Can I win a University Scholarship to the US?

PART 1

The Frequently Asked Questions about US Scholarships

Can I win a University Scholarship to the US?

It’s very difficult to win a scholarship to study at a university in the US. You need to be an outstanding student, both at school and with high marks on the necessary international exams (TOEFL and SAT, for students finishing secondary school; or TOEFL and GRE or GMAT, for most master’s degree programs in the US).

To get a great score on the international exams, your English needs to be excellent. And not only that, you need to make your way through an application process that is unfamiliar to you and very complicated!

But the good news is, if you ARE a truly outstanding student, IGIHE.com and Bridge2Rwanda Scholars want to help you win the best scholarship you are qualified for. We will do this by giving you as much information and advice as we can about what you will need to do to succeed.

There are already hundreds of Rwandans who study in the U.S. and we want to add more, to help Rwanda develop its economy and provide its best students with the quality of education they deserve.

If you are an outstanding student – one of the best students in your school, with great English as well – it is possible to win a scholarship to the US. Here is our first set of frequently asked questions and answers on how you can succeed:

1. How do I need to prepare to apply to universities in the US?

This is a very important question, and to help us give you the most complete information possible, we will make this the subject of next week’s column.

2. What difference does financial ability to pay make?

It is easier to gain admission to a university in the US if you can pay something each year. But this should not discourage you, if you are brilliant and hard-working, because if you can get into the best schools in the US, these schools guarantee that they will give you the scholarship you need.

However, as you will see, it is not easy to qualify and apply to these schools! But if you can qualify (through great English and grades) and show you are qualified by writing the applications correctly, then you may be able to win a scholarship regardless of your ability to pay.

Please check back next week for more information on what you will need to do to show schools you are qualified.

3. I want to apply to a school that will give me a full scholarship. What are the most important steps in this process?

By far, the most important step is the first one: you have to be qualified to study in the program you are applying to. Very few Rwandans study in the US, because very few Rwandans show the universities they are qualified in terms of great English, great international test scores and completing the applications correctly.

Different schools and programs have different requirements which you can see on their websites (click on “Admissions” and then “International Students”), but in general US universities want to see that the student applying from Rwanda is ready to come into the same classes as their American students.

This means that you have to speak, read and write English almost perfectly, as measured by a score of 550 or 600 or more on the TOEFL exam and a decent score on the verbal sections of tests which are written for native speakers of English (SAT, GRE, GMAT). For the SAT, for example, the best schools want you to score around 600 out of 800 on the test’s Critical Reading section.

This is a very difficult mark for most students to attain, but if you can get at least a 500 or 550 on the Critical Reading section of the SAT, you should be a competitive applicant.

By the way, if you already have outstanding test scores – an official TOEFL of more than 605 and an SAT of more than 1650 – you should contact Bridge2Rwanda Scholars for a free college counseling appointment, to make sure you succeed at your university applications.

If you are close to these scores, check back on this page next week for more advice on how to attain them!

4. How are university applications and scholarships organized in the US?

Before you can start to apply, you need to understand the process you are trying to win a scholarship from. But this is really a series of questions:

5. Do public or private universities have more scholarship money for international students?

In the U.S., students apply to public or private universities, depending on the students’ grades, SAT (or GRE or GMAT) scores and ability to pay. For Americans, public universities (such as the University of Colorado) are usually less expensive, but for international students they often cost similar amounts as private universities (such as Harvard or Columbia University).

But there is one important difference between public and private universities that will help international students. Public universities have very little scholarship money for students from outside their region. Private universities, on the other hand, determine their own budgets and give much more scholarship funding to international students.

This means that the best 30 to 60 private colleges and universities in the U.S. can give generous and even full scholarships to students who apply and whom the universities decide to accept. To be clear: in the U.S., it is the individual universities that give students their scholarships.

Before a student can get a scholarship, they have to show the university they are so good the university should accept them and invite them to come to their school!

What does this mean in practice?

