A number of African students nursed the dream to study abroad in international universities around the world and possibly to do so through scholarships or other financial awards. If financial awards are to be the only option, you wonder what it’ll take to make an application you can rely on.
Scholarships to study abroad are awarded in different forms by different bodies. There are partial and full-fee scholarships; and scholarship that takes full care of the students study expenses. There are University-sponsored, foundation-sponsored, organizational-sponsored and jointly-sponsored scholarships. Some of these scholarships may have similar application processes but with most university-sponsored scholarships, most of the time you are expected to have gained admission to the university in question before you can apply for the scholarship. In other words, the scholarships are reserved for admitted students. What you have to do in this case is to first apply for admission to the university if it meets your preference.
In other cases the scholarship application would come along with the admission application process. There are also cases where you will have to specifically request for the scholarship application if you meet certain requirements. Or the university may selectively send you the form if they think you meet the requirement for the scholarship. In which ever form the scholarships may come, you should primarily be interested in studying the country where the university is situated, and the university itself. You should also have acquired the necessary application documents to complete your application. Incomplete applications are usually the easiest way to count you out of the scholarship awards. So if you do not meet the requirement or have incomplete required documents, it’s better to wait till you are ready; in most cases, the next year.
Universities offer scholarship opportunities:
1. To attract and reward the best students
2. To promote a particular field of study
3. To maintain the reputation for producing the best brains
4. To gain more market exposure
There could be more, but these are the most common reasons.
Organizational and foundational scholarships also come in different forms. With some, you can apply before gaining admission into the university. With others, you should already have an admission into the university in specified country or countries, specified university or universities and/or specified courses. It can be more general in some cases though. In general, you should at least be preparing towards your higher education and not just hunting a scholarship without a clear distinction of where you are going.