Introduction
I would like to preface this post by saying that I am by no means an expert on winning scholarships. However, throughout my graduate degree, I have had to apply to a number of different funding sources like grants, scholarships, research awards. In total, I have secured around $200,000 in total funding. This number sounds impressive but remember that this amount is spread across five or so years of graduate school (which the math quickly renders less cool).
Some places I have received funding from include:
- Social Science and Humanities Research Council
- Canadian Sleep Society
- Canadian Psychological Association
- Mitacs
- National Register of Health Service Psychologists
- …and a few travel and teaching grants and awards.
This post is meant to provide some reflections about strategies that can be helpful to increase your chances for success. For those of you starting graduate school in clinical psychology, I hope this post provides a few insights that help you on your journey to secure funding.
Recommendation #1: Make sure you apply
A certain someone once said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Many students decide against applying for research funding, travel grant, or leadership award because they feel like they won’t get it, or they don’t deserve it. Imposter syndrome makes a fool out of all of us.
There have been many times where I did not think I would be successful in applying, but I gave it a shot anyways. Sometimes I was right. Other times, I was pleasantly surprised.
You lose nothing by applying. In fact, I think you stand to benefit a lot even if you don’t get the award. For example, I think of grant writing as a skill. You learn to write concisely and in a way people understand; to manage time and organize information properly; and to sell your ideas as something that is worthwhile and deserves money. By practicing through applying for awards, these types of skills can be cultivated over time and increase your chances of success down the road. Moreover, they are important skills even beyond grant writing.
If you think “this was a success just because I gave it a shot,” then it’s a win-win either way!
Recommendation #2: Start doing some research early
Research experience tends to be a big priority in evaluations for funding. It helps to start accruing some amount of research experience early and get a couple wins under your belt.
For example, when I joined my lab, I hit the ground running by analyzing a bit of data to apply to research conferences. Typically, the bar for being accepted to a conference is much lower than a journal. Moreover, this sets you up to showcase your ability to perform as an independent scientist. Bigger funding grants tend to want evidence that you are going to be productive as a researcher (and the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour!).
Therefore, I would encourage you to seek out ways to do a little bit of independent research early on. It doesn’t have to be some cancer-curing work either. Just something that you would be able to write about to say that you are interested in research and able to start thinking like a scientist.
Recommendation #3: Participate in extracurriculars and university affairs
Beyond research, being part of the university community can be a great way to strengthen an application. This is especially true for leadership roles as well as initiatives that priority equity, diversity, inclusivity, justice, and wellness.
For leadership positions, there are quite a few that sound nice on paper but is not too time intensive. For example, I was the graduate student representative in the clinical psychology department as well as the larger grad studies program. I also joined a few committees that worked on improving grad experiences.
The emails for these positions pop up fairly frequently, especially in the beginning of the school year. Keep an eye on them to see if any might be a good fit – both for your prosocial desires as well as its benefits for applications down the road.
Recommendation #4: Do reasonably well in your classes
My supervisor always said to not strive for an A+ in graduate school and to just do reasonably well (A’s are pretty typical in graduate school – at least in clinical psychology). This is because folks down the road will not be putting much emphasis into your transcript as they did in undergrad.
Additionally, spending less time being perfectionistic in your classes gives you the time and mental bandwidth to focus on doing all the other awesome stuff that being a graduate student confers: attending conferences, teaching, joining committees, volunteering, research, among other things. Having reasonably good grades is important, but having a diverse amount of experiences will make you shine in applications.
Recommendation #5: Learn to write well and sell yourself
I have often found that my writing has improved the most when I looked at excellent writing from other people and wanted to emulate them. Being in graduate school means that there are no shortage of folks that you can use to inspire your own style.
When it comes to applying to awards and grants, it is important to write in a way that balances strong academic writing with being translational and understandable. Moreover, it is helpful to highlight early on why the work you are doing is important.
For example, if you are studying depression, you might write something to the effect of: “Major depressive disorder is a debilitating issue that affects a quarter billion people worldwide and leads to significant healthcare burden and loss of productivity.”
As early in the first sentence, you highlight the impact of the issue you are studying and why it is important to study. This draws the readers’ attention and makes them want to give you money to fund your work.
Therefore, it is important to be able to sell your work, as well as sell yourself that you are somebody who is capable of accomplishing this project. For any awards, it is also important to keep in mind the values or mission of the organization that is providing the funding and make sure the work you are doing (or the experiences you have) are consistent with these values.
Recommendation #6: Make it easy for other people to support you
Oftentimes, applications will require letters of support from advisors and/or peers. Contrary to more pessimistic views, most people are more than happy to see you succeed. However, folks are also very busy in their own lives.
Therefore, I believe it is very important to make these folks’ lives as easy as possible when it comes to supporting your applications. Help them out by writing a draft of the support letter, providing examples of what they could write about, and providing deadlines and steps on how to submit the recommendations.
Above all, just be kind and help other folks out when they need support. If you are the type of person that people can cheer for without reservation, they will go out of their way to help you succeed.
Best of luck with your scholarship applications!
Best wishes,
P
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