How I Got $225,000 Scholarship from University of Toronto & How You Can Too | International Scholar

Summary

Zuhair shares his experience of securing a CAD 225,000 scholarship from the University of Toronto without a separate application. The merit-based 'University of Toronto International Scholar Award' is automatically considered for admitted international students in certain faculties. Zuhair emphasizes the importance of high academic performance, particularly scoring above 90%, for eligibility. He also advises starting the application process early, self-reporting grades, and exploring other scholarships to finance education. The video provides tips on navigating the application and scholarship process, highlighting the need for careful financial planning.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The speaker, Zuhair, received a CAD 225,000 scholarship from the University of Toronto without applying separately for it.
• 🏆 The scholarship is called the University of Toronto International Scholar Award, a merit-based automatic entrance scholarship for international students.
• 📚 To be considered for the scholarship, one must apply to the University of Toronto and be admitted to a qualifying faculty or campus.
• 📅 The scholarship notification date can vary, as it depends on the application time, with Zuhair receiving his on April 6th, 2021.
• 💰 The scholarship provides CAD 45,000 per year for up to five years, covering a significant portion of tuition fees.
• 📉 Zuhair's personal annual expenses after the scholarship deduction were approximately CAD 30,330, including housing, health care, insurance, and books.
• 🔍 For accurate cost estimation, students are advised to use the University of Toronto's financial planning calculator, which can provide the latest breakdown of tuition and living expenses.
• 📝 Academic performance is the primary determinant for receiving the scholarship, with a consistent score above 90% being highly recommended.
• ⏳ Starting the application process early and applying as soon as the university begins accepting applications is crucial for higher acceptance rates.
• 📋 After submitting the OUAC application, students must also self-report their grades and submit supplementary applications and documents.
• 🧐 Students should explore additional funding opportunities, as the University of Toronto offers over 5,000 different scholarships for various backgrounds and achievements.

Q & A

What is the University of Toronto International Scholar Award?

The University of Toronto International Scholar Award is a merit-based automatic entrance scholarship offered by the University of Toronto to international students who have applied to certain faculties and campuses. It does not require a separate application and is awarded based on academic merit.

How much is the scholarship worth and in which currency?

The scholarship is worth 180,000 Canadian dollars over four years or 225,000 Canadian dollars for a five-year undergraduate degree.

How is the scholarship amount distributed over the years of study?

The scholarship amount is distributed evenly, with 45,000 Canadian dollars available each year to be used towards tuition fees.

What faculties and campuses are included in the scholarship eligibility?

Eligible faculties and campuses include the Faculty of Arts and Science, Rotman Commerce, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, UTM (University of Toronto Mississauga), and UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough).

When was Zuhair notified of his scholarship?

Zuhair received his scholarship notification on 6th April 2021.

How does the scholarship cover the annual expenses for a student?

The scholarship covers almost 60% of the total cost of attendance, with the remaining expenses to be paid by the student, which includes tuition fees not covered by the scholarship, housing, health care, insurance, and books.

What is the importance of having good high school grades for this scholarship?

Good high school grades, particularly consistently scoring above 90%, are crucial as the scholarship is merit-based and academic performance is the primary determinant for receiving the award.

Why is it advised to start the application process early?

Starting early ensures that students meet all prerequisites for their desired programs and increases their chances of admission and scholarship as applications are evaluated as they are received.

What are the additional steps required after submitting the OUAC application?

After submitting the OUAC application, students must self-report their high school grades and submit any required supplementary applications and documents.

How can students explore other scholarship opportunities at the University of Toronto?

Students can use the University of Toronto's Award Explorer tool to find funding opportunities based on their background and achievements, and check the eligibility criteria for each scholarship.

What is the Leicester B. Pearson Scholarship and how does it differ from the International Scholar Award?

The Lester B. Pearson Scholarship is a fully funded scholarship program for international students, unlike the International Scholar Award, which does not cover 100% of the educational costs.

