Fully funded scholarships are kind funding opportunities available for students, covering almost everything of their financial bills for the full three or four years of university. Tuition fee, living costs and others bills (depending on the agreements) would be covered by the sponsors, leaving students that got one opportunity to focus mainly on your studies and social life without thinking about monetary aspect.
Unfortunately, getting fully funded scholarships are quite hard, they are very scarce to get, even when you find one; it is always competitive, strict and are just kind of frustrating if care is not taken. Having said that, this shouldn’t be a setback for you to stop looking out for fully funded scholarships or apply for them.
In this article, you will learn how to find one, how to prepare yourself and increase your chances of getting one of the fully funded scholarship out there.
Where Can I Find A Full Scholarship
Before thinking of preparations or having higher chances of getting as fully funded scholarship, the first question that should first pop in your mind is, “where can I find a full scholarship?” This is the very first step of approaching the full scholarships as a student, first you reach out to some preferred schools official websites, they could be offering scholarship opportunities for students with different options ranging from location, courses, past academic records or can even be an external funding for a certain set of student or for other reasons e.g. scholarships for African Students.
You could also check some websites that dishes out latest scholarship opportunities for students, you should consider these mediums and check how you can explore and get the desired opportunities for your studies. Examples of such websites could be find using search engines like Google, Bing, there are websites that could be of help, and you can explore the internet to get more opportunities.
Get Prepare
If you know you’ll need or rely on a full scholarship to help you to attend university, it’s important to start preparing as soon as possible. Some universities or colleges requires an interview before they can grant one an interview, some would invite students who are eligible or that applied to come for an interview which would be supervised by a faculty staff or as speculated by the school authorities. You would be asked various questions on your goals, motivations, why you needed the scholarship or how you would add value if you are opportune to study that desired course and so on.
However, it is very important you get yourself prepared for such oral or objective interviews which would be graded to grant you the scholarship by providing appropriate answers to various questions that would be asked by the panel. Dress formally, speak politely and be hopeful you would get the scholarship.
Work Hard And Keep Motivated
Full scholarships sometimes are always based on the monetary aspects and may not consider the academics aspects, some would consider both as a prerequisite and sometimes, they are given to students with extra ordinary performances.
No matter the condition that would be considered, you need to work hard as a student most especially in your academics as a student, keep putting in more efforts in whatever your academics may require, fully funded scholarships are mainly given to students with brilliant performances. In some colleges, you really don’t need to apply for scholarships before you would get them, once you have a very high grade, the school authorities would consider giving such student a scholarship as a compensation to help in their studies.
However, getting to the top academically can be so challenging, be focused on your dream, keep motivated for better days when your hard works would be rewarded are ahead.
Make yourself stand out from other applicants
Truth be told, getting a full scholarship is like a thug of war for applicants, with the expected competition, it’s very important for you to stand out from the multitudes of applicants by showing commitment to bettering yourself or improvements as an individual. This could include having some extracurricular activities to show to your scholarship providers, showing your passions, zeal and interests outside the walls of the classroom, you could as well as decide to pick up some voluntary services within your immediate community for good course, this all boost your chances.
Leadership skills are greatly valued by scholarship sponsors, and you can show case this by volunteering to lead projects works wherever you find yourself i.e. your extracurricular activities or community work.
Another feat that would make you stand out from the rest of the applicants is to have a brilliant report on your academic records and personal qualities from letters of recommendation, so it is very good to build strong relationships with your academic teachers, if a teacher or lecturer is familiar with you, they would be able to give more personal and accurate description of you in their letter.
Read the application instructions carefully
This may sound odd, but you won’t want to drop your chances missing out a necessary document or some piece of information that was stated in the scholarship’s application instructions by mistakes. Be sure to read all the application guidance slowly, carefully and repeatedly, so you have less chances to miss anything, and email the provider if you need clarification on anything that’s not clear to you.
Submit An Exceptional Scholarship Essay Or Cover Letter
Your application essay/cover letter needs to be the best quality. This is by making sure the essay is clear and concise as much as possible, and is formatted correctly using the appropriate fonts, text etc.
Catch the reader’s attention with a strong, great and well-structured introduction, focus on the main objective, theme or topic, and should have correct spellings and grammar. Don’t just rely on your personal proofreading skills by reading it hundreds of times to make sure it is perfect, you could ask a friend to help go over it and check for typos and any sentences errors, then you make necessary corrections.
Be realistic
And finally, as we touched on earlier, the unfortunate truth is that there aren’t many full scholarships to go around, and they’re extremely competitive, meaning that many candidates who meet and exceed the requirements for a full scholarship end up missing out. Don’t let this hold you back from applying, but be realistic about your expectations.
Remember, there’s no limit on how many scholarship applications you can send out, and normally no limit to how many scholarships you can be awarded, so you may be able to build your own full scholarship using two or more smaller scholarships. (Of course, be sure to check with the providers that you’re able to apply for and receive funding from other sources). If you do get rejections, try not to let them get you down – pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and don’t stop trying in life until you get what you want.