Find a Masters Course with the Best Scholarship Search Tool
Keen to find a masters course with a scholarship to make your study abroad plans a reality? The first challenge you might run into is finding the right opportunity. Universities set aside millions of dollars in scholarships every year, with several they reserve specifically for international students. Sorting through your options to find the scholarship you have the best chances to qualify for can be quite tough.
That’s where GRADSearch comes in – a complete database of the world’s best universities, as well as the programs and scholarships they offer! Let’s delve into what you should keep in mind during your scholarship search and how GRADSearch can help.
What to Keep in Mind When Looking for Scholarships
When trying to find a masters course with an excellent scholarship, you can boost your chances by:
Not Limiting Yourself to Large Awards
Universities often offer large flagship awards for international students. These are generally the most attractive, offering the biggest tuition discounts and fee waivers. However, because they are so attractive, you can also expect the competition for them to be very steep. So, don’t focus exclusively on these flagship awards.
Through GRADSearch, you can explore a thorough list of scholarships universities offer through one platform. Some scholarships may be subject-specific, others may be smaller monetary awards. Nonetheless, a tuition fee discount can go quite far in making a difference to your study abroad costs overall.
Understanding Application Procedures and Deadlines
Some scholarships will automatically consider you as soon as you apply for a program. Others will have their own set of application and eligibility criteria. These include the deadlines by which you must submit all the application components for the award.
To make sure you don’t miss your chance at a scholarship, pay careful attention to the application checklist, process, and deadline. Make sure your scholarship application is not missing any details and that you are not sending everything at the last minute. If a scholarship is on offer on a first-come, first-serve basis, you might miss your chance simply because your submission was too late.
Matching and Exceeding the Minimum Eligibility Criteria
Universities have a finite number of scholarships they offer every intake. To boost your chances of qualifying, target the scholarships for which you meet and exceed the minimum eligibility criteria. If you are focusing on scholarships that you don’t meet the eligibility criteria for, you’re using up time and resources you could focus on awards you have a greater shot at securing.
Scholarship Opportunities for International Students
Scholarships come in many shapes and sizes when it comes to higher education overseas. A good understanding of what you’re getting into helps guide your search and pinpoint the best options for you! Here’s a brief run-down on the main categories of scholarships you might like to explore in your search.
General Scholarships
These are scholarships that the university will consider all incoming students for. Some universities offer the same flagship award at all study levels. Others reserve separate general scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate students respectively. Typically, these scholarships tend to be merit awards – they are financial awards in the form of tuition fee waivers and discounts for high academic performers. At the graduate level, you may also find merit awards for those demonstrating great leadership experience, research experience, and so on.
Some examples of general scholarships include:
| University | Country | Scholarship |
| University of Exeter | UK | Global Excellence Scholarship |
| Macquarie University | Australia | Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarship |
| University College Dublin | Ireland | UCD Global Scholarship |
| University of Alberta | Canada | Graduate Entrance Scholarship |
Subject Scholarships
General and entrance scholarships are also not your only options when trying to find a masters course to study abroad. University faculties and departments often reserve specific scholarships for applicants to their programs. These can be as broad as faculty-specific scholarships and as narrow as program-specific scholarships.
These awards are especially worth looking into as you may be able to benefit from the lack of competition for smaller awards. The bulk of scholarship applications tend to come in for the biggest and most popular scholarships. Meanwhile, some scholarships go untouched every year because they don’t receive applications. Some subject-specific master’s program scholarships to consider include:
| University | Subject | Scholarship |
| Nottingham Trent University | Law | Law School Professional Courses Scholarship |
| Monash University | Commerce | Master of Commerce Scholarship |
| University College Cork | Science, Engineering & Food Science | SEFS International Student Merit-Based Scholarship |
| University of Calgary | Economics | Economics Society of Calgary Graduate Scholarship |
Scholarships by Citizenship
To diversify their campuses, some universities encourage applications from specific parts of the world with exclusive scholarships. These are excellent options to look into as Indian students trying to find a masters degree with a scholarship! Some examples of awards you can consider are:
| University | Country | Scholarship |
| University of Lincoln | UK | South Asia Scholarship |
| Macquarie University | Australia | ASEAN $10,000 Early Acceptance Scholarship |
| Deakin University | Australia | Deakin India 25% Merit Scholarship |
| Cornell University | USA | Tata Scholarship for Indian Students |
How to Find a Masters Course with Scholarship using GRADSearch
First things first – what is GRADSearch?
GRADSearch is a comprehensive program search engine with a continuously updating list of university courses. It matches your search inquiries across a dataset of more than 130,000 programs from over 3,000 global colleges and universities!
This course matcher aims to simplify your course research and speed you along the application process with confidence. First, you input the keyword for the subject you want to find a masters course for. Then you help the engine narrow your search down by specifying details like:
• Degree type
• Degree level
• Destination
The system then shortlists all the programs across universities in almost 30 countries matching your enquiry! From here, you can expand each option to view the key course details, such as start dates and tuition fees. You can also jump into an appointment booking with a Student Success Consultant, for one-on-one handholding throughout the program shortlisting and application process.
GRADSearch's Scholarship Feature
Alongside the program search benefits, another great perk of GRADSearch is its comprehensive dataset of scholarships for each university! Say you are trying to find a masters course for architecture to study in Australia. You are keen to look into scholarship options for all the programs that show up in your search.
As soon as you expand a program from any of the universities in the database, you don’t just get to view the program overview. You can also toggle across tabs to look into all the other programs the university offers as well as its available scholarships!
This simplifies your scholarship search by bringing all the relevant information to one platform. You can quickly scan the bitesize details of available scholarships, such as their deadline, funding type, and funding amount. You can also check whether the scholarship is specific to a certain study level. Once you shortlist scholarships you are keen to look into, you can independently research these or book an appointment with a counsellor to help in your search.
External Scholarships
The GRADSearch database integrates all the scholarships that universities offer its students. But university scholarships are not your only options for financial awards to study abroad! You can look into external awards like scholarships that the governments of the host and/or home country offer. For example, master’s applicants to the UK can qualify for the Chevening Scholarship!
Rounding Up
To find a masters course with a scholarship, you need to have a proper understanding of your options. And while the volume of information out there makes it impossible to look through everything before coming to your decision, the right tools and strategies can make the job easier. Remember that scholarships are finite – you need to focus your search on the options you have the highest likelihood of scoring. To discover these programs, you can use tools like GRADSearch or the support of Student Success Consultants to find best-match scholarships!