Why is it important for international students to plan their expenses carefully?

It is important because most scholarships, including the International Scholar Award, do not cover all costs incurred by students, and expenses can change over time, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Winning a Prestigious Scholarship at the University of Toronto

Zuhair shares his experience of receiving a CA$225,000 scholarship from the University of Toronto, an internationally renowned institution. He explains that the scholarship, known as the University of Toronto International Scholar Award, is merit-based and automatically granted to admitted international students without the need for a separate application. The scholarship covers 60% of his annual expenses, amounting to CA$45,000 per year for a four-year degree or CA$56,250 for a five-year degree. Zuhair emphasizes the importance of academic performance, suggesting that consistent high school grades above 90% are crucial for eligibility. He also provides a breakdown of his annual expenses and the financial benefits he received, highlighting the scholarship's significant impact on reducing his cost of attendance.

05:01

📚 Tips for Securing the University of Toronto International Scholarship

Zuhair offers advice on how to increase the chances of receiving the University of Toronto International Scholarship. He stresses the importance of excellent academic performance, with high school grades consistently above 90% being a strong indicator for selection. He also recommends starting the application process early and applying as soon as the university begins accepting applications to ensure a better chance of acceptance and scholarship consideration. Zuhair advises on the importance of self-reporting high school grades and submitting supplementary applications and documents promptly. He further suggests exploring additional scholarship opportunities available at the University of Toronto and using the university's award explorer tool to identify and apply for scholarships that match the applicant's profile and achievements.

10:03

🚀 Maximizing Scholarship Opportunities and Financial Planning

In the final paragraph, Zuhair discusses the importance of not relying solely on one scholarship and encourages applicants to apply for multiple scholarships to maximize financial support. He mentions the Leicester B. Pearson Scholarship as an example of a fully funded scholarship program for international students and promises to share more about its application process in a future video. Zuhair also warns that scholarships are rarely sufficient to cover all university-related costs and advises international students to plan their expenses carefully and be aware of the potential changes in costs due to the ongoing pandemic. He concludes by thanking viewers for watching and encouraging them to focus on their academics to improve their chances of receiving scholarships.

Keywords

💡Scholarship

A scholarship is a financial aid awarded to students based on academic merit, talent, or other criteria. In the video's context, the speaker discusses receiving a scholarship from the University of Toronto, which is a prestigious form of financial support that helped cover a significant portion of their educational expenses. The scholarship mentioned is merit-based and does not require a separate application, being awarded automatically to admitted international students.

💡University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a globally recognized higher education institution located in Canada. It is highlighted in the video as the institution offering the scholarship. The speaker emphasizes its prestige and the value of receiving a scholarship from such a renowned university, which underscores the significance of academic excellence in securing such opportunities.

💡International Students

International students are those who enroll in higher education institutions outside their home country. The video focuses on the University of Toronto International Scholar Award, which is specifically for international students who have been admitted to certain faculties. The speaker, being an international student, shares insights on how to secure scholarships as an international applicant.

💡Merit-Based

Merit-based refers to the criteria of evaluating achievements, skills, or qualities that are inherently possessed by an individual, rather than factors such as need or privilege. In the video, the scholarship is described as merit-based, meaning it is awarded based on the applicant's academic performance and standing, which is a key focus of the speaker's advice.

💡Academic Performance

Academic performance encompasses the grades, scores, and overall achievements of a student in their educational pursuits. The video emphasizes the importance of maintaining a high academic performance, particularly scoring above 90 percent, as a crucial factor in being considered for the University of Toronto International Scholar Award.

💡Application Process

The application process refers to the steps taken by students to apply for admission to a university or college. The video script provides advice on starting this process early and ensuring all components, including prerequisites and supplementary applications, are completed on time to maximize the chances of receiving a scholarship.

💡Tuition Fee

Tuition fee is the cost charged for educational instruction at an institution. In the video, the speaker breaks down their annual expenses, including tuition fees, to illustrate how the scholarship amount offsets these costs, reducing the financial burden on the student.

