Scholarships 101

If you’re a young musician, applying for scholarships is likely a significant part of your life, especially if you’ve moved away from home to study or are trying to establish festivals and concerts. Receiving scholarships, though, is where it gets tricky - how do you convince foundations and grants that you need money?

First and foremost, “I need money” is not an argument. Literally anyone is capable of spending more money than they have right now, given the resources.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d be willing to bet you wouldn’t randomly come up to a stranger on a street and ask for money, just like that. Why would it be any more acceptable to approach a foundation with the same question?

It isn’t. If anything, it’s worse than the example above, because nobody ever approaches a foundation to ask for directions, or to say hi - the only thing you have in common with every other person that writes to a foundation is that you want the same thing. Money.

So really, the problem with the example above is in the question: stop trying to prove *why* you need money. The foundations know that you do, simply because you wouldn’t be getting in touch with them if you didn’t. So don’t waste your time proving the obvious.

The key question is: you need money… to do what?

And as you consider your answer, I will take a moment to explain my motivation. I relocated to Switzerland as a teenager, in order to pursue early music studies in Basel. My life was far from rosy back then, especially at the beginning. I wouldn’t have been able to even finish the first year, had I not received external financial help. It was a stressful and difficult time, but to my surprise, I quickly realised that I had a knack for applying to foundations (which is easy) and having my applications be approved (which is not easy at all!). Many of my applications were granted. I would be granted scholarships infamous for being unattainable, on the first try.

I’m not going to pretend that my situation was more difficult than that of many other students, but it also wasn’t merely luck that gave me such good fortune in applying to foundations. Rather, what set me apart was that I had an understanding of what the foundations were actually looking for, and that made my applications stand out. I spoke their language, as it were. To me, it was a matter of survival, so I know it’s possible to complete your studies and grow towards future employment with sustainable support from foundations.

Now I’d like to share with you the insights based on my own experience. And through that I want to encourage other financially underprivileged students to seek help. You are not alone, and there are many good people out there willing to support you on your path…indeed, foundations actually want nothing more than to give away their money, it’s why they exist! So it’s enough talking about me - I’ve been there, done that. Let’s discuss what you’re up to. Let’s talk about what foundations really want from you - your skills, your worth, and even your reliability.

You commit your time and effort to asking foundations for money because you believe they can be convinced to do that. (If you had no hope whatsoever, you wouldn’t bother.) So now we’re getting closer to the point: you apply to foundations because you already believe that in some way, you are worthy of receiving support. That you have skills or possibilities that can be valued by others.

Good. Now, what exactly are those skills and perspectives? What skills do you possess that make you worthwhile, unique, attractive?

Answering this question might be intimidating, can even make you question the conclusions I drew previously. That’s ok, even understandable. It’s ingrained in us to be humble and not to brag. However, it’s important to understand the difference between bragging and doing justice to your own skills and experience. You need to learn to talk about them objectively, openly, and unapologetically in order to ensure support for what you’re doing. Learning to do that might be decisive for the “to be or nor to be” of your art. Believe me, it’s worth it.

One of my favourite quotes about money is this:
“Money augments who you are.”
It stands as a pragmatic negation to the common, yet annoingly naïve Robin-Hood-esque view on life, where vilifying money seems to provide easy answers to all troubles. I’m not necessarily asking you to agree, but take this quote as an exercise and consider: how would money augment who you are? Or, if you had more money, what else would you be able to do?

I am writing this post thinking primarily of helping my fellow art students, so I will be using examples from this field:

⁃ You’re applying for financial help because you’re studying. Would receiving it allow you to work less outside of your course of study, thus helping you to commit more to the studies and achieve better results?

⁃ You might be facing severe financial hardship which may force you to interrupt or terminate your studies early. No party involved in your education benefits from such course of events; don’t be afraid to talk about this with the foundation, it’s not your fault.

⁃ You’re likely enrolled at a prestigious institution with an international artistic environment. Do you see these circumstances as a privilege proving to a degree of excellence you already represent? Do you realise the potential and perspectives for future employment offered by such environment?

⁃ Travel and participation in international events is a crucial part of artistic education. Have you ever missed out on an opportunity to attend a masterclass or a competition due to lacking financial resources?

⁃ Language skills are essential on today’s job market. Would you benefit from attending a language course, if time and money allowed that?

⁃ You’re an artist. Do you plan your own artistic or scientific projects that would further your studies and your own growth, and need resources for their fulfillment?

These are some very basic questions. I am sure there is plenty more you could talk about, if asked. Each of us has plans and dreams we would love fulfilled, if unrestricted by our financial reality. What are these for you? What would you need to make them true? THIS is what you write to the foundation about. Don’t wait to be asked - go out there and make your dreams come true, by proving the worth of those dreams to others.
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I would love this to be the end of it. Such a dreamy ending would be a very hopeful and uplifting final note. However, reality is much more about calculation and paperwork than we like to think. Let’s come back to Earth.

How do the foundations know they can trust you at all with these plans? For them, supporting you financially is like a purchase without knowing what exactly they’ll get in return for their money (basically a gamble). So the second, crucial part of your application is proving your credibility. I will discuss this in a seperate post, otherwise this one would become unbearably long. At the moment, I wish you all the best in acquiring resources necessary for fulfillment of your plans, and I hope this text has given you hope and some ideas how to structure your future applications. Good luck!