5 things you must know before applying for any scholarship

Before applying for scholarships, there are certain things you must know. They revolve around how to search for scholarships, IELTS requirements, preparing to apply for scholarships, paying to apply for scholarships, and nervousness in approaching the scholarship application process.

Where to start from:

Generally, Search engines: Google, Safari, Baidu...anyone that you use. That is where you start. Go to the search engines and type in scholarships for international students. You will see many websites come up. These websites are not official scholarship providers. All they are doing is providing information. Usually, the link to the official scholarship will be placed at the end of the post. So read till the end and then click on the link at the end. Specifically, websites of the scholarship providers, for example, university websites, foundation websites, corporation websites

IELTS /TOEFL requirements:

The need for these depends on where you are applying for the scholarship and what language you will be studying in. If you are applying for scholarships in English speaking countries like Canada, the USA, Australia, etc, they will require you to show proof that you can communicate in the English language. If you are applying to study in countries like Japan, China or other non-English speaking countries, you can get a scholarship without the IELTS or TOEFL. However, it depends on the language you plan to study in. If you will be studying in the English language, you need to prove that you can effectively communicate in English.

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Scholarship application preparation process:

If you wish to apply for an undergraduate scholarship, the preparation process starts when you are in high school, if you wish to apply for a master's scholarship, the preparation process starts when you are an undergrad or before, and if you wish to apply for a Ph.D. scholarship the preparation process starts when you are a master's student or even before that. Work on your grades. Start searching for scholarships and make a list of at least 50 scholarships that you are interested in. Familiarize yourself with things like what time of the year the scholarship opens up, what are their eligibility criteria, the profile of past scholarship grantees etc. Get familiar with all those things and start adjusting. Look at yourself and the profile of what they need and ask yourself if you match up or if there are things you need to change left and right. Start doing those things and you will be ready when the time comes.

Paying for scholarship application:

First off, all scholarship applications are free. I have never seen a scholarship that you have to pay to apply for but with some scholarships, you have to apply to universities first before applying to the scholarship and some universities have application fees. So, you will be paying for the application fee and not the scholarship application. However, there are many scholarship consultants out there who work with students and it is their business. If you want to work with a consultant, what you are paying for is their services not for the scholarship. Since they will be helping you apply for the scholarships

Nervousness about the scholarship application process: Don’t be nervous. Scholarship providers want to give you the money. They want to fund your studies. They want to fund your research. Remember it is not all charity they are doing. They too have a goal they are achieving by providing you with scholarships.

Governments that provide scholarships, they are using that as soft power. Through studying in their country, you will forever, have some kind of liking, affiliation, or some sense of gratitude to that country and so you are like an ambassador for them. Universities providing scholarships want to have global representation in their universities. They want to have publications that reflect how international they are, and your work will help them achieve that. Corporations that provide scholarships are the same. Corporate Social Responsibility is important to corporations and, they want to rank high in those metrics and you are helping them achieve that. Foundations that provide scholarships are the same thing. They get donations and they have to account for what they did with the money they got. So, by giving you a scholarship, they will be able to get that done.

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