Demoralized domestic RTP applicant looking for insight on shortlistings
Insight/advice from academics who've served on RTP scholarship selection committees in GO8 unis particularly welcome. I've had terrible luck and am desperately looking for a reality check on whether I have a good shot or what's wrong with me on paper as I've yet to receive any funded offers and am confused. I'm a domestic applicant in the humanities with a good research proposal (lots of positive responses from supervisors). I have an MPhil from a GO8 university that was passed with no changes and won a dean's award. I have an MA from the US with a 4.0 GPA. I have 5 peer reviewed articles, one is Q1, and have won 5 différent essay prizes. I also won a 10k grant while in the US. My weakness is my undergrad, which I did in the UK and received an upper 2:1. Australian admissions insist on translating this to WAM on a scale of 1-100 which turns it into a mid 60s credit completely misrepresenting the grade. I guess I want to know whether this undergrad is going to consistently tank me for RTP scholarship rankings, or can anyone shed real insight on weightings and rankings in the committee room? I'm so frustrated as I feel I keep losing out to baby honours students with high WAM scores (I also know how inflated these grades are, having taught undergrads myself the last 5 years, which rubs salt in the wound) despite all my work and achievements post undergrad, it's demoralizing. 😔
Posted Aug 1, 2026, 3:43 AM UTC