💡Award Explorer

The term 'Award Explorer' refers to a tool or platform that helps students find and apply for scholarships and financial aid opportunities. The speaker recommends using the University of Toronto's Award Explorer to identify and apply for scholarships that match the student's background and achievements.

💡Supplementary Application

A supplementary application is additional information or documentation required by some universities or scholarship programs beyond the standard application. The video mentions the importance of submitting a supplementary application and updating high school grades as part of the process to secure a scholarship.

💡Financial Aid

Financial aid includes any form of assistance provided to students to help pay for their education, such as scholarships, grants, or loans. The video discusses various forms of financial aid available at the University of Toronto, emphasizing the importance of exploring all options to fund one's education.

💡Leicester B. Pearson Scholarship

The Leicester B. Pearson Scholarship is a specific scholarship program mentioned in the video that provides full funding for international students at the University of Toronto. The speaker shares their experience with this program, indicating that it is a highly sought-after scholarship due to its comprehensive financial support.

Highlights

Zuhair shares his experience of receiving a CAD 225,000 scholarship from the University of Toronto.

The scholarship amount converts to approximately INR 1.4 crores.

The University of Toronto International Scholar Award is merit-based and automatically granted to admitted international students.

No separate application is required for the scholarship; it is considered upon admission.

Scholarship recipients are notified via email by the respective faculty.

The scholarship provides CAD 180,000 over four years or CAD 225,000 for a five-year degree.

Each year, CAD 45,000 of the scholarship can be used towards tuition fees.

Zuhair provides a breakdown of his annual expenses and how the scholarship covers about 60% of his costs.

The total amount to be paid by a student depends on the conversion rate of Canadian dollars to their currency.

Academic performance is the key to receiving the scholarship, with a focus on high school grades.

Consistently scoring above 90% in exams increases the probability of receiving the scholarship.

Zuhair advises starting the application process early and applying as soon as the university begins accepting applications.

After submitting the OUAC application, students must self-report grades and submit supplementary documents.

University of Toronto offers over 5,105 scholarships, and students should explore these opportunities.

Zuhair recommends using the UFT's Award Explorer to find funding opportunities based on background and achievements.

Scholarships are rarely sufficient to cover all university costs, so students should plan their expenses carefully.

Zuhair emphasizes the importance of focusing on academics and maintaining scores over 90% for scholarship eligibility.

