Learn how to get a scholarship to study in the USA for FREE as an international student on an F1/J1 visa. Many international students have a hard time finding scholarships. But there are plenty of them out there if you know where to look. How to get scholarship in USA for international students.
How to get scholarship in USA for international students: In this guide, you will learn how international students like you can find scholarships in the USA that will allow you to study without paying any tuition or taking out student loans. Scholarships are actually a great way to fund your higher education.
How to get scholarship in USA for international students
- Source of Scholarship
For international students, your main source of scholarship could come from either your home country, whether that’s your home country’s government or private organization in your home country. But there are also opportunities for you to get scholarships on the U.S side.
On the U.S side, you would find that as an international student, the majority of scholarships tend to come from the U.S University that offered you an admission.
But after you’ve come to the U.S and you’ve enrolled in a University, there are also other sources of scholarships that you can get outside of your University, which we are going to cite some examples later.
- Demographics
Talking about the demographics of international students who get scholarships, it is very important for you to know that when it comes to the demographics, there tends to be a fair balance of international graduate students and international undergraduate students who get scholarships.
- Coverage
What exactly do these scholarship offers from U.S universities cover? In many cases, the scholarships could cover your tuition, and it could be a case where your tuition is covered in full, which is called a full ride scholarship.
Or it could be a case where your tuition is covered in part, which is called a partially funded scholarship.
So typically, scholarship from U.S universities tend to only cover your tuition and your fees. It’s quite rare to get scholarships that actually pay you a stipend, which tends to be the case for fellowships, as will be discussed later.
- Duration of Scholarships
If you happen to receive a scholarship, the duration of your scholarship will be specified in an offer letter. And in this duration offer letter, the duration could take different forms.
It could be a one-time offer, which means that you would receive a one-time cash payout towards your tuition and fees. Or it could be a multiple year offer, which means that you might get a scholarship for more than one semester.
The duration of the scholarship is irrespective of the coverage you get in the scholarship.
How difficult it is to get a scholarship to the US as an international student.
- Competition
So what you would find across many U.S universities is that the availability of scholarships are quite limited. This means that the competition to get a scholarship is quite high. And as an international student, you are expected to fund your education coming to the U.S.
As an example, if you want to be considered for a merit based scholarship at the time you are applying to the U.S University, then you would have to put together a very strong application package. You might ask, what does a strong application package look like?
Well, that’s going to have a very strong GPA coming out of high school or a strong GPA coming out of College. It’s going to have strong letters of recommendations. It’s going to have a high test score. It’s also going to have a strong statement of purpose or strong admission essay.
You should also note that just because you have a high GPA or a high test call, it’s still not a guarantee that the U.S University is going to give you a scholarship offer. So keep that in mind.
- Timing of offers
Looking at the timing of your scholarship offer as an international student, you might get a scholarship at the time you’re applying to a U.S University. But if you don’t get a scholarship, then all hope isn’t lost, because even after you’ve enrolled in a U.S University, there are still many opportunities for you to get a scholarship.
Out of several examples, below are some examples that you can get a scholarship after you’ve enrolled at a U.S University.
- Dean’s list
Let’s say after your first year of studies you make a very high GPA and this puts you on the Dean’s list in your program. And your program might have a funding policy where a student who made the Dean’s list could receive a partially funded scholarship or fully funded scholarship.
They could maintain the scholarship for as long as they remain on the Dean’s list.
- Winning a student competition
Another common example where you might get a scholarship offer after you enrolled at a U.S University could be by you winning a student competition on your University’s campus.
Some of these competitions could be based on extracurricular activities or some of these competitions could be based on research.
So these are just a few examples of opportunities that exist for you to get a scholarship after you’ve enrolled at a U.S University.
- Benefits and Caveat
Let’s consider the benefits and any caveats of scholarships, especially when compared to the other ways you can fund your U.S education. The benefits are clear as this; scholarships is free money that you never have to pay back if it’s a one-time scholarship. As long as you accept the scholarship, you get the payout.
When it comes to multiple term scholarships, they tend to have an academic requirement where you the international student will have to maintain a certain GPA in order to keep your scholarships.
For the case of undergraduate students, this minimum GPA is about a 2.0 or C average. And for graduate students, this minimum GPA is about a 3.0 or a B average. So as long as your minimum GPA stays above this number, you would have no trouble keeping your multiple term scholarship.