How I Got $225,000 Scholarship from University of Toronto & How You Can Too | International Scholar
Summary
TLDRZuhair 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
- π The speaker, Zuhair, received a CAD 225,000 scholarship from the University of Toronto without applying separately for it.
- π The scholarship is called the University of Toronto International Scholar Award, a merit-based automatic entrance scholarship for international students.
- π To be considered for the scholarship, one must apply to the University of Toronto and be admitted to a qualifying faculty or campus.
- π The scholarship notification date can vary, as it depends on the application time, with Zuhair receiving his on April 6th, 2021.
- π° The scholarship provides CAD 45,000 per year for up to five years, covering a significant portion of tuition fees.
- π Zuhair's personal annual expenses after the scholarship deduction were approximately CAD 30,330, including housing, health care, insurance, and books.
- π 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.
- π Academic performance is the primary determinant for receiving the scholarship, with a consistent score above 90% being highly recommended.
- β³ Starting the application process early and applying as soon as the university begins accepting applications is crucial for higher acceptance rates.
- π After submitting the OUAC application, students must also self-report their grades and submit supplementary applications and documents.
- π§ 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
π 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.
π 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.
π 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Scholarship
π‘University of Toronto
π‘International Students
π‘Merit-Based
π‘Academic Performance
π‘Application Process
π‘Tuition Fee
π‘Award Explorer
π‘Supplementary Application
π‘Financial Aid
π‘Leicester B. Pearson Scholarship
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
[Music]
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