Fully funded scholarships are scholarships which cover all study-related expenses within the period of study. These expenses include tuition fee, living cost, accommodation, etc. Some might even come with provision for dependants.
Winning a fully funded scholarship means that you are able to focus fully on your studies without worrying about funds or any financial burdens. Sadly, there are usually very limited number of these scholarships compared to the number of people seeking for it; this makes it highly competitive!
However, in this competitiveness, thousands of students still get fully funded scholarships on a yearly basis to study their dream courses. Taking a few advises from the pool of those who have successfully won one or more of such scholarships, we have compiled these 7 secrets to help you win one at first try.
Secrets to winning a fully funded scholarship in first attempt
- Lookup Scholarships in the Right Places: To win a scholarship in the first place, one must have to find the scholarship and apply for it. Knowing the right place to find those scholarships is the very step to take. There are many ways to do this; but we advise looking scholarship platforms like studygreen.info to discover numerous scholarships that may suit your need. You can easily discover such top-ranking platforms on Google just with a simple search. Genuine platforms will always refer you to the official application portals for those scholarships. Avoid sites that request for money to submit applications.
- Prepare Early in Advance: There is a saying that “if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail”. Since fully funded scholarships come with so much competition, it is expected that one should get himself prepared for such competitions. You must have to prepare for things like interviews, essay competitions, etc. Most universities conduct special ‘scholarship weekends’ in which over 50 students will be invited to campus to interview with a faculty member to answer different questions on their goals and ambition, if there is need to attend this interview be well prepared, dress smartly and be ready to give correct and accurate answers to their questions.
- Hard Work and Motivation: Fully funded scholarships are awarded mostly to high performing academic students, in addition to being need-based. So, if you want to easily win one, then working hard and studying hard to be on top of the class is the surest way to go. Reading wide and studying across disciplines can help widen your scope and put you in the best place for a chance to win your dream scholarship.
- Stand out from the Crowd: To beat the competition for a fully funded scholarships, it is best that one to stands out from the thousands of applicants by investing in self-development endeavors – this could be things like volunteering your time to learn various extra-curricular and leadership skills. These are highly valued by scholarship providers. Another aspect which can make you out stand out is presenting a glowing academic reports and personal individual qualities through letters of recommendation. So, it is important to have tangible relationships with highly placed educational mentors because their recommendations will further increase your chances of winning some fully funded scholarships
- Stick to Application Instructions: More than 90% of applicants who didn’t win the scholarship for which they applied for is because they didn’t stick to instructions. Your first step to applying should always be to read in-between lines, understand every step outlined and follow same to submit your application. If you feel you need some clarity on some instructions send a mail or text to the provider for clarifications.
- Get Others Review your Scholarship Essay and Coverletters: Your scholarship essay and/or cover letter needs to be absolutely in the best of quality by making it clear and concise. Make sure is correctly formatted with the right words and heading and also a great introduction with a flawless grammar, proof read your work over and over again to make sure it is perfect. Most importantly, ask a friend or your mentor to go over it, that way you can be sure if it made sense to them, then it could equally make sense to the scholarship provider.
- Be Real: The bitter truth which have been emphasized here again and again is that fully funded scholarships are quite competitive! That means, a candidate who don’t meet the necessary requirements won’t be considered. But the best thing to do for yourself is try as much as possible to present yourself in as your real self. Avoid mixing up things; for instance, let your cover letter tally with your academic performance, etc. It might be worrisome that you present yourself as having leadership qualities in your documents and but lacks composure at interviews.
Final Thoughts:
In this article, we have discussed some hidden Secrets to winning a fully funded scholarship in first attempt. The question now is – should I stop after first attempt? Definitely No! Apply for as many fully funded scholarships as possible. If you get rejected don’t feel bad, dust yourself and go again. The more you apply, the higher your chances of winning your first fully funded scholarship.