Writing a scholarship motivation letter

Your transcript shows a selection committee that you can do the work. The motivation letter is where they decide whether you are someone they want to fund, which makes it one of the most important parts of a scholarship application.

Committees read a great many of these letters, and many of them sound alike: the same opening about a lifelong passion, the same list of achievements already on the CV, the same closing promise to make a difference. The letters that are remembered make one specific, believable case about one person.

Before you write a word

Most weak letters are weak because the writer started typing before deciding what the letter was for. Spend half an hour answering three questions in rough notes first:

1. What problem do you want to work on? Not a field (“public health”) but a problem you have seen up close (“patient records lost between clinic visits”).
2. What have you already done about it? Two or three things, with what changed as a result.
3. What will this scholarship let you do that you cannot do now? Name the skill, the course and the role you are aiming for.

If you cannot answer the third question, the letter will drift into general praise of the university. Answer it first and the rest gets easier. Our motivation letter planner has space for these notes and prints on one page.

A shape that works

There is no single correct structure, and you should follow any format the funder sets. But most strong one-page letters share a similar shape: a short opening, a solid middle that proves you can do what you say, a clear plan, and a brief close.

The evidence section is the one most applicants underwrite. They spend three paragraphs on motivation and one line on what they have done, when committees need the reverse: enough concrete detail to believe the motivation.

Opening with something concrete

A weak letter begins with a broad claim. Anyone could write that sentence, so it tells the reader nothing about you. A better opening describes something that happened: a problem you noticed, a project you ran, a decision you had to make.

The second version is no longer, but it puts the reader in a specific place, shows a habit of solving problems, and sets up everything that follows. You do not need a dramatic story. An ordinary moment, described exactly, does the job.

Evidence: show what changed

For each example you use, give the reader three things: the situation, what you did, and what was different afterwards. Numbers help when you have them, but a plain description of the result is fine when you do not.

Two or three examples told this way are worth more than eight listed in passing. Choose the ones that connect to your plan, even if they are not your most impressive achievements on paper.

Connecting the award to a plan

A committee is paying for an outcome. Show the line that runs from where you are now, through the programme this scholarship would pay for, to what you will do afterwards and who benefits. The clearer that line, the more convincing the letter.

Explain why this scholarship, this course and this country suit your particular goal, instead of praising the institution in general terms. Name modules, research groups or practical training that you need, and say why. “I want to help my community” is vague, whereas a named sector, a named problem and the role you plan to take in it give the committee something to judge.

And leave out what the CV already says. The letter is for what a list cannot carry: your judgement, your motivation and where you are heading.

Writing for the funder

Read what the scholarship says it values and make sure the letter reflects it. Funders publish this, usually on the eligibility or selection criteria page, and it is worth copying their criteria into your notes before you draft.

• A leadership award will look for times you took responsibility and brought other people with you.
• A development-focused award will want a credible plan to apply the degree at home, and often a commitment to return.
• A research award will care most about the question you want to answer and why you are the person to answer it.

If the letter would work equally well for any scholarship, it needs more work before it goes to this one. Our guides to the big funders set out what Chevening, DAAD, Mastercard Foundation, Erasmus Mundus and Rhodes each look for.

Drafting and cutting

Good letters are rarely first drafts. Most are third or fourth drafts that have been trimmed. A sequence that works for many applicants:

1. Write a full draft quickly, over the limit, without editing.
2. Leave it for at least a day.
3. Cut every sentence that could have come from any applicant.
4. Check each paragraph against the funder’s criteria and your three questions.
5. Ask one person who knows your field and one who does not to read it.
6. Read it aloud. The sentences that make you wince are usually the clichés, and a tired reviewer will notice them too.

Final checks before you submit

• The opening describes something specific that happened, not a general passion.
• Each example says what you did and what changed.
• The plan names a course, a skill and a role, and explains how they connect.
• The letter mentions what this particular funder says it values.
• Nothing in it simply repeats the CV.
• It is within the word or character limit, including any title.
• The name of the scholarship and the university are correct, with no leftovers from another application.

The last point sounds obvious, but a letter addressed to the wrong scholarship is one of the quickest ways to lose a reader’s goodwill. For everything else that goes into an application, see the scholarship application checklist.