How to Apply for Scholarship for Studying Abroad: Education is undoubtedly the key to success, that is why millions of students worldwide strife daily to acquire the best education they can get, both home and abroad. Education in Africa is relatively cheap compared to developed nations in Europe and America, which is why most people from this side of the world cannot study abroad without needing a form of Assistantship to study the course of their dream at their dream country outside the shores of the country.
The cost of living abroad is an open secret to most people, which is why most students abroad apply for loans, Assistantship, study, and work, and most importantly apply for life-changing scholarships. So, if your dream is to study abroad, then you should know that tuition fees and living costs can quickly add up to a very large budget for your education.
Luckily, scholarships provide the essential financial support that so many students need and can eventually change their lives.
What is a Scholarship?
According to the Cambridge dictionary, a scholarship is an amount of money given by a college, school, university, or other organization to pay for the studies of a person with great ability but little money to carter for his/her education.
Scholarships are extremely flexible, they allow students to apply and study regardless of their background, family, or financial capacity and capabilities.
Grants and Scholarships
Most people often mistake these two as the same thing, although they are similar in their direction, they are very different in approach. Both scholarships and grants are types of gift aid, which means that students do not need to pay the money back. But grants are usually need-based, and often go to young people who cannot afford the cost of their studies. In contrast, most scholarships are awarded based on academic, athletic, artistic ability, or any other extra curriculum skill that is valued and appreciated by some organizations.
Difference between Scholarship and Student Loans
Grants are not the only alternative to scholarships, we also have financial aid called student loans. Unlike grants and scholarships, student loans are a form of financial aid that needs to be paid back, sometimes with interest. Student loans can both be both a blessing and a curse, but it really help the student.
In developed countries, most people are still paying back their student loans, years after they’ve finished school and sometimes it’s way more than they took in the first place.
Who can Apply for Scholarships
Scholarships are often open to everybody who meets the requirement, as long as the person meets the requirement set by the organization or institution giving out the scholarship. Scholarships are not one-way traffic, there are quite a several scholarships directed to different types of people and each has its specification, goals, and objectives.
If you applying for a scholarship, always try to check if you can apply and look at the conditions put in place, if you feel like you have the necessary documents and qualifications to achieve the feat, you can always apply and hope for the best. Most scholarships are merit-based and if you meet the requirement, and lucky, you might be getting the scholarship without any form of lobbying, bribe, and inducement of any kind.
How to Find Abroad Scholarships?
The best place to look out for scholarships are your favorite school’s websites, normally schools do have their specific type of scholarship opportunities and place them on their site for everybody to see. If you don’t find anything on the school’s site, you can always contact the representative of the school, send a mail or chat, and see if they can help you in any way possible.
The next step after looking for the scholarship that meets your criteria is to look for financial aid in other places on the internet. But it’s not always easy to find reliable information and some of the information on the internet are outdated, as most bodies offering financial aids do change their conditions from time to time, so make sure that you are equipped with the right information before starting your journey.
What type of Scholarship is out there?
There is quite a lot of scholarships out there at the moment, and each one of them is directed towards achieving a particular objective. Some of these scholarships are;
- Scholarship for excellent results (Also referred t as the Merit Scholarship)
- Scholarship for Research purposes
- Scholarship for extracurricular activities like sports, artistic abilities, and other non-academic abilities
- Scholarship for improvised countries or third world countries
- Scholarship for bright minds with low income
- Scholarship for under-represented groups in the society e.g women, Hispanic, African- Americans, and other groups
- Scholarship for war-torn countries like e.g Syria
- Scholarship for International students
***All of these scholarships have their specific conditions before it can be awarded, because there is a lot of competitions among these groups and only the most qualified will be given the opportunity, so before you decide to take up any form of scholarship, you must be well assured that you can meet up with their conditions and try your best to follow their rules to the letter.
In conclusion, securing a scholarship right now is not as hard as it used to be back the day, there are lots of organizations, associations, bodies, governments are other groups that are ready to give out one form of scholarship or another for reasons that appeal to their sentiments.
However, most scholarship is not open to everybody in the world, as each scholarship is egged on satisfying the modus operandi of the association and why the scholarship was rolled out in the first place, so to win the scholarship you must make sure that you are convinced to fit into the category, observe their rules to the letter, provide the necessary documents and you might be on your way to fulfilling that age-long dream of attending a school abroad without you spending through your nose.