Higher education has become very expensive. Added to that, the cost of study abroad means a big hole in your pocket. More than 80% of the students studying abroad have to club personal savings along with some sort of aid/loan etc. in order to meet the expenses of education in foreign land. Therefore, one needs to plan carefully.

Scholarships are one of the more popular options for funding their education. But they are highly competitive and most universities/colleges do not have large budgets. Hence universities offer scholarships to a very small percentage of successful applicants upfront. However after reaching campus and by the end of the first semester students are able to obtain aid in the form of teaching/research/graduate assistantships. The important fact to be considered in this case is that this aid is obtained AFTER the end of the first semester and hence it cannot be completely relied upon while planning your educational budget from your home country. Activities like prof letting (communication with professors), availability of research projects, networking at the university are important tools which enable one to get these assistantships.

Educational loans are another option for students who fail to get scholarships owing to the fierce competition. Unlike Scholarship, this money is not free. It has interest charged on it. The rate of interest and the repayment period varies from bank to bank.

SCHOLARSHIPS: Scholarships are of two kinds.

1) Need based: These are offered to students who have standard of living/circumstances which would not permit them to meet the educational expenses at the institute and are hence offered direct aid to enable them to pursue their course of study. Scholarships from developing/third world countries are usually awarded these

2) Merit based: Institutes offer scholarships based on merit and extracurricular activities, expertise in different subject concentrations. Most good schools such as the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania or even Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College have very impressive budgets for scholarships. Kellogg’s Institute offers a scholarship of US$ 10,000 per year for two years to the deserving candidates. The London Business School gives a scholarship equivalent to 50% of one year’s fee. Other schools such as Harvard Business School have scholarships that are based on the needs of deserving candidates. However, to avail the scholarship, there is a tough competition.

However such awards are reserved mainly for applicants with stellar academic profiles and the scholarship situation for the average applicant isn’t very bright. In most reputed universities addressed above scholarships are only reserved for only about 10% of the applicants.

A few corporate houses also have scholarship schemes. For example, HSBC offers scholarships to the students who get through select premier Universities of the U.K. but again the fact to remember is that they select only 2 applicants out 2000 for this award. Reliance funds 5 students from India who go to Stanford Graduate School of Business for the entire 2 year period but needs them to come back to India after their stint at Stanford.