Scholarship Applications Editing and Proofreading Services

The financial section asks the applicant to describe their circumstances. They write two sentences, because writing more feels like begging, and one of the sentences is an apology for asking. A panel with forty applications and eleven awards cannot distinguish between an applicant who needs the money and one who is embarrassed, so they fund the ones who explained.

We edit scholarship, bursary and award applications — financial need and circumstances statements, personal and academic statements for funded places, essays on specific prompts, applications for hardship and emergency funds, references and the briefs given to referees, and the renewal and reporting documents that follow an award. Our editors work on a section applicants find humiliating to write.

The financial need statement is where most scholarship applications are decided, and its failure is either silence or an apology. A panel is allocating a fixed sum and needs a basis on which to compare. We work through these so the circumstances are stated as facts with figures — household income, dependants, who else is supported, the cost the applicant faces and the shortfall — since a panel cannot rank feelings and can rank numbers; so the shortfall is calculated rather than described, because the useful sentence is not that funds are limited but that there is a stated gap between income and cost; so what the applicant is already doing about it is included — the hours worked, the savings applied, the other applications made, the family contribution — given that panels fund people who are contributing rather than people who are waiting; so no apology appears anywhere, since scholarships exist to be given and an apology invites a panel to feel they are doing a favour rather than making an investment; so anything unusual is explained plainly in a sentence, whether that is an estranged family, a caring responsibility, an immigration status or a change of circumstances mid-course; so the consequence of not receiving the award is stated honestly, because "I would have to withdraw" and "it would be difficult" are different facts and only one of them is urgent; so the required documents are attached and referenced; and so the statement is written in the applicant's own register rather than in borrowed formal language. Statements written this way get funded.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including financial information, family circumstances and unsuccessful applications. We are editors rather than funders, panels or financial advisers, and we offer no view on eligibility, need or any decision. What we can do is let you say it without apologising.