There are several scholarship programs available to those who have the brains and the ambition. Competition is fierce but if you can boast of having the right educational background then you should go ahead and apply.

You can look for scholarship programs posted on the bulletin boards of top Universities. You can also check the bulletin board at the entrance of embassies or at institutions like the Goethe Institut and Alliance Francaise.

As I mentioned, competition is fierce. But there is an easier way to get accepted into a University (at least in Germany) but you (or your parents) need to have the financial means to support yourself in order to do this.

Here’s what my sister did:

She applied for a language student visa. She presented the following documents to the embassy: (1) proof of enrollment and receipt for the German language course; (2) proof of financial means – when she applied in 2005, Frankfurt’s requirement was to have 560Euros per month of her stay in the bank to pay for her daily expenses excluding insurance and tuition fee; (3) health insurance – you can find insurances online which are specifically for foreign university students which cost around 51euros per month.

She was given a 3-month student visa and was asked to report to the foreign affairs office (auslanderbehörde) here in Germany upon her arrival. Usually, visas are changed into residence permits when the stay is longer than 3 months. At the Auslanderbehörde, she was given the choice of getting just a language student residence permit or an intensive language course preparation for university (studienvorbereitenden Intensivesprachkurses) visa.  She chose the latter.

She then religiously checked programs posted on DAAD. Again, competition is fierce with DAAD-offered scholarships so she just used it as a guide to check which Universities have the programs she might be interested in. She then, applied directly.  Since she was still learning the language, she concentrated on getting into International Programs because they offer FREE language courses (which later saved her around 300Euros a month) and the subjects in the first year are all in English.

2 months into her stay, she got into the International (Math) Program at the Technical University of Darmstadt. So, she cancelled her German language course and enrolled at TÜD. At that time, tuition fee was only 180Euros per semester. Her University ID also has Hessen ticket which entitles her to FREE transportation all over Hessen (of which Frankfurt and Darmstadt are part of). 180Euros of tuition fee per semester (half a year) saved her the cost of 90Euros for transportation and 300Euros for language course PER MONTH; which means that the 180Euros semester fee valid for 6 months that she paid, saved her around 2,340Euros!

Unfortunately, several German states have increased the University tuition fees to 500euros per semester. But that is still a bargain in comparison to paying 2,340euros.

If you do well in school, you can apply later for a scholarship. Or you can look for a job to help augment your finances. Note that language students are NOT allowed to work. University students, on the other hand, are legally allowed to work part-time.  My sister worked part time for Helen Doran, teaching English to elementary school aged kids.

Applying for a visa requires a lot of your time and energy. But it does pay off in the end.

When you graduate, you can go back home and get cushy job or you can stay (you will be allowed to stay 1 year after graduating to give you time to look for a job) here and look for one.