Road to Erasmus...

Hi All!!

Well, I assume you’re here because you decided to give it a go for Europubhealth (EPH+) or you wanted to know about Erasmus Mundus scholarship or you just landed here. Whatever be the reason, I’m in high spirits (literally!!!) to share a bit of my experience to guide you towards applying for EPH+

 EPH+ doesn’t demand much: just a motivation letter, a recommendation letter and your CV but trust me, within just few years, Public Health arena has become a "Hot-Cake" so this scholarship has become tooooo competitive. Your supporting documents should really stand out and shine from thousands of others written from all over the world. 

Online application usually opens around first week of October (If you're applying for 2020-22 cohort, check the website ASAP because the application has opened) and the deadline is in January, which means you have an entire 3 months to prepare yourself to be distinct in the global market.

And here, as an EPH+ alumnus, I'd like to share you few tips  that helped me grab my scholarship and I hope, you all will find it useful. 

Motivation Letter: This is the highlight of your application. The most important thing to mention in it (as its name suggests) is why you’re motivated to choose public health as a part of your career. Students from diverse background (medical, paramedical, social sciences and etc.) are eligible to apply for EPH+ and in the motivation letter you should clearly specify why you are interested to get a degree in Public Health. Here, you can interlink your future career prospect with the specialization course you’ve chosen (for 2^nd year) and also connect the dots with your previous experience.

It’s simple. Just write about why you’re spending your time and intellect to write this motivation letter. It could be because you have some plans and may be some past experience in it. Just write those!!!

(P.S.: You can also mention about any EPH+ alumni whom you know and are in contact with and who inspired you to get enrolled in this program) 

Write…Rewrite…Write: As I mentioned, you’ll have 3 whole months to prep yourself but make sure you don’t procrastinate, so you better be an early bird and start writing it NOW!!

What I did for myself is, first I did some brainstorming and jotted them down in bullet points. Then, I looked for EPH+ website along with the 1^st and 2^nd year university website and matched my bullet points with what they offer versus what I really want! After writing my whole letter, I gave it to my sister for proofreading and then wrote again and gave it to review it to one of the Erasmus alumnus and wrote it again. Trust me; you won’t realize how 3 months passes by with all the reiterations.

Your CV: Along with writing your motivation letter, make sure you’re working on your CV as well. If you’ve gone through the criteria for eligibility, you must now know that they need CVs in Europass format.

Highlight your personal skills and cultural adaptability in the CV. Include if you’ve been engaged in any international projects or your professional experience around the world. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t have any (I didn’t have any prior to EPH+). Highlight your strengths: a good team player (as you’ll be doing lots of group work) also how autonomously you can function (as you’ll be on your own away from home), also any example of how initiative you are and your willingness to be a part of EPH+.

You can also brag about any international seminar, conference, symposium you've attended or organized, your publications, your involvement in any social organizations etc etc.

Again, mention all the good points you know of yourself that you think is relevant for the CV. 😆

Recommendation Letter: You’ll need two of these (one each from your academic and professional career) so, be clever and choose such person who can really write good things about you. And, make sure they write a personalized letter especially for you and not the general one they write for every student and co-worker. And I hope, the respective person writes the recommendation letter in their organization letter-heads which will make it look more authentic. 

Also, let them know in advance that they’ll be the ones who will be uploading the recommendation letter (for some other Erasmus programs).

Professional experience: Though there’s no hard and fast rule that you need certain number of professional years of experience to get into the course but, the more the merrier. :D

Work experience (in field of public health, health care, social work etc) with a year or longer will give you in hand public health experience and more stories to share and higher chance of getting selected. And don’t worry, if you only have volunteering experience, work placements, summer jobs and internships---because that counts as well.  Just make sure you relate your temporary jobs with your future prospect in your motivation letter.

Education credentials: You may be happy (or sad) that excellent grades and distinctions can help you to secure a candidacy in EPH+. However, if you’ve not so satisfactory grades, your other points can be stronger and that can help you out. 😉

English test: As a student from Nepal, you need to provide your English competency certificate (like IELTS score). Lots of students get rejected because they’re unable to attain the desired English score. Give yourself some time and prepare yourself for the English proficiency test. 

Well, I hope this may help you to start your first step towards the beautiful road of EPH+

In case you want me to review/proofread your motivation letter, you can get in touch with me via my Facebook or can email me as well!!

Good luck to the prospective EPH+ students!! 

Cheers

 At last, No! the EPH+ consortium hasn't appointed me to help you out. This is just me, sharing my experience because that makes me happy.😝

Here's basically the general selection criteria that can guide your application!!!

EPH+ Selection Criteria

Education & Professional experience (based on CV, letter of recommendation and supporting documents)		Reason for choosing EPH+ (based on motivation letter, supporting documents and CV)		Cultural adaptability and personal skills (based on CV, letters of recommendation, essays, additional information)
Educational credentials, marks, grades and distinctions obtained.	Work experience in field of public health, health care or social work including volunteer work, placements & summer jobs	Public Health as a part of a career plan	Relevance of the specializations in respect to previous training and career prospects	International projects, missions and professional experience around the world.	Autonomy and initiative: willingness and suitability for working in a team