If you need a full scholarship, you will also need to have some of the best marks in the country on the TOEFL and SAT. In other words, in order to be a good applicant for the schools that give full scholarships to the best qualified international students, you need to be one of the best Rwandan students who applies.

6. How do universities decide which students to admit?

If you want to apply to the universities in the US which can give you a great scholarship, you should know that the best schools don’t take everyone. Most of the best private colleges and universities will accept between 10 and 30 percent of the students who apply.

Therefore, in order to get in, you have to 1) have the grades and exam results that show you are qualified, and 2) you have to write the applications for each school correctly, so that the universities where you are applying can see you are qualified.

7. What is the timeline for applying to university in the U.S.?

Please check our column next week for more information on this subject.

8. What is the importance of showing universities that I am a qualified student?

This is a very important part of the process of applying to universities in the US, along with making sure you are well-prepared by the time you apply. If the school cannot see you are qualified, they are unlikely to admit you to their university, and even less likely to offer you a scholarship.

The private universities which give great scholarships only need to accept 20 or 30 percent of the students who apply. If it is not clear to them that a student is qualified, then that student is unlikely to be part of the 20 percent who they will accept. And this is especially true for international students, whose qualifications, preparation and credentials are harder for schools to evaluate.

9. So what does it mean to be a qualified student?

It depends on the school. Different schools all have their own standards. But to apply to the best schools, students will usually need to have very good secondary grades and exam results, plus great English as measured by a score of more than 600 on the TOEFL and as high a score as possible on the SAT.

We will give you more information on this subject in part 2 of this FAQ.

10. I attended a technical school, such as mechanics or electricity. Can I apply to universities in the U.S.?

We’re sorry, but it is not possible for students who attended technical secondary schools to apply to universities in the U.S. The American university system does not permit this.

11. I’ve already started university at an undergraduate or master’s degree level. Can I leave the program I am in and go to the US?

That will be very difficult to do. Once you have started a program, you are considered a transfer student at similar programs in the US, and international transfer students usually can’t receive scholarships or financial aid. So you will be expected to pay the full cost of the program, if you get in.

The best solution is to finish the degree you are already working on, and at the same time prepare for the next degree you want to apply for in the U.S., so you can show you are well-qualified. This will make you more likely to get into the program you want to attend and to get in with a scholarship!

12. I’m 22 years old or more. Can I still do my undergraduate in the US?

The older you get, the harder it becomes to study as an undergraduate in the U.S. When you are older than 22, it becomes unlikely that an elite school will take you for an undergraduate program, because most of the other students in your first year of the program will be only 18 years old.

However, universities sometimes make exceptions and accept older students.
What will be easier is to do your undergraduate university in Rwanda, and then do a master’s degree at an international school. If you are 25 and have not started university, it’s unlikely you will be able to do your undergraduate in the US.

If you finish your undergraduate degree in Africa, though, you will be 29 or 30 – and most students in master’s degree programs range from 22 to 35 years old!

13. Okay, I will get a TOEFL exam score of more than 600 and an SAT score of 1700 or higher. What are ten schools where I can apply in the U.S.?

If you get these scores, you won’t need to choose among ten schools in the U.S. – there are about 60 schools where you can apply that will give you a scholarship, if they decide to admit you.

But here are ten schools you could look at to start – schools that guarantee that if they admit you, they will give international undergraduate students as much scholarship as they need: Colby, Middlebury, Amherst, Williams, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, MIT, CalTech.

Don’t see an answer to your question?
Send us your question and we’ll ask our U.S. University Counselor! Each week, if you send us your questions, we will respond with a few answers and give you the information or advice you need.

Links to consult:

Three university scholarships you should know about:
http://en.igihe.com/business/three-university-scholarship-opportunities-you.html

Website with up to date news of partial scholarship offers to universities in the U.S. – note that these are usually not to the same private schools that offer full scholarships:
http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid

Great site with resources for African students who want to apply to the U.S.:
http://www.helpforafricanstudents.org/english/index.php