Transcripts

hello everyone i am zuhair and today's

video i am going to be sharing

everything that helped me get a 225 000

scholarship from one of the most

prestigious universities in the world

university of toronto and how you can

get one too

if we convert this amount into indian

rupees it's approximately 1.4 crores

which is insane now you might be

thinking

that's great but how did you apply what

was the process

what can we do to get it do watch this

video till the end and

hopefully all of your questions will be

answered with that being said

let's get started first things first the

scholarship i received is known as

university of toronto international

scholar award

it is a merit-based automatic entrance

scholarship offered by university of

toronto

obviously as the name suggests this

award is given to

international students but only admitted

international students

who have applied to either the faculty

of arts and science including rotman

commerce faculty of applied science and

engineering

uft scarborough or uft mississauga

what's interesting about this award

is that you don't need to apply for it

meaning you just need to have received

an admission offer from one of the

faculties and campuses i mentioned

before

and you'll be automatically considered

for the scholarship

this is the reason i have mentioned in

the thumbnail of this video

that i received a 1.3 crore scholarship

without even applying for it

because i didn't have to submit a

separate application for it just

submitting my main application was

enough for my profile to be considered

for this scholarship

on a side note if you are selected for

this scholarship you will be notified by

the respective faculty through an email

i received my scholarship email on 6th

april 2021

but this date may not be same for you

because it depends on when you are

applying to the university

okay let's talk about the benefits of

this award

this scholarship gives us an amount of

180

000 canadian dollars over the course of

four years of study

and if we decide to pursue a five-year

undergrad degree the amount will

increase to 225 000 canadian dollars

basically every year only forty five

thousand dollars

from the scholarship amount can be used

to pay their tuition

so forty five thousand dollars for four

years will be one hundred and eighty

thousand dollars in total

now let me break down my annual expenses

for the fall of 2021

and show you how much you'd have to pay

after receiving the scholarship

before that i want to warn you that the

expenses i am about to tell you

should be used as an estimation because

the tuition and the living expense

might change depending on the air you

are applying in i recommend you use the

uft's financial planning calculator

to see the latest breakdown of tuition

and the living expenses

for your air of study i'll give a link

to it in the description below

so for the fall of 2021 uft's annual

tuition fee is about

thousand three hundred dollars and if we

subtract it with the annual scholarship

amount of forty five thousand dollars

it gives us approximately fourteen

thousand three hundred dollars

or eight lakh fifty six thousand rupees

to be paid

if we take into account the expenses of

housing health care insurance and books

which are sixteen thousand dollars or

approximately nine lakh sixty one

thousand rupees

it gives us a total of thirty thousand

three hundred dollars

or approximately eighteen lakhs

seventeen thousand rupees

to be paid every year overall this

scholarship covered almost 60 percent of

my total cost of attendance this year

which is huge but remember if you are an

international student

the total amount you'll have to pay will

depend on the conversion rate of

canadian dollars

to your currency which may change in

future

if you'd like to know the general as

well as scarves specific terms and

conditions

of this scholarship i'll give a link to

it in the description below

now that you know what this scholarship

is all about

let's move on to how you can become one

of the recipients of this scholarship

even though it doesn't require an

application interview or anything else

my first and most important advice would

be to focus on your academics

i believe that good high school grades

are the only key to unlocking the

scholarship

because uft believes it too they keep

emphasizing that this is a merit-based

scholarship

for instance if you go to the award

explorer and search for

international scholar you'll notice that

every faculty that offers the

scholarship

has mentioned academic performance to be

the determiner for receiving the

scholarship

moreover my scholarship letter says that

this scholarship is awarded to incoming

full-time international students

on the basis of merit which means that

they will only look at your academic

achievement

and overall academic standing there is

one more thing

which proves that only academic

performance matters for this scholarship

have a look at the terms and conditions

of this award award renewal

is based on your academic performance

and this award may be withdrawn due to

unsatisfactory academic performance if

you have watched my previous videos

you might know that i didn't have

excellent extracurricular activities or

great application essays what i had was

good high school grades and high final

exam scores

which i think made me a recipient of the

scholarship

so what do i mean by good high school

grades

generally a score of 80 percent is good

enough for your admission to u of t

but not good enough for the scholarship

given the increasing number of

applicants that apply to eft with high

scores

eft's international scholar award is a

little comparative

because only a selected number of

students receive this award

which means that if your scores are

consistently below 80 percent

you'll likely not receive it therefore

aim to consistently score above 90

percent

in all of your exams but if your scores

are not in the 90s

try your best to gradually improve your

scores with every exam

and reach in the 90s if you are able to

do this you'll have a very high

probability of receiving the scholarship

if you'd like to know my grade 11 and 12

scores

you can watch my how i got into uft

video by clicking the link on the top

right corner or in the description below

this video

moving on to my second tip which is to

start the whole application process

early on

and apply as soon as the university

starts accepting applications

