Scholarships can reduce the cost of higher education by covering tuition fees, accommodation, living expenses, and learning materials.
Depending on the specific scholarship or organisation you are affiliated with, securing a job upon graduation could become a reality for you.
Scholarships let you focus on your studies and activities at university without worrying about fees, expenses, or job security after graduation.
Scholarships at a Glance
Types of Scholarships
Merit vs need-based scholarships
Merit scholarships are given on the basis of exceptional talent, be it academically, athletically or for a creative achievement. They are available to all, as long as you meet the specific requirements.
Needs-based scholarships are given to students usually from lower-income households. Eligibility is analysed on a variety of criteria, such as family income and/or your academic portfolio. These scholarships also tend to have an academic requirement, meaning that to be eligible, you will also need to have a certain level of academic achievement.
Scholarships based on identity or background
Scholarships for minorities and people with marginalised identities are offered to allow institutions to be more diverse, while helping communities which have historically struggled to receive equal access to higher education. These scholarships can be specifically targeted to increase access for ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities and/or sexual-orientation and gender minorities.
Sector-based scholarship
Sector-based scholarships are targeted for students who are interested in working in a specific sector and/or are interested in pursuing courses that will eventually lead to employment in these sectors. Depending on the awarding body, sector-based scholarships might also include opportunities to undertake internships at certain companies as well as potential employment opportunities after graduation.
Bond or Bond-free
Bonded scholarships are often issued either by governments or by companies. It usually requires working for the issuing institution or company for a fixed number of years. Bonded scholarships are usually full-term scholarships and may even include allowances for travel and living costs.
Bond-free scholarships are awards given without the obligation to serve a bond after graduation. These types of scholarships can be awarded by schools, companies, or organisations.
Coverage
Full-term scholarships are awarded before you begin your course of study. They are intended to support you throughout your time at university. Generally, these scholarships cover your tuition, but can also include additional allowances for accommodation and living expenses.
Mid-term scholarships are awarded during your time at university. Eligibility is usually dependent on academic performance at university rather than pre-tertiary grades. Mid-term scholarships can come with the same variety of benefits as full-term ones, depending on the specific scholarship.
Short-term scholarships often come in one-off awards. They are generally merit-based and can be awarded by universities, organisations or companies to reward high achievers.
How We Can Help
Our Services / Approach
1. Application Strategy
Scholarship applicants need to have a strong sense of who they are and what they bring to the table. That is why we emphasise the need to build a strong foundation for their applications by crafting an authentic and fully fleshed out personal brand.
We evaluate our clients’ academic portfolios so that we can assess what has been done and advise what needs to be done to move forward.
We examine scholarship requirements closely with our clients to make sure that who they are and what they want are aligned with the scholarships they are applying to.
2. Application Planning
We will walk our clients through a reflection exercise to document what they learnt from each of their experiences, good or bad, and how they will leverage their transferable skills at university and in their future career.
If necessary, strategies will be put in place to beef up our clients’ academic portfolios that support their personal brand. We encourage our clients to be proactive and independent as they look for opportunities but provide support when necessary.
Depending on the application requirements, time might need to be spent on standardised tests and psychometric profiling.
3. Personal Statement
Essay planning and writing is a process. We emphasise the need to strategise, outline, draft and edit. Writing a personal statement goes beyond stringing your accomplishments together. We work with our clients to ensure that their personal statements and essays are an extension of the documents they submit to ensure consistency in their applications.
Personal statements and essays are critical to providing scholarship committees insight into who our clients are and how they will add value to the universities/organisations they apply to. They need to clearly capture a client’s personal brand that is supported by evidence from their academic portfolio.
4. Interview Preparation
If a client has been selected for an interview, it likely means the committee likes what they read on paper and wants to verify that the client is all they claim to be. We pay special attention to incorporating our clients’ personal brands, supported by their academic portfolios to ensure consistency in all aspects of the application process.
We prepare our clients for interviews by running through different question types and interview formats. We focus not only on how to structure responses, but also body language and attire.
Testimonials
Over 80% of our clients were accepted to NUS and NTU-Imperial MBBS programmes
We love it when our clients share their success stories with us so we can brag about it.
"ICON helped me polish my interview skills and present my best self to interviewers in all manners of interviews. They taught me how to effectively illustrate points, and also helped me link my experience with answering the questions posed. Thank you ICON for all the help!"
Arka
- Accepted to Medicine at Cambridge, Imperial & UCL
