Greetings.

Just received another letter of rejection for a PhD scholarship from a UK uni (the second in order).

The email went along the lines 'Unfortunately you were not selected for an award. There was very strong competition for the limited number of awards available this year.. We thank you for your interest in this competition and wish you every success in your future education and career.'

To be honest, I am starting to get disappointed by these subsequent rejections and starting to question my academic worth...

Has anyone had a similar experience? Have you been awarded a scholarship in the end?
Should one keep trying?

Thank you in advance...

Email or call them back and ask for feedback. They may say no but you may also get very useful feedback on what you are missing.

I imagine that PhD applications to all positions are going to be through the roof right now with next to nobody apparently hiring the latest crop of graduates (or anyone else at the moment).

I'm afraid you are going to have to keep trying in the current climate.

pm133, the application was submitted March for starting Fall 2020...

rewt, they are reluctant on providing feedback.

I am thinking whether taking the GRE subject test will strengthen any of my (future) applications.

Absolutely - right in the teeth of a global pandemic and you'll be seeing a large swell of applications going in from those in their final year who know the employment situation is about to be dire for a few years.

Your rejections may not really be anything to do with your ability - just unfortunate timing.

Press them. If no success, you need to try and get feedback from someone else who is an academic and preferably in the same subject area. Can you contact a former professor and ask them to review it and provide you with feedback?

Your application might be great and still get rejected but feedback will help you know whether this is the case or not. If it is then you need to keep trying but otherwise you can work on improving it.

I'm not sure about GRE (have just googled). I mean surely you know if you have a good grasp of the area you're writing about? Reading relevant and recent papers in the field and seeing how your writing and the issues you are writing about compares / fits with those might be a better indicator and way to improve.