Where can i apply for scholarship for my studies?

How can I get a full scholarship for my Graduate studies?

• I'm majoring in Biology for my Bachelors degree, and the tuition in my local university is dirt cheap. But once I graduate, I want to go to a university over at the States. I was thinking of a Masters and Doctorate degree in Marine Biology. However, my parents can't afford to pay 10,000$+ by semester in tuition, and paying off such heavy student loans once I graduate can be a huge hassle.

• Answer:

  Axl: The news is both good and bad. For the bad - it is extremely unlikely that you will earn a full scholarship to an American university. Very, very few students achieve this Holy Grail of higher education. The reality is that most scholarships top out at a few thousand dollars. Most schools have a very limited pool of scholarship funds to award, and the common policy is to assist as many students as possible with a little, rather than help just a handful of students with a lot. With so many schools taking that approach, "full" scholarships are few and far between. The very expensive, private, elite schools in the United States have and maintain large endowment funds - these funds are donated by wealthy alumni and corporations, and are well invested by the university's fund raising division. Some of these schools have so much money that they are able to meet 100% of the financial aid need of every student who enrolls. There aren't a lot of schools like that, but famous institutions like Harvard and Yale and Stanford provide this kind of support. More importantly, most doctoral programs provide extensive aid to their students in the form of graduate stipends. Stipends are paid to students in exchange for teaching and research assistanceships, and other assigned responsibilities. Keep in mind that graduate training is training in research and academia - you're being prepared for a career in pure and applied research, and in teaching. Part of your graduate program will require you to teach and/or contribute to the research of one or more faculty members, and you will (likely) be paid (not very much) for your services. Though the pay isn't much, a combination of stipends and fee waivers often allow graduate students to cover a good part (if not all) of their tuition and college fees, and book expenses. As you're looking at graduate programs to apply to, be sure to look for information about how well the school supports its graduate students, and whether the stipends are available, and sufficient to substantially assist you with the cost of school. Good luck!