For those working on Marshall applications for the Fall 2016 cycle, below are some points to review carefully. Yes, it’s detailed and dense, but that’s all part of working through the application process!
- The FAQ’s can be found http://www.marshallscholarship.org/applications/faqs
- The Commission emphasizes that in appointing Scholars the selectors will look for candidates who have the potential to excel as scholars, leaders and as contributors to improved UK-US understanding. Assessment will be based on academic merit, leadership potential and ambassadorial potential.
- Academic Proposal: the question has changed to: Candidates should describe below their proposed academic programme, giving reasons for their choice of course and preferred university. Those hoping to read for a research degree should give an outline proposal of the research they wish to undertake and with whom they would like to work. Candidates should also include a brief outline of why they have chosen their second choice courses and institutions. This means that candidates should include something about their second choice institutions and courses.
- Review the Commission’s criteria on leadership potential: http://www.marshallscholarship.org/applications/leadershippotential and think carefully about how you embody these criteria.
- Recommendations: after you have confirmed with me (first step) who your recommenders will be and have confirmed with your recommenders that they will provide letters for you (second step), please enter their information in the following order: Primary recommender first and then identify them as such. Two and three as normal and four should be the recommender who is going to talk about their leadership. It is still optional for applicants to have a leadership recommender, so if you don’t have one, the fourth recommender can be anyone, but the application pulls the letters of recommendation in the order the names were entered into the system so it will make it easier for Marshall readers if you do this.
- Please make sure you check the list of courses that the Marshall does not fund. The MSc International Health and Tropical Medicine (University of Oxford) and MSc Law and Finance (University of Oxford) have been added to the list this year.
- One year Marshall applicants: The rules state for the one year Scholarship that “One year candidates must be registered for degrees that are 12 months in duration. Courses that run for 10 months or less, ie where the course ends before August will not be funded on the one year Scholarship.”
- Degrees that are less than 10 months include the Part III in Mathematics at Cambridge, some of the MPhil’s at Cambridge and most of the MSt’s at Oxford. Please ensure you have checked the length of the courses they wish to undertake. These degrees are possible as part of a combination of degrees in the two year Scholarship.
- A reminder that the Marshall website includes videos of Marshall Scholars’ experiences and an updated Scholar experiences page. You can find these at http://www.marshallscholarship.org/scholars/my_marshall and http://www.marshallscholarship.org/scholars/scholars_experiences.