UNSW: International Student Award: personal statement
No more than 500 words
I am applying to the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Renewable Energy because UNSW is one of the few places where I can work directly on grid-scale solar from first year. In my final school year I built a small solar tracker for our science fair: a two-axis rig driven by light-dependent resistors and an Arduino. It raised output on our test panel by close to a third over a fixed mount, but it also taught me what I did not know. My control loop hunted on cloudy days, and fixing it sent me reading about hysteresis and PID tuning well beyond the syllabus. That gap is exactly why I want UNSW. The School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, and the chance to specialise rather than stay general, lets me go deep on the engineering rather than admire it from a distance. After graduating I want to work on solar deployment in regions like mine, where reliable power is still not a given. A UNSW degree, and this award, would let me focus on that instead of on funding it.
What it’s really asking
Why you want to study this specific program at UNSW, with enough evidence that the scholarship committee can see you are serious and a good investment. This statement is for the International Student Award, so it doubles as motivation and merit.
Why they ask it
The award funds students who will make the most of a UNSW place. The committee is reading for genuine, informed reasons to study your exact program here, not generic ambition. They want to back someone who already shows direction and the capacity to follow through.
Three ways in
Name the exact program and one real reason
State the precise degree, major, or school at UNSW and one concrete reason it fits, such as a specialisation, the trimester structure, or a research group.
Show the subject in action
Tell one short, true story of doing the subject (a project, a job, a problem you solved) and what it taught you, including what you still want to learn.
Point the degree at a goal
Connect the program to what you want to do afterward, ideally something specific to your background or region.
✕ Weak opening
“Ever since I was a child, I have dreamed of attending a prestigious university and making the world a better place.”
✓ Strong opening
“I am applying to the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Renewable Energy because UNSW is one of the few places where I can work directly on grid-scale solar from first year.”
I am applying for the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Renewable Energy because UNSW lets me work on grid-scale solar from first year, not after I have spent three years on generic fundamentals. 1That distinction matters to me because of a specific failure. For our school science fair I built a two-axis solar tracker: an Arduino reading four light-dependent resistors, driving two servos to keep a small panel square to the sun. On clear days it lifted output by roughly 28 percent over a fixed mount. 2On cloudy days it embarrassed me. The servos hunted, jittering back and forth chasing reflections off wet rooftops, and the panel sometimes ended up worse than if I had bolted it flat. I did not have the vocabulary for what was wrong until I went looking. The words turned out to be hysteresis and PID control, and neither was anywhere in my syllabus. 3I added a dead band so small fluctuations no longer triggered movement, and a simple low-pass filter on the sensor readings. The hunting mostly stopped. It was a crude fix, and I know now it was closer to a workaround than a solution, but it changed how I think. The interesting part of engineering was not the part that worked. It was the gap between the textbook diagram and the panel twitching on a grey afternoon. 4That gap is why I want the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering specifically. UNSW developed the PERC cell that now dominates the global market, which means the people teaching me are the people who moved the field. I want supervision from researchers who can look at a hunting control loop and tell me, in five minutes, the three things I missed. The honours research thesis in particular is what I am aiming at: a chance to take a real efficiency problem and stay with it long enough to do it properly. 5After graduating I want to work on solar deployment in regions like the one I grew up in, where the grid still drops out for hours most weeks and a reliable evening of light is not something anyone takes for granted. I have seen what intermittent power does to a clinic and to a child trying to finish homework by phone torch, and I would rather spend my career closing that gap than designing for places that already have everything. 6The International Student Award would let me commit fully to that work instead of to funding it. Without it, I would be splitting my attention between the lab and a part-time job. With it, I can give UNSW everything I have, which is the only way I know how to do this.7
- 1Opens with the exact degree and a precise, program-specific reason. UNSW rewards motivation tied to the actual structure of the course, so naming the early specialisation signals the applicant has read the curriculum.
- 2Leads with concrete, quantified evidence rather than a feelings-first story. The 28 percent figure and the named components show real work, which is precisely the 'evidence over storytelling' the school rewards.
- 3Shows intellectual honesty about a limitation, then turns it into self-directed learning. Admissions readers trust an applicant who can name what they did not know and went past the curriculum to fix it.
- 4Demonstrates a problem-solving loop and reflective maturity. Calling the fix 'crude' rather than overselling it keeps the credibility high, which suits a technical, evidence-led admissions process.
- 5Ties motivation to concrete UNSW strengths (PERC cell heritage, SPREE, the honours thesis). This program-specific detail is the single strongest signal for this school and separates the essay from a generic 'I love renewables' statement.
- 6Grounds the ambition in lived, specific stakes without tipping into a sob story. The clinic and the phone torch are sensory and concrete, keeping the evidence-led tone while explaining why the award matters.
- 7Closes by addressing the award directly and honestly, connecting financial need to academic commitment. This answers the actual question the scholarship asks rather than treating it as a generic admissions essay.
Stuck? Start here
- What is the single most specific thing about this UNSW degree (a major, course, school, or structure) that you cannot get as easily elsewhere?
- What is one project, job, or problem where you actually did this subject, and what did it teach you, including what you got wrong?
- What do you want to do after the degree, and how does your background make that goal specific to you?
Before you submit
- Names the exact degree and at least one concrete UNSW feature, not just 'UNSW' in general.
- Includes one true, specific piece of evidence with a result or a lesson, not a list of adjectives about yourself.
- Comes in under 500 words and answers the actual prompt (reasons to study this program), not a life story.
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