Are you planning to study abroad? Then you are not oblivious to the fact that tuition fees and living costs can quickly add up to a large budget for your education. Luckily, there are various scholarships that help in providing essential financial support to students that want to study abroad.
What is a Scholarship?
In accordance to the Cambridge dictionary, a scholarship is an amount of money that is usually given by a school, college, university, or organization to pay for the studies of a person with great learning abilities but with little or no money. We will add that scholarships are more flexible, why is this? This is because must scholarships allow students to apply regardless of their academic prowess or finances.
Difference between Scholarships and Grants
Both of them are actually types of gift loans, this implies that the students receiving them do not need to actually pay the money back. However, grants are usually need-based and usually go to young people that cannot afford the cost of their studies.
In contrast to grants, most scholarships are usually awarded on the basis of academic, athletic, or artistic abilities.
Difference between Scholarships and Student loans
Unlike scholarships, student loans are usually a form of financial assistance that needs to be paid back, most times with interest. Students’ loans can be considered both a blessing and a curse in disguise. For instance, as of 2020 in the United State of America, student loan debt has however reached an eye-watering 1.5 trillion USD.
Who can apply for scholarships?
Anyone can actually apply for scholarships; everything boils down to the application requirements and eligibility criteria. If the students meet the entire scholarship requirement and are very much eligible, then they can actually apply for the scholarship of their choice.
However, keep in mind that different types of scholarships target different students. It will be best to check if you can apply if the scholarship application deadlines are actually up to date and if the scholarships are open to citizens of your country, both national and international students.
SEE ALSO: 7 Decisive Reasons Why You should get a Study Abroad Scholarship
These are usually some common application documents requirements for scholarships:
Most scholarships usually require a set of supplemental documents from all their applicants as a mandatory requirement. These documents are usually required in order to access the applicants in light of both the university environment and caliber. The requirement that is required by this university involves the following:
- Academic transcripts of the applicants.
- English language proficiency test results.
- A research proposal for the researched-based program.
- A study plan for a postgraduate degree.
- Degree certificate
- Letter of motivation
- Letter of reference
- The registration or application form
- Proof of low income, official financial statements
How can you apply for a scholarship?
Once you have discovered a school you will like to apply to, you can as well start preparing your documents. A typical application process looks like this:
- You will have to start by registering for the scholarship, usually by completing an online application form.
- Check the inbox of your mail to be sure that you have received the confirmation email.
- You will have to write a personal statement or essay, you can get sample models on these essays on the internet, however, remember to be original and try to impress them through your unique experiences and ideas.
- Get official proof of your academic and artistic (if any) achievements. You might need to translate these documents, if necessary.
- Get proof of your official low income or nationality (this will apply to region-based scholarships), again a translation might be necessary.
- Be sure to proofread all of your documents to avoid errors and send them to the scholarship body or providers.
- Submit the acceptance letter from your university (or an official document from the university that proves that you have been accepted). You might actually not receive the scholarship without confirming that you will actually begin your studies.
- Once you have done all of these, you will have to wait for the result, if accepted, congratulations, you’re a winner.
How to find study abroad scholarships?
Without a doubt, the official site of your favorite universities is usually the best place to begin your search for a scholarship. If you can’t find any relevant information, you can as well contact a representative through email or chat them up to see if they can actually be of help.
The next and most obvious step is to actually look for financial aid in other places on the internet. This is usually easy, finding reliable information that has up-to-date information isn’t usually easy. But then, the more you search and do your research, you will certainly find something.
Types of Scholarships
The following are the most common types of scholarships that you can apply for your studies abroad:
- Scholarship for academic excellent (this can also be called a merit scholarship)
- Scholarship for research, artistic or athletic achievements
- Scholarships for students that have low income, or that are from a low-income families
- Scholarships that are meant for under-represented groups (this usually includes women, Hispanic and African-American students, and nationals from developing countries)
- Scholarships that are meant for international students
Final Thought
These are the final takeaways from this article:
Scholarships, depending on the type you are going for, are usually open to local students, international students, and all students around the world from different regions and minorities.
The application process for a scholarship involves you first registering, writing a personal essay or letter, translating (if need be) all the documents, and forwarding them to the scholarship providers.
You can make use of different platforms to find scholarships. And they include the following: universities, websites, online scholarship databases, official study abroad pages for individual countries, and so much more.
Lastly, we have different types of scholarships; all that you have to do is pick the one that is right for you.