You might have heard from various people around you that you can study abroad for free if you manage to win any international scholarship but no one would tell you about such stumbling blocks in process of applying for those scholarships. Therefore i wrote this article to provide you an insight into possible stumbling blocks while applying for scholarships abroad.
List of Stumbling Blocks in applying for scholarships abroad:
1. Paying Application fee – Search for Scholarships Without Application fees
Some scholarships require their applicants to submit application processing fees and that can be challenging for most students therefore your first priority as a scholarship seeking applicant must be to find those scholarships that allow application submission without application fees.
2. Clearing English language proficiency benchmarks:
Most international scholarships have this eligibility criterion for international students of non-native English speaking countries to have decent band score in IELTS academic exam therefore i advise you to search for those international scholarships that do not require IELTS exam. And in case if you appear for an IELTS exam and want to improve your score without paying full IELTS exam fee then consider taking IELTS one skill retake test to avoid hefty charges again.
3. Lack of Information about next scholarship season:
Let me tell you that some international scholarships such as Chevening, Rhodes, fulbright, and others vice versa are always in spot light which is why you might miss lots of other potential scholarships such as CSC, ANSO, Scotland Saltire, HBKU scholarships etc. Henceforth i recommend you to read more about upcoming scholarships and make sure to also get familiar with their application procedures, eligibility criteria, application deadlines, and other requirements.
4. Letters of Recommendation:
I see this very commonly when students struggle to complete this step as some students look for examples of good recommendation letters and on the other hand it becomes very difficult for some students to understand the mode of sending their recommendations by their professors for a particular scholarship.
So let me make this clear for you that some scholarships for example Australian and Korean UST scholarships ask their scholarship applicants to request their professors to complete recommendation writing process online. Whereas for some scholarships for example CSC, MEXT, and others require their candidates to attach 2 original hard copy recommendation letters with their scholarship/admission applications.
5. Missing Documents
This year i came across a very talented student with very high grades in his undergrad who was keen to apply for a foreign scholarship but at the very right moment, he forgot to obtain a ‘hope certificate‘ from his university because his degree was not issued at the time of that scholarship application window. Therefore ido not want you to come across such sort of situation and advise you to complete all your documents in time so that you can apply for scholarship with all required documents in time.
