How to Secure a Bar Course Scholarship (Real Tips from Successful Candidates)
Hello all!
This blog is just in hopes that someone gets something useful out of it!
I’ll be talking about Bar Course scholarships!!!
Firstly, by way of introduction, my name is Rebecca Hoddy. I am a 2026 Gray’s Inn Baroness Hale of Richmond Scholar, Bar course and LLM student at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Speed Mooting Ambassador.
That said, I wasn’t successful the first time I applied for a scholarship with an Inn of Court.
For those of you that know about the Inns of Court scholarships, you can bypass this first section.
The bar course is expensive, and scholarships are essentially a way to fund the course if you meet the criteria and are selected.
There are four Inns of Court: Gray’s Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn. All four inns offer scholarships in varying amounts.
Inner Temple, Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Innall paper sift. Essentially that means that they look at written applications to decide who will be invited for interview.
Conversely, Middle Temple interview everyone so that people can present themselves at interview.
As for the interview, Inner Temple utilise a case analysis style of interview. Essentially, you get a set time to read through a case and find a variety of points.
Middle Temple interviews feature variety of questions.
For both Gray’s Inn and Lincoln's Inn, the interview consists of a question portion and an advocacy segment.
The link to Inner Temple's application information is here -Scholarships | The Inner Temple
The link to Gray’s Inn's application information is here -Scholarships - graysinn.org.uk
The link to Middle Temple's application information is here -Scholarships | Middle Temple
The link to Lincoln’s Inn's application information is here -Scholarships & Prizes - Lincoln's Inn
My top tips when applying for scholarships are:
Think of something about yourself which will make you stand out.
Everyone who is going for a scholarship will have very similar experience because it's just what's required. It's very important that you find something that makes you different. By way of example, I have been a volunteer at two community cafes and I also had a job that was called a campus connector. This is not something that's offered at every university but this job meant that I was interacting with students a lot of the time. These positions demonstrate my adaptable nature.These positions allowed me to engage with a multitude of different personality types and the reality is that this will be done in practice.
Be authentically you; I cannot emphasise this enough!
Realistically, the panel will want to see that you can interact with people on a personal level. What I mean by that is, you're not there to make friends with the panel. Similarly you are not there to make friends with your clients. However, you will need to make people feel comfortable if they are your clients. You will need to make a panel feel as though you can interact with people. One point for that I use for my advocacy exercise was an anecdote, and I was realistic in my interview when completing the advocacy exercise.
Prepare but do not over prepare!
What I mean by this is, know what you have said on your application form, and know it well enough to be able to recite it from memory.
The difficulty is ensuring it is not robotic. A central part of being a barrister is being able to articulate yourself in a way that is persuasive and effective. If what you’re saying is robotic and monotone it will not be persuasive. Ultimately, at the interview you are persuading the panel that you deserve that scholarship. That will be difficult to do if you have over-prepared and your answers come across as overly rehearsed.
Utilise every opportunity for mock interviews.
Ask people if your life to help with mock interviews. Personally I asked my parents, my personal tutor and a few friends to help. This was particularly helpful for me as each person had a different style of questions. With that, be prepared to respond to questions about your answers from panellists.
Take a breath and try to enjoy the experience.
One thing I think that is very important but is much easier said than done is to not overthink what you're going to say. One of the questions in my interview was something that I hadn't prepared nor did I know how to answer it. I took a 5/10 second break, had a sip of water and then answered the question.
Typically you will get water in your interview. If you need to take 5 seconds and have a drink, it is very unlikely that anybody is going to look down on you for doing that. The main point I'm making here is don't panic answer and then end up overthinking your answer.
Good Luck Everyone!
I also have some advice to share from other Inns of Court scholars:
Alice Wyborn - Lincolns Inn, Lord Denning Scholar (2026) and Paralegal (due to start the Bar Course in September 2026)
“My top tips for securing a Bar Course Scholarship would be: have mock interviews, memorise the application criteria and prepare to be challenged.
In mock interviews, ensure that these are formal to provide the most realistic environment of the scholarship interview. It provides questions you didn’t think to ask yourself and the strengths/weaknesses in your answers. If you’re struggling for a mock interview, film your answers.
The application criteria is vital to securing a scholarship. It tells you everything the Inn is looking for. Make sure every answer you provide has at least 2 or 3 of the competencies mentioned in it.
Finally, make sure any answer you give, you are prepared to respond if the panel challenge or disagree with your answer.
An extra tip I would say is don’t be scared to show a little bit of personality and make them laugh. Say something that’s going to help them remember you.
For me personally, only telling a small number of people that I was applying for a scholarship was the best decision I made. I only told a few people close to me and the professionals that assisted with my application. It removed the added pressure and unconscious expectation that can appear when you tell everybody around you about such an important interview. The people that I know would’ve supported me and didn’t know I had re-applied were able to celebrate with me following my offer and understood my reason for not telling them.
Good luck!”
Amelie Adams - Inner Temple Exhibition Scholar, Current Bar Course Student at MMU and volunteer at LASP
“My top tip for scholarship interviews is to prepare as much as possible. Look up previous questions online and ask any previous year scholars for their tips. One thing in particular I found really useful was preparing for my interview’s case reading exercise. For my interview, we were given a fictional case to read through in 30 minutes which we would then need to summarise and give opinions on. To prepare for this, I practiced reading cases within that 30 minute time limit (My Inn sent out previous years’ cases for practice, but I also prepared with cases from my undergraduate degree).
I also made an experience bank from my CV and application, writing what key skills I believed I gained from my experiences (and linked this back to the scholarship marking criteria!). I also prepared example STAR responses based on the work I’d done in each role.”
Luke Geary - Inner Temple Exhibition Scholar, Current Bar Course Student at MMU and volunteer at LASP
Two main things:
For application and interview, I'd say to always have in mind how does my answer show I want to be/can be a barrister. They are investing potentially £20,000 in you so you need to be able to show that you have commitment to being a barrister through prior experiences and who you are as a person.
Common advice but really do just be yourself. They'll receive hundreds of applications with similar experiences so you need to show what YOU gained from the experience. I found in interview that the interviewers seemed a lot happier with responses that showed a passion for the Bar rather than just listing my skills/experience.
