Scholarship tip sheet – Adarsh Khandelwal, Co Founder, Collegify

Collegify Logo with Orange Background Adarsh Khandelwal - Co-FounderRhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil John Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for selected foreign students to study at the University of Oxford. It describes itself as “perhaps the most prestigious scholarship” in the world. Cecil Rhodes’ goals in creating the Rhodes Scholarships were to promote civic-minded leadership amongst young people.

Rhodes Scholars may study any full-time postgraduate course offered by the university, whether a taught master’s programme, a research degree, or a second undergraduate degree (senior status). University and college fees are paid by the Rhodes Trust. In addition, scholars receive a monthly maintenance stipend to cover accommodation and living expenses.

Each year, there are five Scholarships available for India to enable outstanding students – chosen on the basis of exceptional intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service – to study at the University of Oxford.

Eligibility criteria

  • Citizenship & residency:Each applicant must fulfil the citizenship and residency requirements of the Rhodes constituency for which they are applying.
  • Age:Age limits vary between constituencies and range from a minimum age limit of 18 to a maximum of 28 by 1 October of the year following selection. In most constituencies, the age limit is 24 or 25. Please check carefully the specific age requirements for your constituency before applying.  Successful candidates will arrive in Oxford the October following the selection process.
  • Education:All applicants must have achieved academic standing sufficiently advanced to assure completion of a bachelor’s degree by the October following election. Academic standing must be sufficiently high to ensure admission to the University of Oxford, which has very competitive entry requirements, and to give confidence that Rhodes Scholars will perform to a high academic standard in Oxford. Individual constituencies may specify a 1st or equivalent.  Some constituencies require an undergraduate degree to have been taken within the constituency of application.

Application process

  1. Application to the Scholarship:
    Applications for Rhodes Scholarships open during the spring and summer of the preceding year.
  2. Evidence of academic record / transcript (complete or in progress) of undergraduate degree and any postgraduate study
  • Curriculum vitae/resumé
  • Personal statement or essay (including, crucially, a clear statement of what the applicant wishes to study at Oxford and why)
  • Evidence of age / birth certificate / passport
  • English Language proficiency (where English is not the first language)
  • Photograph
  • List of referees (usually several are required) who can attest in confidential references to the character and intellect of the applicant, including academic, personal, extra-curricular and leadership achievements.

Commonwealth Scholarship

Commonwealth Scholarships for Master’s and PhD study in the UK are offered for citizens of developing Commonwealth countries. These scholarships are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth.

You can apply for a Commonwealth Scholarship for the following levels of study:

  • Master’s (one-year courses only)
  • PhD

All subject areas are eligible, although the CSC’s selection criteria give priority to applications that demonstrate the strongest relevance to development.

You should apply to study at a UK university with which the CSC has a part funding agreement.

 

Eligibility

To apply for these scholarships, you must:

  • Be a Commonwealth citizen, refugee, or British protected person
  • Be a permanent resident in adeveloping Commonwealth country
  • Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2016
  • By October 2016, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honours standard, or a second class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master’s degree)

The CSC promotes equal opportunity, gender equity, and cultural exchange. Applications are encouraged from a diverse range of candidates.

 

Selection process

Each year, the CSC invites selected nominating bodies to submit a specific number of nominations. The deadline for nominating bodies to submit nominations to the CSC is 17 December 2015.

The CSC invites around three times more nominations than scholarships available – therefore, nominated candidates are not guaranteed to be awarded a scholarship. There are no quotas for scholarships for any individual country. Candidates nominated by national nominating agencies are in competition with those nominated by other nominating bodies, and the same standards will be applied to applications made through either channel.

Each nominated candidate’s application is first considered by a member of the CSC’s panel of advisers with expertise in the subject area concerned, and then by the CSC’s selection committee in competition with other candidates.

Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:

  • Academic merit of the candidate
  • Quality of the proposal
  • Potential impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country

 

Tata Scholarship

Thanks to a generous gift from the Tata Education and Development Trust – a philanthropic affiliate of India’s Tata Group – a $25 million endowment has been established that will allow Cornell to provide financial aid to 20 undergraduate students from India.

The Tata Scholarship Fund will support approximately 20 scholars at any given time and will ensure that the very best Indian students have access to Cornell, regardless of their financial circumstances. The scholarship will be awarded annually; recipients will receive the scholarship for the duration of their undergraduate studies at Cornell.

Ratan Tata ’59, B. Arch ’62, is a Cornell trustee and the chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, one of India’s oldest, largest, and most respected business conglomerates. Mr. Tata is one of the most respected business leaders in the world and has received numerous prestigious honors recognizing his impact through his work and philanthropy.

Eligibility

To receive the undergraduate scholarship, a recipient must:

  • be a citizen of India and have attended secondary school in India;
  • be offered admission to Cornell as an undergraduate student;
  • be eligible for need-based financial aid.

Preference will be given to qualified students accepted to the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning; the College of Engineering; the Applied Economics and Management major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and majors across colleges in the biological sciences, physical sciences, and other “hard” sciences, as well as the social sciences.

Application Process

Undergraduate applicants will be eligible for consideration for the Tata Scholarship if they have completed the admission application and have applied for financial aid. All undergraduate applicants must apply for financial aid by completing the financial aid application process for international students.

To apply for international financial aid the following documentation is required:

  • Complete theCollege Scholarship Service (CSS) PROFILE (Cornell’s CSS code is 2098).
  • Additional information may be requested by the Office of Financial Aid.

DrManmohan Singh Scholarship 

This is an international award for study at St John’s College at the University of Cambridge. They are PhDstandard scholarships for prospective Indian PhD students awarded by the College. The award was designed to benefit academically bright Indian students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and is administered by the College. The Scholarship is named in honor ofManmohan Singh, a former student of the College and Former Prime Minister of India, who is widely acknowledged as the architect of the economic reforms that have helped propel India onto the world stage. The scholarship subject areas are:

The scholarships award value areas are:

  • Academic fees
  • International airfare
  • Monthly stipend to cover living expenses
  • UK Visa

Eligibility criteria

The applicant should be:

  • An Indian national with a valid Indian passport
  • Below 35 years of age before 31 January in year of application
  • Holding a Master’s (postgraduate) degree from a reputed/recognized Indian university/institution with a First Class award (UG and PG) in the relevant subject/field
  • Evidence of leadership qualities (to be assessed from personal statements e.g. extracurricular activities and/or evidence of having made a difference to the country/society/participation in symposia in the relevant subject, or peer reviewed publication in the area)
  • Keen to pursue a full-time Doctoral Research degree from St. John’s College, University of Cambridge, commencing by September/October
  • Fluent in spoken and written English

GATES SCHOLARSHIP

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships are one of the most prestigious international scholarships in the world. Scholarships are awarded to outstanding applicants from countries outside the UK to pursue a full-time postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge.

Eligibility criteria:

You can apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship if you are:

  • a citizen of any country outside the United Kingdom.
  • applying to pursue one of the following full-time residential courses of study: PhD (three year research-only degree); MSc or MLitt (two year research-only degree); or a one year postgraduate course (e.g. MPhil, LLM, MASt, Diploma, MBA etc.)

Application instructions:

It is not possible to apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship without applying to the University of Cambridge. You must apply for admission as a postgraduate student to the University of Cambridge and a Gates Cambridge Scholarship at the same time. Applicants apply on a single form for admission to a course and a College and for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. The deadline for applications is 2 December 2015 for citizens other than the US and 14 October 2015 for US citizens.

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