Scholarships are the financial aid given to students by the university or the government, it is a waiver in your tuition fee.
Sometimes a scholarship is a one-time check, other school scholarships are renewable and provide money for students each semester or school year. These awards differ from student loans in that they don’t have to be repaid.
Students might receive the money directly as a check in their name. In other cases, the money is given to the student’s school. In these cases, the student would then pay the school for the difference on any money owed for tuition, fees, room and board. If the scholarships and other forms of financial aid are enough to cover the direct college costs, the excess money is refunded to the student.
There are four major types of free money available to college applicants. Here are the four main sources of scholarships and grants, and the percentage of total grants and/or scholarships that comes from each source:
Scholarship checks awarded in your name can be spent on anything, but you would be wise to look at this as an investment and not a free pass to splurge on video games or concert tickets. This money is for school expenses. This could mean tuition, but it could also be books, pencils, housing, food (you can’t study on an empty stomach) or even computers and software.
When you receive the scholarship money depends on the scholarship you won. Sometimes you get the money in one chunk before school begins, and in other cases the money is distributed in instalments. Sometimes a scholarship may be paid out in the middle of a semester.
Scholarships aren’t awarded just to students with a 4.0 GPA. Each scholarship has its own criteria. Some scholarships are awarded based on need. For others, you must be a member of an organisation, be studying a certain field or fit whatever guidelines the group awarding the money decides upon.
Regardless of whether you excel in academics, you should be able to find several scholarships that work for you. There are even scholarships intended for students living in a particular state or town. You can continue to apply for scholarships during your collegiate years all the way up to Ph.D. studies.
Start applying as soon as you find a scholarship suitable according to your needs as some deadlines are as early as a year before college starts, so if you’re in high school now, you should be researching and applying for scholarships during the summer between your junior and senior years. But if you’ve missed that window, don’t give up! Look at scholarship information to see which ones you can still apply for now.
There is certainly not a scholarship out there for everyone, but if you are eligible to apply, it is worth doing so. Organisations offering scholarships are not always inundated with applications and you could find the odds are stacked in your favour. iGlobal Solutions have experts who have researched about most of the scholarships available for international students aspiring to go abroad for higher education.