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7 Tips to raise your chance of getting an international scholarship
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Almost every young Hungarian student or recent graduate has ever thought about studying abroad. Most universities in the world offer scholarships on various conditions to attract students and allow them to see the world and stronger possibilities. In this article, we have collected 7 simple tips for getting a scholarship abroad. Follow them, and you’ll see that with patience, planning, and hard work, you’ll go a long way.
A stereotype exists that international programs are unreachable and getting into them is almost impossible for a regular student. Most people get scared of this fact and don’t even start looking for scholarships to study in another country, some doubt whether they can win a scholarship and get paralyzed because they don’t know how to start, and others try several times, fail, and give up in the end.
Applying for scholarships is not complicated, but you have to know exactly what to do. There are no mysteries or secrets in winning a scholarship – just the actions you can take now. The opportunity won’t come just because you want it. You’ll have to defend your candidacy and work at it. And here is how you do it:
#1. Define your preferred field of studies
If you don’t know very well what you want to study, you end up applying to all the calls without ever convincing the universities to accept your application.
Why is this strategy bad? It’s because of two reasons. First of all, because your “copy-pasted” 100 times piece of the non-adapted text shows a lack of interest, and no university is interested in an unmotivated student. Secondly, you will get exhausted preparing so many documents.
#2. Start preparing as early as possible
It is not enough to begin your preparations two weeks in advance and then quickly look for a scholarship that matches your studies. It never works!
In most of the applications, you will have to apply for admission and scholarship at the same time. Programs like Chevening or Fulbright, on the other hand, accept the applications for the scholarship first, even before applying for admissions. Many people will recommend you to apply only for these programs, but of course, their calls offer only a limited number of scholarships, with a maximum of 20 to 40 per country in the best-case scenario. So, if you want to expand your possibilities, you will have to think about doing deeper research and applying for more programs.
With an investment of 2 to 4 hours per week, you can calculate about 6 months of preparation to be able to win a scholarship. What do you have to do in these 6 months? Search for scholarships, define your preferred profile, and prepare documents. You can also look for useful tips on passing the interview or writing a motivation letter (or simply find yourself a good admission essay helper to consult you), as many universities include these stages in their enrollment process.
#3. Look beyond the typical scholarships
Google the word ‘scholarships,’ and what do you get? As everyone searches online for the same calls for applications, the same scholarships always come up. They are the scholarships that everyone has looked at or the ones with a very close date. Thousands of people apply for them, so the amount of competition for a place is significant. It does not mean they are bad or unpassable – just harder to get in.
You can also see outdated calls for applications that no longer exist or those where the conditions have changed, and you can’t apply.