Studying abroad especially in European and American Universities has over the years being the utmost dream of many Nigerians. Be it for post graduate or undergraduate education, these young and vibrant Nigerians joggle for the often limited spaces.
Annually, most top Universities recieves tons of thousands of applications for the limited spaces making the process tiring and and sometimes frustrating.
Because of the costly nature of the programme, most applicants from developing countries result to applying for scholarship placement and also indulge in paid employment to be able to afford such coveted education.
Beside this, most Nigerians result to fund raisers and other ways of generating funds.
Scholarships, typically remains the most reliable way of getting funding.
The following tips and steps will serve as a good and proven way of getting scholarships to universities abroad.
Firstly, in other to secure funding, the applicant needs to reach out to people in other to find out the right scholarship and programme for him or her.
In this scenario, the applicants’ lecturers, academic advisor and previous receivers of scholarships comes to mind as the information given are always reliable.
Secondly, extensive research needs to be done. There abound many scholarship around the world and research needs to be done to understand the most suitable for the applicant.
Exploring online platforms like will help the applicant narrow down his search and save up energy and time.
Reaching out directly to chosen scholarship boards will also help in understanding of the intricacies of the scholarship requirements.
The next very important aspect of abroad scholarship application is also updating of resume. The need for an updated resume cannot be overemphasized.
A well detailed and comprehensive resume is advised. This should contain the competence, achievements and qualifications of the applicant.
The detailed information offers the scholarship board a glimpse of the applicant’s personality. Some scholarship application requires a personal statement which offers further opportunity for the applicant to “sell” himself/herself to the judges.
Additionally, most Scholarship requires the provision of personal reference . This is a person(s), that are known the applicant personally.
Generally, this means contacting them to write recommendation letters for the applicant. Ideally, it is expected that those that know the applicant personally are contacted because they are in better place of writing favourably about the applicant.
The next and most important is the application proper. This requires the applicant filling out the forms and submission of the forms.
This should be done with utmost care as any mistake may prove costly in the application process.
Efforts also should be made to continue reaching out to the board when in doubt or in need of information.