【Information and Tips】Application for the Schwarzman Scholars
- 1. Eligibility requirements
- 2. Required application materials
- 3. Required and/or expected qualifications
- 4. Tips for preparing the application materials
- 5. Conclusion
In this article, I write on the information and tips about the application for the Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University. The Schwarzman Scholars is a fully funded one-year master program in China. If you were considering applying for the program, the article would be helpful as this includes such information as eligibility, application materials, and some tips on the application. Even if you were thinking to apply for other undergraduate or graduate schools, “4. Tips for preparing the application materials” would be useful. In addition, if you were interested in the Schwarzman Scholars, you would have similar interests in the Yenching Academy of Peking University as well. So I will write about the Yenching Academy too later just as I did for the Schwarzman Scholars because the Yenching’s application deadline is not to come yet (FYI: the Yenching’s application deadline is December 7th 2018, 12:00 noon, Beijing Time).
＊The application for the Schwarzman Scholars’ class of 2021 (starting at September 2020) is closing at September 26th 2019, 11:59pm, Eastern Daylight Time.
★You want to understand what the Schwarzman Scholars is? Then, you can refer to the following article first:
★You wonder why study in China? If so, here is another article you can check out:
★Website of the Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University:
https://www.schwarzmanscholars.org
★Website of the Yenching Academy of Peking University:
1. Eligibility requirements
Requirements you must meet to apply for the program are three things listed below:
1. Undergraduate degree or first degree from an accredited college or university or its equivalent
* Applicants who are currently enrolled in undergraduate degree programs must be on track to successfully complete all degree requirements by August 1, 2019. Your major could be anything.
2. Age Requirement
*Candidates must be at least 18 but not yet 29 years of age as of August 1, 2019
3. English language proficiency
*If you are not a native English speaker, you must submit a score of TOEFL PBT or TOEFL IBT or IELTS. Minimum scores for each test are 600 for TOEFL PBT, 100 for TOEFL IBT, and 7.0 for IELTS, which means if you cannot get these scores, you even cannot apply for the program.
There are some descriptions about nationality, GPA, class rank, and course requisites in the Schwarzman website, but basically anyone can apply for the program with whatever situation. You can refer to the website for more detailed information. https://www.schwarzmanscholars.org/admissions/eligibility/
2. Required application materials
Application for the Schwarzman Scholars is super tiring and hard because the program requires many application materials with high quality. It is really hard...haha But, fortunately, the application for the class of 2020 seems slightly easier than before as the number of materials decreased a bit.
Required materials listed in the Schwarzman Scholars’ website are just as following. By submitting all the materials through their online application system, you can complete the application for the program.
- Statement of Purpose and Leadership (750 words)
- Current resume/CV (less than 2 pages)
- Transcripts/Academic records (If transcripts are not in English, official translations must be included)
- Three electronic letters of recommendation (At least one of these letters must come from a recommender who can comment on the specific examples of leadership described in the candidate’s application)
- Current Affairs Essay (less than 500 words=you can pick the contemporary issue which is interest of you)
- Video (up to one minute=you can introduce yourself with your own style) * Submission of a video is strongly recommended but not required
- Score of English language proficiency tests (If you are not a native English speaker, you must submit a score of TOEFL PBT or TOEFL IBT or IELTS. Minimum scores for each test are 600 for TOEFL PBT, 100 for TOEFL IBT, and 7.0 for IELTS, which means if you cannot get these scores, you even cannot apply for the program.)
Some tips for preparing these application materials are summarized in “4. Tips for preparing the application materials.”
3. Required and/or expected qualifications
This section is totally what I guess about the qualifications you better have in order to get in the Schwarzman Scholars. First of all, I guess one of the most required things by the Schwarzman Scholars is “the potential to become a global leader who is equipped with the ability to deal with the new politics and economy of the 21st century.” The new politics and economy of the 21st century is understood as a new world order appearing as China rises. In other words, the Schwarzman Scholars (students) are expected to become distinguished people in such fields as politics, economy, society, and science of the new world after they graduate from the program. That is why I feel the Schwarzman Scholars puts a great weight on the scholars’ leadership experiences and potentials. And I guess leadership experiences here are not simply like you became a leader of some organizations, but more like you founded sort of organizations or you led some initiatives to make an action and achieve something. It is actually also stated in the Schwarzman’s website that “candidates should avoid describing situations that might fall into one of the following categories, all of which are valuable learning and growth experiences, but do not give the committee a deeper understanding of the applicant's leadership characteristics over extended periods of time: (1) accomplishing a difficult but typical task assigned in the workplace (2) solving brief problems of cultural miscommunication while traveling or studying overseas (3) simply winning office in a student or community organization (It is, however, helpful, to describe the challenges faced and accomplishments achieved in office.) (4) brief situational challenges (focus instead on longer term projects and challenges.).” It is maybe tricky to distinguish leadership experiences from management experiences, but that’s important to distinguish and what the program wants is leadership experiences. Requirements for leadership experiences would be the most challenging thing for Japanese candidates as Japanese education doesn’t really put weight on leadership experiences and so Japanese people usually don’t have such experiences. If you seriously hope to apply and become a Schwarzman Scholar, it would be important and strategic to challenge something which could be your good leadership experiences. Even if you don’t become a scholar, such experiences would be valuable learning experince for you anyway.
GPA from your undergraduate/graduate schools or equivalent schools is very important too. Even though the application is open for anyone with whatever GPA (there is no minimum GPA requirement), I assume “excellent GPA from excellent universities” is expected. Although, in fact, most of the scholars seem to have “excellent GPA from excellent universities”, this is maybe not what the program intended to do, but just happened as a result of selecting candidates. Thus, if you were considering to apply for the program, of course it would be better to study hard and get as good grades as possible from whatever classes you enroll in.
