Scholarships

You'll be surprised to know that schools want you to study abroad and represent them. There is often times a misunderstanding among parents and students when it comes to the cost of studying abroad. If you add your tuition of a semester, including living and personal expenses, there is little to no difference when compared with the expenses of studying abroad for that semester, including airfare and other costs. And this is true for public universities! For those who go to private universities, the cost of studying abroad might be less compared to what you pay for a regular semester! Now this, of course, depends on the type and duration of the program you choose. The same is true for short-term summer programs. But not all students might have the time to commit to study abroad for a semester due to personal obligations, duration away from home, credits and such. Generally, these students tend to lean toward summer.  But, for students who usually don't enroll at their school during the summer, yet wish to study abroad, the costs of studying abroad in the summer can be overwhelming. Fear NOT! You have mula everywhere around you, waiting for you to FIND it. All you have to do is SEARCH for it!

Since, such a low percentage of students go on study abroad, they are numerous scholarship opportunities you can apply to from merit-based to financial need, from national-level to local school study abroad scholarships. And these scholarships are study abroad specific. Your chances of winning scholarships will increase if you or the country you are travelling to are underrepresented in study abroad.  For instance, Spain, England, and France are some of the countries that are popular with study abroad and are not considered underrepresented. You might have to bring up a strong case of why you want to travel to those countries. Remember, you are going there as a STUDENT! Not as a tourist. Whatever the case maybe, when writing out scholarship essays, give it your best - make 'em feel like your career depends on it!! The following are some of the things scholarships committees consider as being underrepresented.

1. Male  (the group of 20 I'm travelling with has a 1:5 male to female ratio)

2. Majoring in any science (biology, chemistry etc..)

3. Asian Descent

4. Travelling to a country you don't often hear about. ( Example - Botswana is considered underrepresented, when compared to Argentina)

5. 1st generation college student.

And the list goes on.....

I would HIGHLY recommend applying for these nationally competitive scholarships. If you win them, it would be an amazing achievement, something you would want to add to your resume.

Gilman International Scholarship Program*
Boren Awards for International Study*

*Talk to your study abroad advisor or the office of Scholarship Programs if your school has one to help you in applying for these scholarships.

Furthermore, the study abroad programs also offers scholarships for you to apply. For instance, CIEE offers scholarships for you to apply, independent of what you've already applied to through your school. Moreover, I had the option of applying to 5 scholarships,  just by UIC worth more than $500 each.
So, look into study abroad scholarships that your university/college has to offer and  maintain good communication with your study abroad advisor. Meet your deadlines! Save your essays! If crunch for time, you might just need one essay to apply for two or more scholarships depending on what the essay prompts are.

Good Luck!