the college application process doesn't

start when you start

filling your application in fact it

starts when you are choosing your high

school subjects

uft mentions that one of the reasons why

students are

not admitted to eft is that they did not

present a senior level grade 12 course

in all prerequisite subjects required

for programs they applied to

and that they have an insufficient

number of available courses

at the time of consideration therefore

find out

all the prerequisites for your area of

study

and for the specific programs you are

applying to and

choose your subjects according to them i

also encourage you to apply

early on and well before the application

deadlines

listed on uft's website because one uft

starts evaluating applications as soon

as they receive them

so your application will be in the first

pool of applicants

which have higher acceptance rates for

both admission

as well as scholarship and second the

spaces for most competitive programs

start filling quickly

and they may be completely filled before

the application deadline

moving on to number three ouac

application

is not enough do not rejoice after

submitting your ousc application

because there are two more things you

need to do one

self reporting your high school grades

and two submitting your supplementary

application

and the required documents most

applicants delay their acceptances

just because they delay the

self-reporting of their high school

grades

and the submission of the required

documents and the supplementary

applications

moreover it is not only important to

report your high school

grades but to update them on the portal

as soon as new scores become available

this is a very common sense thing if you

are applying to uft

but i mentioned this because i only got

to know about self reporting my high

school grades and

submitting my required documents when

their alerts started showing on my join

eft portal

so i feel that if you know these things

in advance you'll be better prepared to

use them

if you're like what is supplementary

application what do we have to do in

interviews

don't worry just check out my previous

videos to know more about them in detail

because uft international scholar award

is a little competitive

and only a few students are offered this

award i recommend you to

not put all of your eggs in one basket

seek out more ways to finance your

studies

one way is to find other uft

scholarships the first thing you need to

do is to head over to uft's website

and look at the scholarships available

figure out which ones you are eligible

for by looking at the scholarship

eligibility criteria

because every scholarship is different

and has different terms and conditions

there are so many scholarships that

university of toronto offers

exactly 5105 different scholarships

for local canadian and international

undergrad students

which means that there is a very high

probability that you can win one of

these scholarships

a lot of applicants will be

automatically considered for these

scholarships

but be sure to browse through the

various opportunities because some

do require applications so what i

recommend you to do

is to go to uft's award explorer it is a

tool developed by uft which will help us

in finding funding opportunities

based on our background and achievements

i'll give a link to it in the

description

below click on the undergraduate awards

here you can filter the 175 pages of

awards by typing the program name

or award name with the single keyword

search filter

you can also filter by faculty college

admission status

citizenship type of awards and whether

or not you have to separately apply for

the award

i recommend you to not put too many

filters because together

they might even block those awards that

you might be eligible for when i was

applying

i changed the award type to admission

citizenship to open to international

nature of award to all and application

required to all

now our 175 pages got reduced to mere 11

pages

here we can check these scholarships one

by one and decide whether or not we

should apply for them

for me it was quite easy to filter the

awards as i needed 100

financial support and so i ended up

applying to leicester b pearson

scholarship which is a fully funded

scholarship program for international

students

i'll talk more about its application

process tips and strategies in one of my

next videos

do turn on your notification by clicking

on the bell icon

so whenever i upload that video you

directly receive it on your notification

bar

also do remember that most of these

awards can be combined

except a few awards so apply to as many

as possible and apply even after you are

admitted to eft

because you never know when these awards

might collectively help you save

thousands of dollars

now what i am about to share is not

something that will help you get a

scholarship

but something very important to keep in

mind university of toronto

says on their awards page the value of

scholarships

is rarely sufficient to cover all costs

the student will incur

while attending university of toronto if

you are an international student

please know that university of toronto

has only one scholarship program

which fully funds the education of

international students

it is the leicester b pearson

scholarship and apart from this

there isn't any scholarship program

which provides 100

scholarship to international students

therefore it is

very important to plan your expenses

beforehand and not be in an illusion

that your scholarship at uft will cover

everything

or that you will have sufficient budget

to study at uft because in these covert

times things are drastically changing

and so are the expenses hence have a

clear

written breakdown of the cost and update

them if you see them changing

with that being said i would like to

thank you for sticking around till the

end of the video

please comment i am a champion in the

comments below to help me know that you

have watched the full video

also guys it takes a lot of time to

script film and edit these videos

so if this video helped you a little bit

please give it a thumbs up

if there is one thing you take away from

this video it would be to focus on your

academics and try your best to keep them

over 90

i think this is enough for now i hope

you learned something from this video

thank you so much for watching goodbye

and take care

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