What specifically about this degree programme will be useful for your future goals? What specifically inspired your choice for this course?
Minimum of 100 words and Maximum of 400 words
This prompt is testing whether your course choice is purposeful or incidental. The Mastercard Foundation is not simply funding degrees. It is funding people who will use what they learn to solve real problems in real communities.
Paragraph 1
The Problem That Chose the Course For You
Open with the observation or gap that made Computer Science inevitable. Do not start with the course itself. Start with what you saw in your family or community that no one was equipped to address, and show how that gap began pointing you toward formal technical knowledge.
What to include in your essay:
Paragraph 2
The Informal Work That Proved the Direction
Show the committee that you have already been doing the work this degree formalises. Name the specific skills you taught yourself, the specific people you helped, and what those experiences revealed about the limits of informal knowledge.
What to include in your essay:
Paragraph 3
Why This Programme Specifically
Connect the curriculum directly to the work you are already doing. Do not praise the programme generically. Name what specifically about it gives you the frameworks, methodologies, and technical depth that your informal experience has been pointing toward.
What to include in your essay:
Paragraph 4
What You Will Build
Close with a clear, specific vision of what you intend to create after graduating. Name the community, the problem, and the type of solution. End with a sentence that shows the committee that this degree has a destination already in view.
What to include in your essay:
PARAGRAPH 1
I did not randomly choose to study Computer Science. My passion for it was formed by years of interacting with and piloting various technological tools. Watching my family rebuild after my father's passing, one thing that remained true through it all was that my family and community did not have access to information, systems, and technical expertise. I endeavoured to fill that gap not only for myself but for those around me.
Technique:
This paragraph opens with a disarming denial before building the real argument. "I did not randomly choose" immediately signals to the committee that what follows is a deliberate, grounded explanation rather than a generic statement of passion. The connection between the family's rebuilding and the community's lack of access to information shows a mind that was already thinking beyond itself. The paragraph ends on service rather than ambition, which is the right register for a Mastercard Foundation essay.
Breakdown: