ICE Quest Civil Engineering scholarship

I am still awake working on my application, I've lost count of the number of hours I have spent on this. This whole form makes UCAS look like a walk in the park......

I wouldn't sweat on it too much. The criteria that they're judging you on, are probably things you can't change. Tbh the most important question probably is "What is your greatest achievement?", and that's something you can't really over or under emphasis that much - it is what it is.

Everyone get their applications submitted?

Yes, but my referee nearly didn't!
what about you?

Done and dusted... Didnt get it sent till 6pm tho, I proof read over and over for about 3 hours! Then I just got bored and realized that there is nothing wrong with it.

Really hope I get to interviews. Here is some stats I dug up..

Last year 400 applied, 100 got interviews and 65 where award the scholarship. However only £2000 was available.

This year £2500 is available to successful applicants, so I am guessing that means there is more places are available as well.

SOURCE: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wPA_vbIEIhsJ:www.nce.co.uk/ice/quest-scheme-hands-out-120000/8622276.article+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

An acknowledge email saying you have an interview?
I got an email saying my referee didn't send in my reference, and they gave me till tomorrow to get one sent in. Its all sorted now though so i hope that doesn't affect my chances!

I have an interview!! :O I also planned to be interrailing in italy over the 14th (that was clever of me...) so will have to cut short my holiday and return for a grilling!
anyone else heard back either way?

I have one too! Such a relief!! Need to get ny stuff learnt!! You thought about any companies yet?

me as well. So pleased!!!! The odds are in our favour now, see one of my previous posts.

One one of the emails is says over 300 applications were received, so if there are a similar amount of scholarships this year, we have an even better chance!

I guess we can only speculate. I am just getting focused on my company options right now, seen as we only have 7 days to work it out.

Also the list of companies they provided on the website information page is more full than the final list sent out in emails. I wonder why so many companies are missing. Anyway, still a good choice available.

I only have till Monday because im going travelling! I've noticed there are far more contractors than consultancies, probably due to the recession, which im guessing is going to make them more competitive :/

I have one too! Such a relief!! Need to get ny stuff learnt!! You thought about any companies yet?

Congratulations! will see you in september then
Im not really sure where to start companies wise, I think consulting is for me though but Im worried that this might reduce my chance of getting a scholarship. I am also interested in architecture and building engineering so I will be looking for those sorts of things. what about you, any ideas? they haven't given us very long really! plus I'm on a "lads holiday" this week so researching companies is taking valuable partying time away!

Just thought I'd give some input on stuff that's been said: as part of getting chartered you have to have some site experience and some design experience, so don't worry too much if you're choosing consultancy because you will be doing a secondment in contracting at some point. Another point to consider is that generally it seems that contracts get paid more early on and during internships, (partly owing to the higher work hours), but are limited in progression. Work hours can be pretty brutal, particularly if you work for a well known contractor whose name begins with 'L', but then again it's probably not as monotonous as office work.

If you're really split between contracting / consulting there are some in-house companies such as Skanska (although they're struggling at the moment) which might suit you better. On that note, Quest is having quite a lot of finanical difficulties, it used to be £3k a year, and the last final two years Quest haven't been able to meet that despite being contractually obliged to - I think there's probably a lack of public investment, but also companies such as Arup have withdrawn seen the majority of their Quest scholars leaving for finance upon graduation. I think this means it's gotten more competitive - at least that's what I've been told. At any rate, treat the company interviews as if you were interviewing for a graduate job. Good luck!

Im in the same boat with wondering whether contracting will give me more hands on experience. At the end of the day though, from the experience ive had so far, i really want to go into consultancy, so regardless of whether its gonna limit my chances im just gonna have to go with it. I like the idea of the finance/costs side of network rail though so im probably going to choose them too.

Haha i know right? Im trying to choose them whilst packing/working my last shifts at work/panicking that im picking the right ones! Will be glad on Tuesday when im on that plane!!