Review on the 'good' scholarships offered in South Korea

Most people want to know if there are any good scholarships offered in South Korea so for clarification I will do {Q} and {A} blog.

Q: Are there GOOD scholarships in Korea?

A: yes, there are many scholarships offered in South Korea. The good scholarships are fully funded type of scholarships. One good example is the Korean government scholarship. This is the best since it's fully funded with a two way air-ticket from/to student's country of residence and a health insurance too. If you get the government scholarship, you pay nothing. However, the Korean Government Scholarship (KGSP) has ONE requirement: passing Korean Language Proficiency Test (TOPIK level 3 or 4, you will get all information from the time of applying). 

Q: Where to get the forms?

A: South Korean Embassy in your country. (Information also available on Korean Government Scholarship websites)

Q: Do you need to pay any processing fees etc.? 

A: I may only say yes on your side to process your passports and get your certifications ready for submission. (I do not know exactly but once you start applying for the scholarship you communicate directly with the coordinators in charge of those scholarships.)

Q: Does knowing Korean help in any way? 

A: I think yes, you may have a better chance to respond to the applications with confidence since you already have interest in Korea by knowing the language.

If lucky then it means your days in language school or in Korean (if you get the scholarship) will be smoother than someone who learns the alphabet or characters from scratch in class.

Enough said about Korean Government Scholarship; yearly they enroll, breakdown of finances, figures and statistics available on the website. No need to think of saving money to cover expenses!!!

Q: Other examples of scholarships sponsored by the Korean government are:

Types of government scholarships:

1. NIIED Scholarship (or popularly known as KGSP) 

2. KOICA Scholarship KOICA or MURD (government workers in developing countries)

Q: is there age limit? Other restrictions?

A: AGE LIMIT, is the main cut off point for the KGSP scholarship. 

Pregnancy test and other health check ups also mandatory during application period. 

The KOICA and MURD scholarships are for sponsoring government workers in selected countries, so the age limit is not really important.

In conclusion:

Q: How many people do they select?

A: They only select a few, in some cases one person per country or two people it all depends on their selection criteria.

This means, chances are slim to get it but it's worth trying!

Q: Other important tips?

A: Please prepare your documents and submit before the deadline. 

AVOID mistakes!!!

Imagine thousands of people applying for the same scholarship and use that to motivate you to meticulously prepare your applications! 

BEST WISHES if you are planning to apply for these scholarships. Please comment or share this info to motivate others.

Culture Shock about Christmas Holiday in Korea

  If you are in Korea or any Asian country I have a question for you; do you enjoy Christmas there? As for me, I do not enjoy Christmas in Korea. If you are not in Asia or Korea, you can imagine how boring it is to be in a quiet home. Especially Christmas time! Korean neighborhoods are so quite. The landlord can give you several warnings if you make noise in your apartment. Even your neighbors whom you haven't seen can leave notices at your door if you play loud music or talk loudly. If one wants to hold a party, they have to rent a facility for that. In Korea if you want the ghetto kind of noise, you just go to the market, shopping malls and clubs. 

 Imagine, the ghetto in me of listening to loud music and even dancing to music from neighbor's parties. I even wonder if Korean families own speakers or amplifiers. Honestly, Korean households are just too quiet for me. This is a culture shocker and others mentioned in previous post.

 I always go to downtown for a Christmas feel. South Korean calendar shows Christmas holiday only on the 25th of December! No boxing day holiday, if 26th of December falls on a working day you just go to work! Luckily this year 26th was a Saturday so we had a day off!  Another shocker is the amount of decorations they put for Christmas you would think it's a week holiday. I am one person who grew up celebrating Christmas from the 19th of December to 2 January kind of festive mood. I miss loud music parties and outdoor braai on fire at home.  Who else miss home Christmas party?

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Please leave a comment.

Review on Research Based Ph.D. Scholarships in South Korea

A research based scholarship for Ph.D. is a full-tuition scholarship offered to International Students to pursue their studies. These are mostly in research based degrees such as Engineering and Biological Sciences.

Ph.D. graduation 22 Feb 2018, Materials Science & Engineering
 @University of Seoul

I will stick to my major, Materials Science and Engineering. I was offered the full-tuition scholarship at University of Seoul from 2015 to 2017 (2 years of course work to obtain 60 credits). Then depending on your Supervisor whom you work with from day one of your admission, you simultaneously conduct research daily whilst doing coursework. In other words, from the day you get enrolled you become fulltime research student until the day of graduation. You also get a living allowance from your Supervisor depending on your ongoing research activities. 

The scholarship package:

1. full tuition by the university

2. Living allowance (depending on the projects in your laboratory)

*if  project funding is low then your living expense allowance will be low, why? There is no way Professor can support you if there is no funding.

In such cases, you need a BACK UP somewhere somehow because cost of living in Seoul is so high. Minimum monthly expenses on tightest budget would be 700,000 won.

This scholarship type is best if your Supervisor has good funding, if not it's a real headache to survive on it because you cannot do part-times here in Korea, it's rare to find one especially for African people.

I also discussed my journey on this link here

Please leave some comments and share this info too. Thank you!