Study abroad: What if I cannot get a scholarship?
People who wish to get an education in a foreign country experience some challenges when it comes to getting the needed funds to pursue their study abroad. Students further their studies by going to a foreign country and use that opportunity to expand their horizon in terms of learning the customs and culture paramount in the country where they are getting the education. This brings about the issue of how to raise funds in order to study abroad and most students rely on scholarships.
What is a scholarship?
Scholarships are financial assistance given to students who wish to study abroad and it is based on what the student has achieved academically. This becomes necessary when a student cannot afford to pay the tuition fees but needs to get an education.
Scholarships cannot be easily accessed by most students and the question that is normally asked is, ‘what happens when a study who needs to study abroad cannot get a scholarship’? Most students with financial difficulty need the scholarship to be able to raise funds to further their study abroad. The following can be looked into if a student could not get a scholarship.
1. Sponsorship
A student can get financial assistance by being sponsored by a company but there is something attached to such aid. A company can sponsor an athlete, students with low income or help the children in a community to go to college so as to strengthen their relationship with the community. The most acceptable way that companies sponsor students is through a foundation.
2. Bursary
A bursary is a form of a grant designed to provide financial support to students and not based on academic success in any exam. It does not need to be repaid and the student needs to meet certain criteria such as having a good undergraduate degree and references.
These are majorly for students who are doing post-graduate studies in the same university and need financial assistance in furthering their education due to their financial difficulties.
An example is a loyalty bonus given, by some universities, to postgraduates who did their undergraduate studies in the same university.
3. Crowdfunding
Students who intend studying abroad without being able to get the scholarship can get assistance from crowdfunding which is a platform used to raise funds. Crowdfunding has provided financial aid to students willing to study abroad who do not have the needed funds to do that. This raises the question on the choice of the crowdfunding platform to achieve the main purpose of raising funds to study abroad.
There are those crowdfunding platforms that create a personal domain where friends and families will be channelled with the aim of raising funds. While there are those crowdfunding platforms that are helping people in order to ensure that the world is a better place. The former is known as the traditional crowdfunding platforms which include platform such as Razoo while the latter known as the social crowdfunding platform includes platform like Indiegogo. Crowdfunding platforms have created a way of raising funds to study abroad.
4. Student Loan
A student loan can be considered when you are not able to get any scholarship but will need to be paid back. This loan can either be given by the government or private individuals and the difference is in the interest rate as the government loan has a lower interest than the loan given by the private individuals.
Closure
Students who do not get any scholarship have alternative means of raising funds to study abroad.
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