If you apply for scholarships in right way and put efforts for it, better your odds are getting a fully funded scholarships. In this blog post we will answer the frequently asked questions related to scholarships based on our opinion and personal experience. Remember, scholarships application may include these documents: Academic CV, Letter of Motivation, Letter of Recommendation, English proficiency test (IELTS, TOEFL) which needs a significant amount of time. In order to avoid stress, pressure and missing out an excellent scholarship, we suggest you to start preparation early.
Let’s make it more easier for you by highlighting and answering the one of the most common FAQs and adding some suggestions regarding the international scholarships.
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1. Can I get a scholarship?
This is one of the most frequent questions and even we have heard this from Gold medalists . See, if you don’t believe on your skills and abilities, then how can selection committee will believe that you are a suitable candidate? Believe on yourself, you can and you will get the scholarship.
2. What are my chances?
You have 0% chances until you don’t apply. First of all, apply for all the scholarships that match your interests. There’s no application fee for most of scholarships and universities.
3. I have low CGPA, can I get scholarship?
Someone’s CGPA can be low for few scholarships, universities, and countries but not for all the scholarships, universities and countries.
Scholarship’s selection criteria have different variables other than CGPA. The CGPA 2.67/4.0 is considered as average but not LOW. And even you can get a scholarship with 2.0/4.0. Don’t worry if you have low CGPA, read our article 6 Powerful Ways to Compensate Low CGPA, which will significantly help you.
4. What types of scholarships are available?
There are different types of scholarships options available that you can apply. In this article, we will address about the most commonly available options that are fully funded, tuition fee waiver and partial scholarships.
I: Fully funded scholarship
Fully funded scholarships provides 100% fee waiver as well as financial supports for living expenses. Fulbright Program, Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) and Chevening Scholarships are example of fully funded scholarships.
II. Tuition fee waiver scholarships
The tuition fee waiver scholarship covers 100% of the tuition fee for the specific study program, but unlike fully funded scholarship you will not receive any stipend. Here is the point, many good students don’t apply for tuition fee waiver scholarships because of NO stipend. But there are externals scholarships (depending on the country) that can provide a monthly stipend. In this way, you will have the same benefits as like fully funded scholarship (100% fee waiver + monthly stipend). For example,
In Sweden, universities offer upto 100% fee waiver scholarships. In addition, a student can apply for SISGP that will provide a monthly stipend.
Apart from it, there are on campus job opportunities such as Teaching Assistantship and Research Assistantship. If you get lucky to secure these job, you can earn through these options.
III. Partial scholarships
The partial scholarship covers a specific part of the tuition fee, it can be 25-75% tuition fee waiver. But be careful here, sometimes this 25-75% of a scholarship is offered by the university and the rest of 25% can be covered by department. It means you will get 75% from university + 25% from the department which is equal to 100% tuition fee waiver that’s why to read details carefully.
5. What is the best CV format?
Your CV should be clear, concise and well-structured. It shouldn’t be outdated (don’t write curriculum vitae on top of page). In some European countries, they’ll demand Europass CV that’s easy to make. If you can use LaTeX then make CV in it that would be the best format. Read our article How to Make Your Academic CV Stand Out for Scholarships that covers each and everything about the academic CV for the scholarships.
6. Why Letter of Motivation is important?
Letter of Motivation (LoM) is also one of the major elements to get admission and scholarship. Normally, it weights up to 20-40% of the overall evaluation depending on the university.
You cannot make a perfect LoM within a night that’s why you need to spend your time and efforts to make an effective LoM. Here you can find a multiple scholarship winning Letter of Motivation sample.
7. I emailed 300 professors, why they don’t reply?
We heard many times ‘I have emailed more than 300 professors for research supervision but none of them replied me’. That’s completely a wrong approach. You can’t imagine getting a response from professors by this attitude. Never send same generic email to every professors. You can learn about the right way of approaching a professor in our other blog posts How to Email a Professor for PhD and MS Scholarships, 9 Mistakes to Avoid When Emailing a Professor for Scholarship and Are You Going to Email a Professor for Scholarship? Read These 10 Points.
8. I just want to go only in ABC country?
Sometimes it’s hard to get a scholarship for a specific country. We would recommend you to apply for scholarships of other good countries too, rather than sitting on the couch and wasting your time. You can go to another GOOD country, polish your skills there, then apply for ABC country (either for Ph.D. or Job).
9. How to cash your cheque?
What is cheque? A higher (3.5+/4.0) CGPA is a cheque or research publication/work experience of top rank industries mentioned on your academic CV. If you have a strong profile, we suggest you to target good countries and scholarships rather than finding easy to catch options. Good countries will offer you more job opportunities and other privileges after the graduation.
10. Take English language Tests seriously (IELTS, TOEFL)
You post something for IELTS preparation in a public group, someone commented ‘I got 7 bands with the preparation of 2 weeks’. It doesn’t mean that you will get 7 band by studying for 2 weeks. It totally depends on your current English skills. Normally, it takes 3 months to raise your score by one band in a specific part of IELTS.
11. Always keep eyes on grants
We usually see posts on universities websites and blogs ‘ABC university got 40 million euro grant for smart cities. Where this 40 million will go?
That ABC university will hire Post Docs, PhDs and RAs to complete their project. Whenever, you see such blog post then go and visit university official website to check open positions.
12. Number one secret to getting scholarship?
The number one secret to getting a scholarship is ‘time investment’. You have to invest your time to make your CV and letter of motivation attention-grabbing. If you are going to email a professor then invest your time to read professor profile properly and then write an email accordingly.
Invest your time to overcome deficiencies of your overall profile. Invest your time for IELTS. Invest it in finding suitable universities and programs. As a result, you will get Return on investment (desired scholarship).
Don’t forget to comment below and share your idea about this article. If you found this blog article helpful then don’t hesitate to share it with your friends to support them with these guidelines for getting their dream opportunities.
We wish you the best of luck to catch your desired scholarship and career goals. Join us on Facebook to never miss any guideline, expert advice and updates.
Regards,
Team Study Catch