Scholarship Tips | Candidate Should Consider

Scholarship tips can help students identify and apply for scholarships that match their qualifications and goals. They can also help students write effective scholarship essays and prepare for scholarship interviews. Additionally, scholarship tips guide on how to deal with scholarship funds and maintain eligibility. Overall scholarship tips can help students maximize their chances of receiving financial aid to pursue their education.

Scholarship Tip # 1 (Look into Scholarships in any Country)

If you are looking for a scholarship program, whether that is fully funded or otherwise, you must always search for your target program in respect of the field of study. Don’t restrict it to countries, regions, or fields. It has been helpful most of the time that you must not restrict your scholarship searches to a specific area because these days, the world has become more like a village and one can afford to study in any part of the World once one gets your desired scholarship. Thousands of scholarship programs are offered by different universities these days. There are various scholarship programs that you might not find in a specific country but that are offered by some other institute in some other country. If you will bound your search to a specific program or a specific country, you might not be able to get it because each country does not have scholarship programs and you might not find your desired scholarship program. Searching opportunities Worldwide has always added flexibility and multiple choices.

It is pertinent to mention here that, the categorization of scholarships is not absolute, there is always the probability of exceptions and limitations. You must always see the “field of study” in each scholarship program which will help to find out what is being offered and what is not. Each scholarship program offers some specific field of study. If you don’t find your desired field of study in one country, don’t worry, look at it in some other country. Restricting your scholarship program to a specific country or region has always been hard for students to get it.

Before applying to the desired Scholarship program, you must always check and make sure that the field of study you are looking for & the country you intend to study are approved under the scholarship program.

If you want to know more, click on the links given below for a better understanding:

List of Scholarships: in any field of study & for study in any country.

Scholarship Tip # 2 (Do not Apply to Every Scholarship)

If you are looking for a scholarship, you must keep one thing in mind and that is “you do not need to apply for every scholarship”. Applying to each scholarship will lose your chances of getting the desired scholarship. Yes, multiple programs offer scholarships, but you need to keep in mind that, you should set your target and instead of applying for each, try to be precise and apply for what suits you.

Let’s try to understand by an example

You are an Asian, particularly an Indian who is looking for a scholarship in MS in Environmental Studies in the UK. When you google for the scholarship program, you get 8 results to study in the UK.

Keeping in view the aforementioned advice, you are applying for 4-5 scholarships that best suit you and you think that there are chances of success. The question that arises here is how you picked the scholarships that suit you.

This question may be answered by considering the following set of criteria.

• Which among the 8 scholarships, you find are specially targeted for Indians?
• Which among the 8 scholarships are associated with your qualifications required?
• Which among the 8 scholarships offer programs you have applied for?

The first thing that you need to consider is, which programs are targeted at Indians in the UK. Secondly, what are the eligibility criteria that match your qualifications? Thirdly, you must check whether the priority program includes a Master’s in Environmental Studies or related programs.

If you are applying for a scholarship that matches your qualifications, citizenship, and interest normally gives you more chances of being selected. In addition to that applying for fewer scholarships lets you do your work in a much more efficient way like completing your required documents, application letter, and submission of your application in time.

The advice given here may not be taken as a discourage, you can apply to as many available scholarship programs as you can but the focus should be whether there are any chances of being selected. It is a piece of general advice that, you should always do the homework and apply for scholarships that offer/suit your academics, citizenship, and application program.

Check Also: Gates Cambridge Scholarship 2023-2024

Scholarship Tip # 3 (Discover School-Specific Scholarships)

School-specific scholarships are scholarships offered by a school under a University. For instance, the institute of education, a school or college under the University of UK offers school-specific scholarships like the Centenary Masters Scholarship for International Students.

School-specific scholarships are in most cases good scholarships to apply as they target your field of study and the best thing is that few people know about it. As these scholarships are easy to find many few many know about them. The online content about such scholarships is very low compared to the university scholarships. It has been observed most of the time that the chances to get school-specific scholarships are way higher compared to university scholarships and the competition is also very low.

As far as the advertisement of such school-specific scholarships is concerned, they are most often advertised on the school’s official page, whose access is limited to only students and whose chances of being known to others are also very low. The school database contains the information that is most of the time accessible to teachers and students of that specific school.

If you are looking for a school-specific scholarship, then you need to search the official page of the University that lists the school-specific scholarships. You just need to match the required documents and interested program and test your luck. On official pages, you can find them under the scholarship page or fees and funding or you may directly ask the school administration regarding the school-specific scholarship.

You may use the following links to find school-specific scholarships and further guidance.

