How to Write a Killer Motivational Letter for a Bursary Application

Picture this scenario, you stumble upon an opportunity to obtain bursary funding for your university studies, and as you are about to apply for the said bursary, you see that you are required to write a motivational letter, but you have no idea what it is or how to write one. This particular situation happens to most students who are new to bursary applications because most of them often require motivational letters to be part of the documents that must be submitted, but don’t worry, this article has come to your aid.

What is a Motivational Letter?

A motivational letter is a letter written to convince the bursary awarders or trustees that you are worth their financial aid. This letter is expected to contain your personal information and academic results, but apart from all the formal stuff, these trustees also want to get a sense of who you are, what your hopes and dreams are for your life pathway, and what you have done until now to achieve your goals.

When writing your motivational letter for a bursary, you want to make it stand out among the hundreds or thousands of letters submitted by other applicants. This way you can grab the attention of the reader (the trustees) and increase your chances of becoming one of the bursary’s awardees.

How to Structure a Motivational Letter

A motivational letter is a formal letter and should look like one. If you don’t know how to structure a formal letter, here is a generic format:

• Your address, date, and contact information should be at the top left side of your application letter
• Now go write the name and address of the organization offering the bursary
• Make use of salutations e.g. dear sir/madam, to whom it may concern. If you know the name of the person who will be reading it eg John, write the salutation as ‘dear Mr John’
• Write your subject line or title stating the bursary you are applying for. Should be either in block letters or underlined.
• Your first paragraph should state the reason for writing the letter, which in this case should be the bursary and what qualification you wish to fund e.g. M.sc in Biotechnology.
• The second paragraph should contain your academic records (current degree, year of study) and achievements.
• The third paragraph should convince the reader by describing your financial need, career goals, how they might contribute to the good of society, and how the bursary fund can help you achieve these goals.
• You can finish off by expressing gratitude for the opportunity being given.
• On the bottom left side of the application letter, write ‘Yours Sincerely’, followed by your signature and full name.

You can check out the sample at the bottom of this article for more clarity.

Tips on Writing a Killer Motivational Letter for a Bursary Application

Follow these tips or keep them at the back of your mind when writing your letter so you can have a better chance of being selected as one of the awardees:

1. Your letter must be original. No form of plagiarism will be accepted. Do not use ChatGPT or other AI tools to generate your Letter’s content.
2. The tone of your letter should sound formal/professional at the same time sound interesting, convincing, personal, and genuine. Do not input any false information about yourself.
3. Make sure all required information such as academic records, and personal and contact info is complete.
4. You need to sell yourself. Write on your goals and personal achievements, why you need the bursary, and the state of your financial situation.
5. Assure the organisation of your commitment, and career goals and that you’ll work hard to meet all the requirements and expectations they set.
6. Proofread your letter at least twice. Avoid grammatical errors and write stronger sentences by eliminating filler and unnecessary words so that your letter will look more polished. You can use proofreading tools like Grammarly for this.
7. Make sure you stick to the required word count, which is mostly between 250-300 words. The Trustees receive hundreds of applications so they can’t be wasting time on yours.

Examples

For more clarity on how to structure and write your motivational letter, check out this sample. Please do not copy this, just use it as a guideline to write yours: