Grades and credentials tell scholarship panels what you've been assigned to do. Side projects tell them what you do when no one's watching.
This is why a well-chosen side project often carries more weight in an application than academic performance. It's evidence of intrinsic motivation, initiative, and execution.
What Counts as a Side Project?
A side project doesn't need to be an NGO or a startup. It needs to demonstrate that you identified a problem or opportunity and did something about it voluntarily.
Examples that work:
- A blog or newsletter where you write about your field
- A community event or workshop you organized
- A research project you ran independently (even small-scale)
- A tool or resource you built for a specific community
- A tutoring or teaching initiative you set up
- An advocacy campaign, even one that stayed local
What matters: you initiated it, you sustained it, and it had some kind of output or impact.
Choosing the Right Project
The best side projects for applications are ones that are:
Specific. A climate blog about your city is stronger than a general environment blog. Specificity signals expertise and commitment.
Connected to your goals. The project should logically connect to the opportunity you're applying for. A student applying for a health fellowship should have a project in health, community health education, or healthcare access, not a random tech app.
Demonstrable. You should be able to show it. A URL, a document, photos, numbers, testimonials. Vague descriptions of projects that left no trace are weak evidence.
Ongoing or recently completed. A project you abandoned after two months tells a different story than one you've maintained for a year.
How to Start Something That Actually Sticks
The most common mistake is trying to start something impressive. Start something useful instead.
Talk to people first. What problems do the people around you actually have? The best projects solve real problems someone already has, not hypothetical problems you imagine.
Start smaller than you think. A ten-person WhatsApp group sharing weekly opportunities in your field is a project. A monthly meetup at your university is a project. Scale comes later.
Commit to one output per month. Consistency creates a track record. One newsletter issue per month for six months is stronger evidence than a big launch with no follow-through.
Document as you go. Screenshots, attendance numbers, testimonials, feedback. You'll need this evidence when you write your applications.
Using Projects in Applications
In applications and interviews, describe your project using this structure:
- What problem you were solving and why it mattered
- What you did specifically (not "we")
- What impact it had (numbers whenever possible)
- What you learned from doing it
Avoid describing the project as larger than it was. Panels are experienced, and overstating impact reads as insecure. A real, small, well-described project beats a vague, inflated one every time.
You don't need a résumé full of side projects. You need one or two that are real, specific, and connected to what you're applying for. Start building one now. Six months from now, it will be ready to write about.