Scholarship for International students

Scholarship for Developing Countries

Scholarship Tip # 4 (List Down the Annual Scholarship Programs)

If a scholarship deadline is lost or your scholarship application has been rejected for the first time, do not worry, there is always another opportunity. This statement is true if you are requesting annual scholarships. helpingscholars.com has taken scholarship notes offered annually, most annual scholarship programs are well-financed, which means they have enough funds to maintain the program for a long time and more programs offered. Therefore, it is advisable to take note of annual scholarship programs to avail opportunities in the future.

For instance, popular annual international scholarship programs include Fulbright Scholarships, DAAD Scholarships, Commonwealth Scholarships, Australian Development Scholarships, Rhodes Scholarships, Chevening Scholarships, and Erasmus Mundus Scholarships, etc.

Click on the link to find the List of annual Scholarships.

Scholarship Tip # 5 (Difficult truth about scholarships)

In applying for a scholarship, it is important to realize certain truths about scholarships and truth about yourself. Do I meet the requirements for international scholarships? Is my qualification enough? What can I do to increase my chances? This is a question that will help you try to answer.

One important thing you should know about scholarships is that they are not given only to anyone who asks, requests, or asks for them. They were not given only because you were poor and less fortunate. They are not given only because you come from developing countries or just because you are included in minority groups. The truth is that the scholarship is not given, they are obtained. You get it by showing your potential and setting your qualifications.

Do I qualify for international scholarships?

Although it is true that your disadvantaged situation initially met your requirements for scholarships (that is why there are minority scholarships, scholarships based on financial needs, and developing country scholarships), you still have to meet other qualifications set by the scholarship provider.

Let’s look at the general review of the typical scholarship qualifications needed by scholarship providers.

Minimum scholarship qualifications

• You must be from a country determined by a scholarship provider
• You must be from a certain age as determined by the scholarship provider. Note that this does not always happen, there are many scholarships where there are no age limits/ requirements.
• You have to hold a secondary school diploma when applying for a bachelor’s degree program; Bachelor’s degree when applying for a master’s program; and a master’s degree when applying for a Ph.D. program.
• You must meet the academic requirements of the program you are applying for. In most cases, you must be accepted in the program you are applying for before you are considered for scholarships.
• You must have good knowledge of English with TOEFL or IELTS scores as proof. In some cases, proof of English as an instruction medium in your bachelor’s degree is enough.

Additional qualifications from certain types of scholarships

• Entry scholarships: You must meet the academic high schools determined by the scholarship provider (usually 90% or more)
• Scholarship Excellence: You must meet the GPA needed by the scholarship provider (usually 3.0 or more on the ranking system 4.0)
• Leadership Scholarship: You must show leadership potential and have leadership skills and/or experience
• Competition scholarship: You have to win the competition (eg essay competition)
• Scholarship Development: You must return to your home country after your study
• Youth Scholarship: You must be young, at least under 25

Is my qualification enough?

Even if you meet the minimum scholarship qualifications, it doesn’t mean you will get a scholarship. Yes, good qualifications increase your opportunities but still, there will be hundreds or thousands of you with the same qualifications applying to the same scholarship. Thus, scholarship providers set scholarship criteria to filter out the best students who will get a scholarship. Here are some scholarship criteria used by scholarship providers:

• Students’ academic advantages and potential in the proposed field of study must be able to show the relationship between their study subjects and their long-term career goals.
• Student academic performance – as evidenced by grades, test scores, publications, and recommendations from previous education.
• Student motivation letter (or in some cases, motivational essays)
• The quality of the proposed scholarship application (completeness, accuracy, consistency).
• In specifically development scholarships, students are judged based on their potential to contribute to the development of their home country.
• In the case of research students, students are assessed based on the advantages and relevance of the research studies they propose.

Knowing this criterion, you can find ways to benefit your competitors. For example, if you do not have excellent academic values, personal motivational letters are your opportunity to show how you deserve a scholarship. In another example, you can do a little additional research on the field of focus of the current scholarship provider because sometimes, students are chosen based on the field of study or research they choose – if in harmony with the core mission/theme of the scholarship providers. It is also important to find out the profile of previous scholarship recipients; This will give you a picture of the types of students sought by scholarship providers.

Simple test

This is a simple way to test your chances of getting a scholarship. Honestly Answer: Have you ever met at least the minimum scholarship qualification described above? If so, then you have a good chance to get a scholarship. If not, then you will have a harder opportunity to get a scholarship; Either you find a way to meet the qualifications set by a scholarship provider or find other scholarships that do not require strict qualifications.

Hopefully, this post helps you get a new perspective on applying for a scholarship and what is needed from you.

Scholarship Tip # 6 (Keep an Eye on other Scholarship Programs)