17 Rejections. A Missed Deadline. A Waitlist. Then Chevening

By the time Sujan Shilpakar applied for Chevening, he had already been rejected 17 times.

Seventeen scholarships. Seventeen rejections. From programmes around the world. He had applied, prepared, hoped, and been told no, again and again, until the word started to feel less like a verdict and more like the weather. Something that just kept coming.

He was close to giving up.

Then a senior reached out. One more try, they said. Four days before the Chevening deadline. Learn from what went wrong before. Just apply.

He almost missed even that. Assuming the deadline closed at midnight UK time, he miscalculated his window. By sheer luck, or something that felt bigger, an email arrived the next morning announcing the deadline had been extended due to network issues.

He submitted. He waited.

When the final results came out after interview, he wasn't selected. He was placed on the reserve list.

"This was more painful than getting rejected," he says. A senior tried to reframe it: being on the reserve list means they couldn't reject you. Sometimes upgrades happen when additional funding becomes available. Hold on.

Then one of the awardees stepped down. A spot opened. Sujan Shilpakar was upgraded.

"When it is your turn, it will come to you, sometimes in ways you least expect."

———

Looking back, Sujan believes two things made his final application different from the seventeen that came before it.

The first was his leadership profile. Chevening is not just a scholarship, it selects for people who have already demonstrated the capacity to lead, to build, to influence. His experience in architecture, community engagement, and professional networks gave his application substance that matched what Chevening was looking for.

The second was something less tangible. "I was able to communicate my intentions with genuine sincerity," he says. Not a polished performance of ambition, an honest account of who he was, what he cared about, and what he intended to do. That sincerity, he believes, is something the panel can feel.

His practical advice for future applicants is direct: don't wait until the last minute. Don't assume you know the timezone. Submit early. And if you end up on the reserve list, don't close the tab. Stay in the game.

Sujan's interview was conducted virtually, in the COVID-19 years when the world had moved online. He had prepared thoroughly, speaking with alumni, reviewing resources shared on social media, completing multiple mock interviews with their support.

Thirty minutes before the interview, his internet went down.

He called his internet provider in a panic. He switched to his mobile data backup. The interview happened. He got through it.

"It taught me the importance of preparing for technical uncertainties," he says. His advice for today's applicants, now that interviews are held in person: arrive well in advance. You never know what traffic, delays, or unexpected friction might stand between you and that room. Being early is not just logistics — it is how you show up calm.

And once you're in the room? He puts it simply: "Pat yourself. You are already among the selected candidates, with just one more stage to overcome." Engage with alumni before the interview. Use the resources on YouTube, Facebook, and the Chevening website's FAQ. Learn from those who came before you, the same way a senior once reached out to him.

At the University of Sheffield, Sujan studied MA Architectural Design. But the education that shaped him most happened outside the studio.

He travelled extensively across the UK, something the Chevening scholarship made possible by removing the need to work part-time alongside his studies. He visited architectural projects, walked through cities, stood inside buildings that were centuries old and still in use, still loved, still inhabited.

"Observing how the UK preserves its heritage while simultaneously excelling in modern technologies has been particularly relevant to the context of Nepal," he says.

He also secured a paid internship with ING Media, a multinational communications firm working across the built environment sector. There, he worked within a diverse, multicultural team, studied prestigious architectural projects from around the world, and understood for the first time what it meant to think about architecture at a global scale.

And he formed friendships that became something else entirely. Living alone for the first time — cooking, managing himself, maintaining academic excellence simultaneously — was a new kind of difficulty. The friends he found in that period became like family. People with whom he could share both the joy and the hard moments. Their presence, he says, made everything richer.

He returned to Nepal with a specific lens, and a growing sense of urgency.

As Project In-Charge at Dwarika Group of Hotels and Resorts, he led the development of buildings that integrated historic aesthetics and traditional artefacts with modern functionality, applying directly what he had absorbed in the UK about heritage conservation and sustainable design. He worked on the Panchadewal Restoration Project. He was elected to the executive committee of the Society of Nepalese Architects. He served as Joint Secretary of the Chevening Alumni Association Nepal, actively supporting the next generation of applicants.

He also supervised a master's dissertation at Nepal Engineering College and taught Green Building Design at the Institute of Engineering, Thapathali Campus, paying forward the kind of mentorship that once, in the form of a single phone call from a senior, changed everything for him.

Through all of it, one conviction kept sharpening.

"Development does not simply mean building roads or skyscrapers. True development lies in creating cities that grow while still protecting their cultural souls."

Nepal, he says, is falling behind in this. Heritage is disappearing. Cultural fabric is fraying. He feels the urgency of it — a clock ticking beneath his ambitions.

That urgency is what drove him to pursue a PhD in Architecture at the University of Kansas. Not to delay his return, but to sharpen what he will bring back. He intends to finish it efficiently. He intends to come home.

———

Only around 10% make it to the interview stage. That means roughly 100,000 people, people who prepared, who believed, who tried, open their inbox one day and find a rejection.

Somewhere in that number, right now, is someone wondering whether trying again is persistence or delusion. Don’t be disappointed. There may be other alternatives like the Scholars for Nepal scholarship fund that’s at an early stage.

Sujan Shilpakar collected 17 of those rejections, from scholarships across the world, before a senior talked him into one final attempt, four days before the Chevening deadline. He almost missed even that. He ended up on the reserve list. And then, through the compound weight of every previous attempt and one stranger's decision to pursue a different visa, he got in.

Persistence is not the same as delusion. Sometimes it is just the cost of entry.

Applications for the 2026–27 Chevening Scholarship open in August 2026.

Sujan Shilpakar is a Chevening Scholar (2021–22), currently pursuing a PhD in Architecture at the University of Kansas. He is a former Project In-Charge at Dwarika Group of Hotels and Resorts, former Joint Secretary of the Chevening Alumni Association Nepal, and Executive Member of the Society of Nepalese Architects. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Story #003 — ScholarsNext | Chevening Nepal Series

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