If I don't get this scholarship, I won't let it deter my hopes and future aspiration

Prompt: If you do not receive the MasterCard Foundation Scholarship, what are your plans for the next four years?

If I don't get this scholarship, I won't let it deter my hopes and future aspiration of changing the situation of things in my community. Over the next four years, I will still strive to gain the best education that I can because I know my dreams are heavily dependent on them. I will work even harder in order to attain my academic ambitions. So, I will continue to learn from the online courses and attend free workshops constructed to help me achieve my personal goals. I will also continue to look into other scholarship programs that may be interested in helping me to fulfill my dreams of getting a college degree. I will not give up on my dreams nor will I be weighed down by it. Although getting a scholarship is not be easy but even if it takes me longer than four years, I am determined to get a college degree and have a rewarding career afterwards.

I am presently a salesperson at a stationery shop, working no less than six hours a day. Although it has helped me with interpersonal relationship and overcoming timidity, I still want to get some programming skills as well as graphic design skills which I am really interested in. I am going to use my savings to get these skills by next year and hopefully serve an internship in a graphic design firm. I would also work freelance to get more experience. This would prove helpful in building myself as a multi-talented mechanical engineer.

Sure working and studying at the same time could have an adverse effect on my academic standing. But as Abraham Lincoln once said ''I walk slowly, but I never walk backward''. Therefore, with or without this scholarship, I will achieve my college dreams and improve the situation of my community. I will just have to work harder and study longer to achieve it. I won't give up by persevering in life, I know that the rewards at the end will be sweeter and well deserved on my part.

I am not really sure whether the arrangement of your plans seem okay or not. In my opinion, I might say that "if I fail to get MasterCard Foundation scholarship, I would still look for other possible scholarship opportunities rather than joining online courses or attending free workshops. I do believe that if plan A doesn't work, the alphabet still has B-Z / 25 letters left." This statement would be beneficial in convincing the selection committee that you are a hard-working person that has a great desire and passion to be the agent-of-change in your country.

However, the rest of the essay was okay I guess. The thing that you need to switch is the idea of continuing to look for other opportunities first rather than joining online courses or attending free workshops. Then, by prioritizing the scholarship opportunities, the selection committee will more likely to know that you are a person with a strong will. I don't say that your idea is bad, I just think that it is better to mention other scholarship opportunities first.

Nwanko, I have a different approach to the way that you should modify your essay for the prompt. You have to let the scholarship committee know that with or without the scholarship grant, you are not just going to give up on your educational ambitions. Instead, the loss of scholarship should serve as a personal inspiration for you to succeed in life, regardless of your setbacks.

That is why I would like you to highlight the fact that you plan to continue working at this shop and then enrolling at in a formal academic institution as soon as you are able to do so. Follow that up with the continuous education process through online classes, free seminars and other means that are available to you in terms of continuing your education. This shows the scholarship committee that you are a determined person whose ambition to complete your studies cannot be prevented and should therefore, be supported instead.

The mention of looking into other scholarships should be last on the list because it is always easier to continue your education using whatever means are available to you rather than constantly applying to other scholarships and hoping you will get one. What would happen to you if you never get a scholarship? Think in those terms. The scholarship should not be the only way that you can continue your studies. It should only be mentioned in reference to or as an option in relation to your continuous education as something that you will continue to pursue, but will not rest your educational future upon. Make it clear, scholarship or no scholarship, you will get the education that you badly desire and desire to have because you will not let anything stop you from achieving a better life.