Having aspirations to study in a country abroad is an ambition dreamt by many students all over the world. Whether it be the foreign country’s culture, the standard of life, access to opportunities or quality of education, there are many things that students look forward to when considering applying for a scholarship in a foreign land.
At a time when global communities are intermingling more than ever, pursuing a scholarship is no longer reserved for just a handful of students. The diversity of culture seen in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi add another element of desire for students in other countries to pursue their higher education here.
Before we understand the different aspects one needs to remember before applying for a scholarship of their choice, let’s have a look at the scope for scholarships for international students in the UAE.
Why does a city like Abu Dhabi make for a good choice?
The city of Abu Dhabi offers very high-quality education with a number of world-class institutes spread across the region. Owing to the high number of expatriates from over 200 nationalities, Abu Dhabi can be considered to be a melting pot of cultural diversity from all over the world. Due to UAE’s economic boom for the past twenty years, Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE, has seen massive improvements in its public and private infrastructure and its population standard of life.
The number of opportunities brought about by the accelerated pace of economic development make Abu Dhabi one of the most desired cities in the UAE for international students looking to complete their higher education.
In accordance with the Ministry of Education’s objective of inviting talented students to the country to offer them high-quality education and further let these students contribute to the country’s economy, many schools such as the Global Indian International School (GIIS) offer full-fledged scholarship programmes that take complete care of the international student’s tuition and hostel fees.
Things students ought to remember while applying for a scholarship:
Listed below are a few pointers that students ought to keep in mind when applying for a scholarship of their choice –
1. Ask for advice
The first step students ought to follow before applying is to ask their peers, teachers and other members of their community about the various scholarships they can apply for. Having more experience, your academic advisors can equip you with the necessary knowledge of scholarships that would best suit your career goals.
2. Do your research
The right research can help you save time by not applying for scholarships that you might not have the eligibility for. On the other hand, it can also help you identify potential options that would match up to your requirements and you’d match up to theirs too.
It will give students an idea about the different criteria set by the educational institute and thus help them in customising their applications to meet these needs. With different scholarship options such as country-specific, subject-specific, student-specific, etc., students can shortlist a number of scholarships and prepare to apply for them in terms of varying priorities.
3. A good application letter
A student’s application letter ought to reflect the academic and non-academic achievements that will give them the edge over other applicants. Therefore, it is important to craft it very carefully in order to highlight one’s achievements in the best manner possible. Students should remember that being concise and to the point would work in their favour as the person checking it might be looking at more than just one application at a time. Therefore, making it easily comprehensible would grab more attention.
4. Write an honest statement of purpose
For Indian high school admissions, a number of scholarship programmes require students to write an authentic essay stating their desire to study on a particular campus or why they deserve to get the scholarship. As the name suggests, an authentic essay needs to reflect a student’s honest desires. Students can get creative with their statements by conveying them through a story and trying to make it as interesting as they can.
5. Proofread your application
While in the pursuit of making your statement or essay intriguing enough for the person reading it, students also need to make sure that they’re not going overboard with what they have written. Therefore, it would make sense to proofread one’s statement to ensure that it is in line with what is expected by their desired institution.
Besides their statement of purpose, students should proofread their entire application to make sure all the details have been entered correctly. Silly mistakes in grammar and punctuation can reflect poorly on their application skills. It is a good practice to have it proofread by two to three other people who have successfully applied for scholarships before, as they have the eye for checking things that could adversely affect one’s application.
6. Apply on time
It is important to respect the deadline set by an institution for the submission of applications. Thus, it would be sensible for students to mark the date on their calendar and try to finish the work of filling the application before the last date. While applying late might mean that your application is rejected, applying early can show your zeal to win the scholarship.
7. Keep your documents ready
With all the right efforts, there’s a very good chance that students might end up achieving the scholarship they wanted. Hence, students ought to make sure that the necessary documents required to confirm their scholarship are ready with them. Documents converted in a ‘pdf’ format can also be helpful in case they need to be uploaded to the institute’s online portal.
8. Read up more about the culture
When going to study in an educational campus abroad, it can be a good exercise to inform oneself about the foreign country’s values and culture to be able to gel well with the local community there and be able to make good friends for oneself.
Scholarship process for GIIS Global Citizen Scholarship
The Global Indian International School (GIIS) is equipped with a modern next-gen campus in Abu Dhabi. With a teaching staff of highly qualified teachers, GIIS offers the Global Citizen Scholarship programme for students wishing to pursue their level 11 and 12 education and have the ideal stepping stone to pursue their further education in the best colleges and universities across the world.
As a part of this Indian high school admission process through scholarship, international students can get enrolled in the school’s CBSE programme that focuses on not only ensuring the academic excellence of their students but also their holistic development across other extra-curricular activities.
The programme is available for students from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan or European Union countries. By offering a full 100% and a partial 75% waiver on scholarship, GIIS aims to ensure that foreign students enrolling themselves in the school don’t have to feel the pinch of rising tuition fees for their duration of two years in the school. Interested students can find out more details about this programme on the school’s official website.
Conclusion
While students across the world ought to be encouraged in achieving their dreams of a high-quality education abroad, it is important that they are well aware of the process of applying for a scholarship for international students. Furthermore, schools like GIIS also need to be explored by students looking to vastly improve their capabilities beyond the schooling environment with a focus on becoming independent self-learners in the future.
