In addition to finding the right university, you will also need to find the right scholarship funding to pay for your education. With the [massive number of scholarship options]({{ route('home') }}) out there for international education, trying to keep track of all of them can feel overwhelming.
When are the deadlines? What are the requirements? Where did I find that scholarship in the first place?
Luckily, we’ve designed an organising tool that allows you save your scholarship searches and options in one easy-to-use place. When you come across a scholarship, you can add it into this organiser; and when you return to it, you will find every scholarship option listed next to its deadline, requirements, the contact details, the award amount, and other relevant details. It’s sort of like your own checklist and planner for your scholarships; keep the information listed, refer back to it, and mark all of the important things as you go.
Here’s a guide to help you make the best use of the organising tool.
Step One: Request your organiser by e-mail!
You can get your own personal Scholarship Application Organiser here:
Get a Free Scholarship Organiser
When you input your e-mail address, we will send you an e-mail with the link to your brand-new scholarship organiser (Don’t worry, we won’t spam you!). Put your e-mail address into the form, wait a few minutes, and open up your inbox to see the gift that is waiting for you.
Step Two: Save the organiser and start adding scholarships!
From the e-mail that you receive from Scholarship Portal’, click on the first link and open the spreadsheet in a separate tab.
Once the sheet is open, click ‘File’, and scroll down to ‘Make a copy’. Open a new version on your Google Drive. This new version allows you to make the necessary edits to your sheet. Save your copy as a bookmark on your browser, or save the URL, so that you can return to it whenever you need.
You will notice that the sheet is divided into sections.
On the left-hand side of the sheet, you can first input the ‘status’ (in green): either it is a scholarship you ‘should apply for’, one you are ‘interested’ in applying for, one that you have already ‘applied’ for, one that you ‘received’, or one that you did ‘not receive’. This section allows you to keep track of which scholarship applications you still need to complete, and how many more there are for you to prepare. Keep up with your progress; celebrate when you finish, while you wait patiently for your decisions to roll in.
The third section of the organiser is in blue and is meant for listing the application materials that are required.
Does the application require an essay? Put in the information (word count, prompt) under the category ‘essay.’ Do you need to supply letters of recommendation? Input the number of recommendations required, and (perhaps) the contact information for your recommends. You may also want to specify here whether or not your recommends have already written a letter for you, or whether you still need to request one.
You will see other categories in this section, allowing you to list any and all materials that your application may require. Treat this part like a checklist. Follow every task, requirement, and item on that list and mark them as you go, so that you don’t forget all of the crucial pieces your scholarship application.
Rather than trying to remember all of that information on your own, or trying to keep tabs and bookmarks in your browser for each and every scholarship, this organiser lets you keep it all in one place. You can keep coming back here through your scholarship search-and-apply process; continue to add, revise, edit, and delete information as you go!
Step Three: Input scholarships and start applying!
Every time you see a new scholarship that you think you’re eligible for and are considering applying for, you should immediately place it in the organiser. Don’t count on remembering all of the information, the URL, the deadlines, or the names; with all of the applications you’ll be doing this season, you’ll want to keep them all in one place. So when you see a scholarship that you can use to fund your Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, place its URL and title in the scholarship organiser, keeping all of your information intact.
Now is the time to start applying! See which (if any) applications have the same requirements, and start applying for those ones immediately. For example, if you know that at least five applications require recommendations, transcripts, and essays, you can make sure you have those materials ready to send for all five applications. Gathering the materials is the longest part of all of it; if you have items that can be sent to five places at once, get all of those things together first, and then move on to other smaller tasks (like your CV and transcripts – things that should not take more than a day to devise).
Make sure to prioritise tasks that will take extra time. Writing an essay, for example, will require lots of editing, revising, and proof-reading. Start working on your scholarship essay(s) early, and make sure to allow enough time to look them over.
Send in your applications; and as you finish them one-by-one, mark the first section on your organiser to let you know how many you have finished, and how many you have left to complete.
Step Four: Get and keep track of your awards
You’ll not only want to keep track of which applications you’ve applied for; but also bear in mind how many you will be receiving (or not receiving). If you have been accepted for a scholarship (congratulations!), you should mark the space on your organiser which date you received the scholarship (or scholarship acceptance letter), what the conditions are for the scholarship (volunteer service, minimum GPA), and how much support you will expect to receive.
With the organiser, you can manage your future finances during your studies, and can keep track of whether there is anything else you need to remember. For example, be sure to mark whether you have to send a ‘thank you’ letter to the scholarship sponsors, or whether there is any additional information that they are asking for.
The process of applying for scholarships can be both exciting and scary at the same time. To manage the inevitable chaos that comes from putting together your scholarships, be sure to use the organisation tool properly, placing all of the information you need in one place.
You won’t need to panic anymore about missing deadlines or not being sure what requirements you have left to finish. Using this digital organiser and checklist, everything is kept in a safe place that you can easily refer back to.