In summary, the qualifications I listed above and below would be essential to get in the programs like the Schwarzman Scholars. But, the qualifications are not limited to them, and at the same time the lack of some of these qualifications doesn’t necessarily mean you cannot get in the program.
- Leadership experiences and potential
- Excellent academic records from excellent universities
- Capability to make persuasive and attractive application materials and video
- Unique and/or outstanding experiences
- Networks with a variety of people
- Excellent communication skill
- Excellent academic ability and intelligence
- Fluency in English
- “Something” which makes the admission committee want you (enthusiasm, grit, fortune, attraction, timing, future potential, “ “, etc)
Regarding the Chinese language skill, I think you don’t necessarily have to have Chinese skill because even though the program is in China, everything would be in English (but Chinese skill could be a plus if you have).
4. Tips for preparing the application materials
In this section, I want to write down some information that could be helpful in preparing the application materials.
1. Statement of Purpose and Leadership (750 words)
It’s important to briefly and clearly state the points you want to tell in this statement because you are required to write both statement of purpose and leadership experiences in the length of only 750 words. When writing the statement of purpose, you should make sure to clearly explain, “Why your goal is in line with the Schwarzman Scholars.” And you have to persuade the selection committee to believe that “you really need the Schwarzman Scholars in order to achieve your goal.” If you missed this point or your goals were just not in line with the program, it would be hard for you to get in the program. That’s why even if you were super smart and great, that wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a spot for you in the program as long as your goals and experiences have nothing to do with the program. Also, it would be effective to use personal stories to make the statement of purpose more interesting and attractive.
Regarding the leadership experiences, I believe the important point is to persuade the selection committee that “you have outstanding leadership experiences and motivation plus potential to be a future global leader.” And as I mentioned above, I guess leadership experiences here are not simply like you became a leader of some organizations, but more like you founded sort of organizations or you led some initiatives to make an action and achieve something. That’s why you should not really write about kind of experiences in which you simply completed assigned difficult tasks because that could be just taken as management experiences. The Schwarzman’s website even states that you should not write about that kind of experiences as leadership experiences. Also, the statement of leadership experiences would look even greater if that effectively matches with the recommendation letter about your leadership experiences.
2. Current resume/CV (less than 2 pages)
You should just make it simple and clear. You can also include your leadership experiences.
3. Transcripts/Academic records (If transcripts are not in English, official translations must be included)
All the transcripts must be in English. If you only have non-English versions, you need to ask official translators to translate them into English.
4. Three electronic letters of recommendation (At least one of these letters must come from a recommender who can comment on the specific examples of leadership described in the candidate’s application)
If it’s possible, it would be better to get recommendation letters from a variety of high status people. But I guess status of recommenders doesn’t necessarily affect the application too much. You should ask the ones who seem proper to be a recommender for the Schwarzman Scholars which is the program in China and they should be the ones who know you well somehow. It takes quite some time to collect all the recommendation letters because such people tend to be busy, so you should ask recommenders as soon as possible.
Also, I believe the contents of the recommendation letters matter so much. If you just ask your recommenders to write recommendation letters and leave everything up to them, the contents would be not that good because of their busy schedules or something. That is why you should explain well to them what kind of program you are applying for and what kind of points you hope them to emphasize in the recommendation letters when asking them for recommendation letters. You can be even better candidate if each recommender mentions different strong/good points of you and promotes you from all the different angles. For example, you need three recommendation letters for the Schwarzman Scholars and you can arrange like, the first one is mainly about your leadership experiences, the second one is mainly about your goal, activity, and enthusiasm regarding China, and the third one is mainly about your achievements and uniqueness. With this tactic, you can promote yourself more effectively.
And the length of the recommendation letter shouldn’t be too short or too long. I think around 500 words would be fine.
5. Current Affairs Essay (less than 500 words=you can pick the contemporary issue which is interest of you)
It seems like you can write about whatever topics you want as long as that is current affairs. Important points of this essay would be whether you have knowledge and ability to analyze current affairs well and whether you can suggest realistic solutions for that. So you can work on this essay just as you write academic paper for your classes. Given that the essay is only up to 500 words, you need to organize your argument well and make it clear, logical, and persuasive.
6. Video (up to one minute=you can introduce yourself with your own style) * Submission of a video is strongly recommended but not required
Even though the submission of a video is optional, it seems better to submit a video. This is because the Schwarzman’s website states “Submission of a video is strongly recommended but not required” and you can present yourself in a more direct way (but remember that a video could leave negative impression as well depending on how you make it).
I think the content of a video could be anything as long as it can describe who you are. Since the important point of a video is to promote yourself, the content is the most critical thing. That is why you don’t have to make a well-edited cool video. If the content (what you speak) is good, you can just use your laptop to record it and that should be totally fine.
5. Conclusion
If you passed the super competitive first selection, you would be invited to take an interview as a semi-finalist in either of Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok(?), London, or New York. And the expenses you need to go take an interview will be fully funded by the Schwarzman Scholars. In these places, high-level figures from business, politics, non-profit organizations and universities are waiting to take an interview with you directly. That would be so nervous and challenging though.haha
However, if you are interested in China, Asia, and the world, I am sure that the Schwarzman Scholars is one of the best programs so that I wish you the best with your application, interview, and life as a Schwarzman Scholar as well as future career and challenges beyond. Good luck!
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