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Before you apply for an international scholarship, be honest about your own profile. Ask yourself whether you actually meet the requirements and whether your qualifications are strong enough. What can I do to improve my chances? Those are the questions ScholarshipAds helps you work through.
Scholarships are not handed out to everyone who asks. Being poor, coming from a developing country, or belonging to a minority group does not by itself get you an award. Scholarships are earned by showing your potential and proving your qualifications.
Your background may make you eligible in the first place. That is why minority scholarships, need-based scholarships and developing country scholarships exist. But you still have to meet the other conditions the provider sets.
Here is a general overview of the qualifications scholarship providers typically ask for.
Minimum Scholarship Qualifications
- You must come from a country the scholarship provider specifies.
- You must fall within the age range the provider sets. This is not always required; many scholarships have no age limit.
- You must hold a High School Diploma for a Bachelors, a Bachelor's Degree for a Master's, and a Master's Degree for a PhD.
- You must meet the academic requirements of the programme you are applying to. In most cases you need to be accepted into that programme before you are considered for the scholarship.
- You must have good English language skills, proven by TOEFL or IELTS scores. Sometimes proof that English was the medium of instruction in your university degree is enough.
Additional Qualifications of Specific Types of Scholarships
- Entrance Scholarships: you have to meet the high school academic average set by the scholarship provider (usually 90% or above).
- Excellence Scholarships: you have to meet the GPA required by the scholarship provider (usually 3.0 or above on a 4.0 rating system).
- Leadership Scholarships: you must demonstrate leadership potential and possess leadership skills and/or experience.
- Competition Scholarships: you must win the competition (i.e. essay competition).
- Development Scholarships: you must go back to your home country after your studies.
- Youth Scholarships: you have to be young, atleast below 25.
Meeting the minimum qualifications does not guarantee an award. Hundreds or thousands of applicants can have the same qualifications. Providers use selection criteria to filter out the best students. These criteria often include:
- The student's academic excellence and potential in his/her proposed field of study. Applicants must be able to demonstrate a connection between their subject of study and their longer-term career objectives.
- The student's academic performance, as evidenced by grades, test scores, publications, letters of recommendation from his/her previous education.
- The student's motivation letter (or in some cases, a motivation essay).
- The quality of the scholarship application submitted (completeness, accuracy, consistency).
- For development scholarships in particular, students are assessed based on their potential to contribute to the development of their home country.
- For research students, students are assessed based on the merits and relevance of their proposed research study.
Knowing these criteria lets you find ways to gain an advantage. If your academic grades are not very good, the personal motivation letter is your chance to show why you deserve the scholarship. You can also research the current areas of focus of the scholarship provider, because students are sometimes chosen based on their chosen field of study or research, if it aligns with the provider's core mission or themes. Looking at the profiles of previous scholarship recipients also helps you see the kind of student the provider is looking for.
Here is a simple test of your chances. Answer honestly: have you met at least the minimum scholarship qualifications outlined above? If yes, you have a good chance of getting a scholarship. If no, your chances are tougher; either find a way to meet the qualifications set by the provider or look for other scholarships that do not require strict qualifications.