How to Find International Scholarships

Many colleges, universities, private organizations and governments award scholarships or tuition funding for international students. There are various kinds of scholarships are available for international students. So how do you know which one is right scholarship for you to apply and where to find these?

Sometime searching for a scholarship is not an easy task, particularly when you are looking for funding for a specific course or university. For scholarship to study specific course, the first place to ask is International Office at the university. You should do this at least one year before you start applying for admission. Because international admissions are subject to the visa processing and therefore these scholarships are announced one year before of the university session starts.

The Second best place to search for a specific scholarship is to ask your departmental secretary where you are applying for admission. Departmental scholarships are generally not announced on outside scholarship job boards. They are generally circulated on internal basis, but many of these are also open to international students. So don’t be shy in asking if there are departmental scholarships available for international students.

The Third best place to look for a specific scholarship is government’s educational departments. For example if you are applying for scholarships in UK then look for British Council website in your own country. When applying for scholarships in USA from India then look for USEFI or similar website, and if applying in Germany then check the DAAD website. If you can’t find a related website then checks their embassy website in your country. They generally have information about course specific scholarships for international students.

The Fourth best place to look for a scholarship is to search for foundations that offer scholarships for international students. For example the Rotary Foundation offers Ambassadorial Scholarships, Rhodes offers Rhodes Scholarships, Gates foundation offers Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Scholarships and there are many more. It just you have to look for foundations and apply individually outside the university. Many organizations might require a proof of admission before applying for these scholarships. So if you already have an admission offer and still not funding has arranged then you might have better change to get funding with these originations.

The Fifth best place to look for scholarships is Scholarship-Positions.com. Employers from around the world publish international scholarships on our website. Currently (July,2010), around 600,000 students are searching scholarships with us. Subscribe to scholarship-positions.com Email Newsletter, in RSS feed, in GoogleBuzz or on Twitter and receive new scholarship updates –just in time.

Good luck in your scholarship search.

Please feel free to ask if you have any questions. We are here to help.

Amit Kumar Singh
International Student Adviser
Scholarship-Positions.com