Applying to US Universities

US Government / USIEF Scholarships for Indians:


The United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF), the Fulbright Commission in India, offers fellowships and scholarships open to Indian citizens for 2010-2011. In addition to providing opportunities for personal, academic and professional growth, Fulbright-Nehru and other exchanges promote mutual understanding between the people of the US and India. India and USA signed a historic new Fulbright agreement on July 4, 2008, increasing India’s contributions to the program and thus the fellowships are now known as Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships. Some of the scholarships and fellowships that support degree-seeking students from India are:


Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowships for Leadership Development
International Fulbright Science and Technology Award
International Fellowships Program (Ford Foundation Graduate Fellowships)
East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship Program


If you live in or around Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai or New Delhi, we encourage you to visit USIEF. More information can be found here.

BPCL Scholarship:
BPCL is India’s leading oil company. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited awards scholarships to students who have demonstrated all around brilliance and have a passion to achieve excellence in their chosen field. BPCL scholars are a group of Indian students who seek assistance from BPCL. There are age restrictions, and it is only for Masters degree (not for PhD). When contacted by app2us.com, Chidambareshwaran Raman, a 2004 BPCL scholar, said, “BPCL Scholarship helped me gain confidence to pursue my higher studies without worrying about financial support. I would encourage students to apply for all the
scholarships available for higher studies. A Scholarship is a recognition for your hard work through the years and an investment made in you for the good you are going to do for the society.”


More information about BPCL scholarships can be found at:
http://www.bharatpetroleum.com/scholarship/scholarship.asp

The Paul Foundation Scholarship:
The Paul foundation scholarships are suspended for 2009. When operational, these are given for Masters and PhD degrees. They do not seem to favorably consider supporting the study of management, medicine or engineering, so applicants from Science and Humanities background have a better chance.


More information can be found here.

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship:


The scholarship pays upto US Dollars 25000 to study abroad. The best feature of this scholarship is that there is no restriction on what you have to study. A key requirement is that you fluently speak the language of your target country, Indian students need to prove they have good verbal skills including that of spoken English.


More information can be found here:


There are some loan scholarships, which are not as beneficial as above scholarships but may help some applicants:


Sahu Jain Trust educational scholarships:
More information can be found here


Narotam Sekhsaria Loan Scholarships:
More information can be found here

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Reference: USIEF website, Other scholarship websites

The Last date for obtaining the application forms is very close - May 20th, 2009. For more information, please check out the scholarship announcement at timesofindia.com. If you have questions about other scholarships you can always ask at www.app2us.com

Reference: Official website of the scholarship.

According to the foundation website, “The objective of the Scholarship Program is to evolve a group of young professionals and leaders of higher caliber imbued with values of entrepreneurship and ethics. This program therefore goes beyond financial support and has a unique aspect - a mentoring program to nurture and motivate scholars.”

The deadline is February 20th 2009. It is open for Indian nationals below the age of 30. The Foundation awards interest free loan scholarships to Indian students with a consistently good academic record. The amount of scholarship, up to a maximum of Rs. Ten Lacs. (Indian Rupees 1 million, approx USD 20k).

Who is Narotam, Sekhsaria? Apparently the promoter of Gujrat Ambuja Cements, and one of the richest Indians. That should make is foundation/loan scholarship somewhat credible. However we are highly concerned that there is a application fee of Rs. 300. As a rule of thumb, any scholarship worldwide where the applicant is required to pay a fee should be scrutinized carefully before applying for it. But this is a loan - so you may treat it as a loan processing fee.

We did some simple calculations to put the Rs. 300 application fee in perspective. Loan is payable in 4 years. Assuming an interest rate of 10%, for a loan of Rs. 1 million, the total interest amount would be approx. Rs. 217,400. State Bank of India charges simple interest on a daily reducing basis, so the actual interest for this amount may be less. Now let us divide this amount by Rs. 300 and round up, and we get 725. This means that if the scheme attracts more than 725 applicants per loan scholarship, then this is a profitable proposition, else charitable proposition. [Assuming every scholarship-loan is for the maximum amount]

Another problem is that the “Scholars will have to take an insurance policy and assign it to the Foundation.” The insurance policy may be of an amount far exceeding the loan amount. We have not seen a case where you buy a home or car on loan and you are expected to sign off your life insurance to the creditor. In the sad event of the death of the person who took the loan, it is a loss to the creditor and that is how normally things work. The insurance amount still goes to immediate family members/next of kin.

However, due to a reputable name behind this scholarship, and its office at Nariman Point, Mumbai, we hope that it is a good option for those seeking an interest free loan. May be there is some good reason behind the application fee. One should make sure that the insurance amount over and above the outstanding loan amount should still be paid to the family, not to this foundation.

Reference: website of Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation

Almost all personal loans in USA are tracked via credit reports. Each individual has a unique social security number and a credit file. These credit files are maintained by 3 agencies, transunion, experion and Equifax. Those with bad history of repayment or excessive debt may not get loans. Even in case of US citizens, those with no credit history have a tough time getting any loan. Obviously, international students have no credit file or history, so most banks do not consider them for loans. Some US based financial institutions do offer loans to international students IF they provide a co-signer who is a US citizen or resident. Some admission offers are accompanied with such letters which indicate that loans are available if you have a US co-signer. Students get all excited since they ‘know’ someone in USA they will ask them to co-sign a loan, even to casual acquaintances like college senior, someone from the same hometown, a distant cousin etc etc.

Now this brings us to the focus of our post - what it means to be a co-signer of a loan? Well, for all practical purposes, it is a loan taken by the co-signer. If you are asking your US based uncle ‘just to sign’ a loan, you are actually asking him to take a loan for you, where you will enjoy the benefits and he will suffer all the consequences. Now what can be a disadvantage to a US resident for simply co-signing a loan? A lot. First and foremost, that person is solely responsible to payback the loan, as you anyway do not have a credit history. When a person takes a loan, his or her credit score goes down and the amount taken shows up on the credit history - making is costlier and difficult to get any more loans in the future.

As you get some idea about the seriousness of co-signing a loan, we suggest you be very careful if you ever ask some close relative in USA to sign your loan. Also understand that they are very likely to say no, due to reasons explained in this blog post.

Areas covered under the fellowship:

Atmospheric and Earth Sciences

Chemical Sciences

Engineering Sciences

Life Sciences

Medical Sciences

Mathematical and Computational Sciences

Physical Sciences

You can check out the guidelines and format at www.indousstf.org
Contact person:

Dr. Smriti Trikha

Indo-US Science and Technology Forum

12 Hailey Road, Fulbright House, New Delhi - 110001

Phone: 011-42691700

Email: fellowship@indousstf.org

[source: indousstf.org]

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