How to get a scholarship that covers your exam fees (Get Accepted to Your Dream University Part #6)

- Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.

I'm filming from an amazing cottage today.

We're in Yosemite which is a national park

in California.

We're spending a weekend here but I know

you're waiting for more educational videos

and I know that a lot of you guys are willing

to apply to American universities and come here

to study 'cause I know that this place

is really inspirational and I'm gonna show

you what's around and it's so beautiful

and I hope you enjoy it too.

Today I'm gonna talk about a scholarship.

That's gonna help you cover all of the admissions

costs associated with getting admitted

to an American university so if you're interested,

continue watching.

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I'm gonna tell you a story.

Back in 2014 when I had this dream

of studying in the US I realized that there

is a lot of money I need upfront just

to go through the process.

Like let me just show you what it takes

to apply to American university.

First you need to take all of the tests.

An an average TOEFL costs from 150 to $200

depending where you are.

GMAT is over $200.

GRE is pretty much the same.

SAT is a little cheaper, again it depends where you are.

The prices vary from country to country

but it ranges from like $50 here in the US,

I think $60 up to $100 if you're somewhere abroad

and sometimes you even need like GRE subject

and SAT subject and you do not even know

if you're gonna get accepted but you already

need to pay like $500 out of pocket,

but this is not it.

Like the next step is applying to universities

and the application fee ranges from zero

'cause some universities would allow you

not to pay the application fee or pay like a small

fee of $30 the University of Florida I think

has like $30, but if you're applying to top

universities it's $250 each and sometimes

people are asking me hey Marina could I apply

to like 10 or 20 universities?

Of course you can if you have that money.

I didn't have that money, 'cause when I sat

down and calculated okay so the exam's around $500

the second thing regarding the exams that I realized

was that all of the GMAT dates in Saint Petersburg, Russia

were booked when I was in my application process

so I had to go to Finland which is next

to Saint Petersburg, it's six hours by bus,

but still only Helsinki had available dates

so I had 300 more dollars of the cost of the total trip.

Then I made a list of universities that I was

going to apply to and it was like, I don't $600 minimum.

So yeah, it adds up.

You might end up paying from $1000 up to 2500

which is again a lot because you do not even know

whether you're gonna get accepted and that was

my dilemma.

I was like, I didn't have that money back then

and I found out about a scholarship,

and this is not an ad.

This is like me sharing what helped me hop

on the way of admissions to the US.

The scholarship is called The Opportunity Award

and it's awarded by an organization, it's run

by the government called Educated USA.

So I found out that this is this Opportunity Award.

What it means.

Basically they cover your application fees,

your exam fees, they cover everything that's associated

with the application like I had to travel to Helsinki

they covered that.

If you get accepted to an American institution

will full financial aid they're gonna cover

your flight, they're gonna give you money

for the first month or your life, and they're

gonna cover your visa expenses which is like extra

2000 or $3000 depending on where you're going,

where you're flying from.

It's a lot.

But it's not like they give this scholarship to everyone,

this award.

They give it only to people who they think have good chances

of getting full ride scholarships from American

universities so basically the application process

for me was to listen to their lectures,

like they have I think it was 10 lectures.

They were online and at that time I didn't believe

I'm gonna get it so basically I switched on the lecture

and I would do something like work and stuff

I didn't really listen to it but it's really basic

like they're talking about what is Bachelors?

What is Masters?

What is GMAT?

What is SAT?

Like explaining all of the definitions and terms,

and then after that for you in order to apply

for the scholarship you need to have listened

to all of the lectures.

Sometimes they would have like in-person meetings

sometimes so you would just submit your personal statement,

why do you think you're gonna get a full ride

scholarship from an American university?

They ask you to find at least five to six universities

in the US who provide full financial aid

to international students and they ask you

to show your results.

Your GPA, if you won any scholarships,

if you've taken any English language tests.

So you have to be an academically strong student

to apply for that, to receive that.

You can apply with like any background

but they're gonna select the best ones.

But I found out after I applied

is that there were only like 20 applicants

'cause not a lot of people believed

in themselves and the application process

was really...

In terms of like there's a lot of documents

involved, like even finding those five universities

that provide full financial aid, like took me two weeks.

So I applied.

It happened, I think I applied in the beginning

of September like in the last day when I was supposed

to apply like deadline was that day.

I did everything frantically like trying to find

the last couple universities, trying to write

the personal statement like scanning all of my diplomas

and I submitted it and then nothing happened.

It was September and at the end of September

I was like okay, I'm probably not gonna get it

and if I don't get it then I don't have money

to apply to American universities

and I just forgot about it and then October 28th

an email comes and it says you have been

selected for an Opportunity Award

and I'm like okay, wow.

My first deadline is January, it was like January 7th

and I realized oh my god this is it.

I need to start getting ready for my exams.

DMAT, uh-uh.

It's a tough exam and it took me like two months

to prepare in this like very short period of time.

TOEFL and then find the universities that provide

financial aid because the universities that I submitted

the committee that selected me actually told me

that those universities do not provide full

financial aid, only one that I've selected had it

and they told me to find five more.

It was rough.

It was rough two months but for me like if you're

still doubting whether you should apply or not,

I think this is a goal trigger.

So what do you need to do is actually

go to your local Google or whatever, go to Google,

Google Education USA plus your country

or your city or your town, find out if they provide

Opportunity Award in your country

and apply for it.

I think they give it out twice a year

and if you're lucky enough you get it

and they cover everything and it's also like

for me it wasn't only the money, it was the support.

'Cause I was alone in my city and I thought I'm

the only one from Saint Petersburg who's going

to American universities and trying to get

this financial aid 'cause I've never known

anyone who received full financial aid

and I was like oh my god should I even try or not?

And I did it, and I got it, and it was life changing.

And this is what I highly, highly recommend

you guys to do if you're still at the beginning

of your application process, go ahead,

check out Education USA.

Even if they don't have Opportunity Award,

I'm sure they have a lot of lectures and free classes

that you can attend.

In Saint Petersburg they had like a small library

with all the books that you could use

for free like GMAT prep and stuff.

So please go ahead, research it,

and maybe you are lucky enough, lucky as me

get a scholarship and continue

with your application process.

That was it from me for today guys.

I hope you enjoyed this video and of course

do not forget to ask me questions in the comment

below because they inspire me a lot in terms of topics

for my next videos.

Thank you so much and I will see you soon.

Bye-bye.

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