Scholarship Guidelines for Graduate Studies - Basic

This article is for those who have intention for higher studies and looking for scholarships. I have tried to share my experience here of searching for scholarships mainly in USA/CANADA/AUSTRALIA.

Now, come to the point directly. At first you have find out which university or country you want to apply for.

Here goes some general requirement that I can say from my experience.

USA:

1. GRE (mandatory for almost all the universities)
2. TOEFL (95-105) (mandatory for almost all the universities) - Some universities accept IELTS (6.5-7.5) instead.
3. Research Proposal or Statement of Purpose. In extreme case, both of them.
4. GPA above 3.50.

CANADA:

1. GRE (mandatory for a few universities)
2. TOEFL (95-105) (mandatory for almost all the universities) - Some universities accept IELTS (6.5-7.5) instead and SUST Engineering students have got exemption of ELP (English Language Proficiency) from 1/2 universities.
3. Research Proposal or Statement of Purpose. In extreme case, both of them.
4. GPA above 3.50.

AUSTRALIA:

1. GRE (not required in most cases).
2. IELTS (6.0-7.0) (mandatory for almost all the universities).
3. Research Proposal (mainly) or Statement of Purpose (occasionaly). In extreme case, both of them.
4. GPA above 3.50.

What you need to do after choosing the country?

0. Search for list of university names for the specific country.
1. Surf the internet for university sites (I preferred search with Computer Science key words in addition with university names).
2. Visit the university's graduate school faculties.
3. Do some research on their research interest and make a list of potential professors whose research interest coincide with yours one.
4. E-mail the potential professors stating that you are interested to do your graduate studies under his supervision. Don't forget to state your credentials in brief in the email body and please attach your subject specific resume with that mail for screening. I don't attach my transcript with my mail as its too big in size unless the professor asks for it in the reply mail.

What you will have to do after getting response from the professors?

In most cases the professors will ask for a research proposal/research intent which contains some research issues and guidelines to accomplish that proposal and your future thoughts: how your research can contribute in CS, what is your goal.

So, write down a research proposal within one or one and half pages (400-600 words). Do it specific. Remember you need not to go for detailed outline or have to finish it before finishing your graduate research! Take your time. You may take 7-15 days for preparing the proposal, sometimes you will get more than that depending on university deadline. Send it back to the professor for review.

Apply online via the university website. And then send the papers (hard copies) according to instruction within the deadline.

Application Sessions:

USA and CANADA

Fall (September) - Application deadlines of most universities resides between January and February.
Spring (January) - Application deadlines of most universities resides between June and August.
* Most of the universities don't take students for summer semesters.

AUSTRALIA

As I found, they mainly take students for their 1st semester that begins in April. The application deadline is October for most of the universities. Another session starts at September - October. For this session you need to complete your application before April or May.

Scholarships/Funding:

AUSTRALIA:

You need to win two seperate scholarships. One is for tution fee and other one is for living and travel cost. First one is given by the corresponding university generally. Second one may vary from your professor or research lab to Australian State Government or Australian Government.

CANADA or USA:

You will get a fund from professor and/or you can win partial scholarships like GA/TA. Their funds are divided into several parts. You need to win as most as possible. Specially in CANADA, you might not get full funding for MSc. But there are opportunities to work in COOP program. By working in COOP, you will get money as well as experience in a Canadian company related to your subject.

Some Renowned Scholarships:

* FULLBRIGHT (USA)

* International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) - for Australia

* AUSAID
Australian Development Scholarships (ADS)
Australian Leadership Awards (ALA)

* Eramus Mundus (For UK)

* Commonwealth Scholarships

NB: GPA and Research proposal are not strict always. If you have a GPA of 3.00+ and you can show your research potential to your professor then you can win scholarships too. Sometimes they will take students below their required application scores (IELTS/GPA) if you can convince them. So, don't hesitate to write. Besides universities website-stated scholarships there are many hidden scholarships as well. If you don't write, they will not let you know. Even you can extend the deadline if you write to them!

Best of Luck for your applications!