Answer strategically with your keywords:

When writing scholarship essays, you should not be filling your essays with random past events but with a sequence of relevant keywords to better demonstrate your ideas. In pursuit of that goal, before writing your essays, you should carefully read the goals (目的: mokuteki) of the scholarship so that you know which scholarship fits your studying and career plan. For example, I chose to apply to the JASSO Scholarship since the “mokuteki” of this scholarship, which is to promote international exchange, fits my future plan to participate in an exchange program. As a result, I will fill up my essays with relevant keywords such as “exchange,” “international,” “multicultural,” “mutual understanding,” and “diversity.” However, do not abuse this tip by cramming too many keywords; instead, highlight 3 to 5 keywords and use synonyms or antonyms to make your language more vivid and engaging.

These are all the essay-writing tips you should know to grab sponsors’ attention. Our next article will provide more useful tips on the interview process with the APU and other sponsors. Stay tuned and let’s rock some scholarships together!

Quynh Thi Xuan PHAN

Hello fellows and readers, I am Quyncey, a third year student majoring in Culture, Society, and Media. I am a creative writer with a passion for daily-life stories, social media, and cat memes. I hope that my articles on this page will offer you more insights into APU students' lives and other fascinating topics. If you are interested in any topic, do not hesitate to share your thoughts and ideas with us!