It was the J. Armand Bombardier Internationalist Fellowship this time. They lose points for sending out rejections by email. “Dear Applicant…” It was always a long shot, with 678 applicants for 25 fellowships and what I am told is a strong preference for people aiming at French language related programs.
Now, there are only two small ones left, plus the departmental bursary: for which all of these rejections (Commonwealth, Chevening, ORS, Bombardier, etc) are actually an advantage. I have never actually received any scholarship for which an application was necessary: only automatic faculty and departmental scholarships and UBC and funding offers from grad schools other than Oxford.
Any friends out there who applied for this and don’t get an email in the next few hours, take heart. A cool $10,000 might be coming your way.
[Unrelated] Someone left a link to this optical illusion as a comment. It’s well worth a look.
Regarding one of those two remaining scholarships, the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund, the outlook does not look so good:
“Interviews will be held in London during the week commencing the 5th June for short listed candidates. Students must make themselves available in London for interview on the selected interview dates in order to qualify.”
I haven’t heard anything from them. I may have a rejection notice waiting in my pigeon hole, which I’ve yet to check today.
It would be extremely valuable to have a better idea of why these applications keep failing. I applied for all the above scholarships, and more, last year as well.
Perhaps the All Souls exams that you mentioned before will save you.
Given your apparently strong academics, it is probably a relative lack of extra-curriculars that is hurting you. Unless your references are bad, that is.
Also, you might want to get some tips on ‘selling yourself’ from some of your many friends who you’ve mentioned have big prizes. It’s something I doubt you are very good at, given your approach to jobs and such.