Paying for your global seminar without going broke — applying to (and getting) scholarships

Paying for my global seminar was one of, if not, my top concern. However, I was fortunate enough to cover all my expenses through scholarships. Below I am listing my tips for preparing for applications, writing the essays, and the best scholarships to apply to: 

1. Make a list and timeline for the scholarships you will apply to. 

It is very important to prepare by making a list of all the scholarships you are eligible for. But first, you must find out which scholarships are out there. My strategy was to speak to the study abroad office and express my financial need. They were great in giving me a list of UCSD and outside scholarships and telling me which I was eligible for. If you will be studying abroad in the summer, I recommend you look into this while you are applying to your global seminar. Once you have a list, get right to it. I applied early to all my scholarships to ensure that I knew as soon as possible how much I could count with toward my study abroad costs. For me, this was important to know ASAP so that I could start planning for the expenses I would need to pay from other sources. Remember I said at the beginning to make a list of all scholarships you are eligible for? Yep, well apply to ALL of those. If you see you’re eligible, just go for it. Don’t think about how competitive people say they are, go into this process with confidence and just go for it! 

2. Apply to UCSD scholarships—your chances of getting these are high!  

Scholarships specific to UCSD are the best to apply to. All of the six colleges have funds specific to study abroad scholarships. Think about it, your chances are much greater when the pool of applicants come from only your college. Same goes to population-scholarships such as those for OASIS students, TRELS, and Student Success Coaching (if you don’t know what these are—go find out! https://studyabroad.ucsd.edu/students/funding/scholarships.html#National-and-General-Scholarshi )

3. Yep, apply to the big one—Gilman Scholarship—the application is not that bad! 

The Gilman Scholarship funds up to $3000 of your study abroad trip, depending on how much they decide to fund you for. The application consists of an essay where you explain why you want to study abroad and basically your argument for why you deserve it. Make sure to explain why your specific program is important to your academic goals and career, why you need to study abroad, etc. In my case, this was my last quarter of undergrad, so I made sure to stress this would be my only chance for studying abroad—like ever. Studying abroad just because you want to travel is not a strong argument—but having global experience, informing your research and academic interests, how the specific classes/program/host country are crucial to your learning ARE strong points. 

In addition to the essay, you will have to propose a service project for when you come back. This could be going to local schools to speak to students about your experience abroad and encourage them to go to college, coming back to UCSD and presenting on your experience, writing a blog while abroad, video vlogging—essentially how will you share about the Gilman scholarship and encourage others to apply and study abroad? You will have to complete this project and do a write-up within 6 months of your return. This scholarship also asks for forms to be completed by the study abroad office at UCSD, but the study abroad office is super helpful with this and it wont be burdensome to you.

4. Check your motives to studying abroad—do you have an argument? 

All in all, what scholarship readers want to know is: “Why should we pay for you to study abroad?”. Think about what motivates you to study abroad (other than going to an exciting new country and learning the language). Is it the specific global seminar program (the classes, professor, etc.), do the classes/program align with your research and/or career interests (this was a big point for me as I want to be a neuropsychologist researching the influence of culture in cognition and my global seminar focused on very relevant topics). Also think about barriers you have faced that have prepared you for this experience. Are you a first generation college student? Are you an underrepresented student at UCSD, and in study abroad programs. Research shows that students of color and first generation students don’t study abroad at the same rates as other students. This is important to state in your essays. See the following link for more info on diversity and studying abroad with UCSD: https://studyabroad.ucsd.edu/students/diversity-abroad/index.html#Top-five-reasons-to-study-abroa . 

5. Some peace of mind. 

I know this is a lot of info. But I mean it, it is definitely possible to fund your experience abroad by preparing well and asking for help. There are specific reasons why you want to study abroad—think about those and let them guide your essay writing.