How to get Scholarships in South Korea
Very important, must read in full
South Korea is an emerging country among the most
advanced countries on the world map. It attracts the attention of the world’s scholars
towards itself in many fields of life among all, economy, technology, tourism
and education is given the most priority. It is one of the reasons South Korea
is famous among the scholars of the world. South Korea is one of the major countries
offering a lot of scholarships in every field of study for almost all the
students around the globe. If you are really interested in getting scholarship
in Korea, please read below, with much attention, you will understand everything.
In Shah Allah
Dear All,
There are three kinds of opportunities for you guys to get scholarship in
Korea.
1. HEC Scholarship
This scholarship is provided by HEC, Pakistan with title
of 90% Overseas Scholarships, 10% Overseas Scholarships and many more like this.
The HEC paid scholarships are the best option for any kind of scholarships in
Korea as you will neither be dependent on professor or university for the
funding nor you may need to worry about the tuition/dormitory fee submission. HEC will do it for you in
regular bases and will also submit 6 months stipend in your account. Also you
may not to worry about the completion of your degree well in time as professor
is not directly funding you. In this case HEC has a clear procedure on how to
aplly for these scholarships. You can visit HEC website
2. Professor
scholarship
This scholarship solely depends on professor and
university does not give you money in this case. Why because, professors have
some projects and to finish them well in time they need to recruit scholars to
work for him. These are easy to get but hard to maintain, because sometimes if
professor is not happy with your performance, then he can give you financial
problems. In Korea, if scholars are facing problems 90% of them are those who
are availing professor’s scholarship.
If you are fully determined to apply for a professor
scholarship there are certain important things you need to do. In first, you have
to search relevant professors of your choice and research interest. Then you
should make a tailored made CV according to the interest of those relevant
professors and send him/her that CV along with a short email stating your
introduction and show your interest that you want to do master/Ph.D under
his/her supervision. If a professor shows interest it means almost you have 99%
chances that your admission is confirmed. In most of the cases, university
provides tuition fee scholarship while professor provide monthly living
expenses scholarship. It also means you have to struggle to get these two
scholarships. If you get one then the other you have to pay by yourself and it
is very expensive for individual.
3. University scholarships
University scholarships are few and hard to get, but
good than professor scholarship as in this case you will not be depended on
money by professor. But when you apply for this scholarship, if you contact the
professor before in the way as mentioned above, then you have better chance to
get this scholarship. Although university scholarships mostly do not require professor’s
recommendations but if you are successful to get one before applying, then it
is good chance for you to get that scholarship. In this case university will
pay for your tuition fee and will offer you some minimum amount as living expenses.
How to find a Supervisor:
The most important thing is to find a professor of your
choice. In this regards what you have to do is:
1. Read all your major professors profiles, research
interests and projects. (You can also find the research interests of professors
by finding on Google their published research papers).
2. Make your CV research oriented and also easily
readable and good looking. (Also according to the professor you choose to
apply. Relate your previous work plus final year project with that professor’s
work and show him your interest in his work).
Important Note for Electronics plus Computer majors ( In
Korea, professors like if you are good in programming languages and it is good
if you have distinction in programming skills and you can show them).
3. Write an email. (Be specific in writing email, as
professor has not much time to read it fully just write main but few sentences).
4. Send your email and CV to as many professors as you
can (keep in mind only interested professors may reply you, so don’t be
disappointed).
Note: If you are interested in any specific professor and
he/she does not reply then you should finally try to catch him/her by"
telephone". Please keep in mind that some professors do not reply, so in
that case, you should contact him/her by telephone.
IMPORTANT:
1. Maybe if you face some trouble while opening website
then please install “Korean” language tools.
2. Deadlines and time is very important.
3. Try to get any English proficiency certificate.
Sometime it increases chances of scholarships.
4. Once the process start (getting in contact with
professor) Come up with a project plan or SOP (Statement of purpose, Research
plan) that what you are going to research about. Indulge yourself in writing
new project proposals if required.
(Here I must mention the most important thing is your proposal
because it is your introduction and research interest in front of your
professor. So be specific in your research proposal keeping in mind the
interest of the professor).
FOR MORE DETAILS on How to contact Professor Courtesy
from: http://scholarguide.blogspot.it/search/label/Blog
First Strong Impression:
In a successful search for a professor, who is willing
to supervise your research, you have to make strong first impression because
you may get only one chance for each professor. If you fail to impress or
convince him about your abilities in first contact, it’s probable that you can
never do that again. Most common and formal way to contact a supervisor is
through email. There are some common mistakes which if avoided would result in
a splendid communication regarding your motivation.
Know him well
Know your professor’s profile well, try to see his
latest publications especially one which interests you and try to quote them in
your email just title of paper. Write a formal, short but comprehensive email
including information about your research interests, how you found him and your
background.
Avoid Casual language
Your email should be very formal without use of any
casual language and check twice for your abbreviation which you frequently use
with your friends etc. For example writing short for your as ‘ur’, thanks as
‘thnx’, ‘R U fine?’ and others.
Subject of Email
The subject of email is very important as professors
are very busy and would not spend time reading all emails in their inbox;
subject line is to catch their attention. Write like ‘Interested in Research
area _____ with your group’ or similar.
Make specific Query
The professors get hundreds of emails from students
asking for funding to support their studies. The most important thing
professors want to establish about you is level of ‘seriousness’ and
‘motivation’. Some students write an email with generic content and send to
many professors and universities and this is worse way to make contact with a
professor. Try to be specific to your own case and refer to things which
motivate you to join that particular group. Generic emails would never be read
and replied.
Do not ask about weather/health
As a stranger to professor, its better not to ask how
is he feeling and how the weather is. For initial contact this kind of
questions/wishes are not appreciated. To the point message is better as it
saves time of recipient.
Know the Culture
In some cultures you do not call elders by name or
first name. For example in Korean culture, writing “Dear Professor” is better
than “Dear _Name” as the social hierarchy is vertical. While in west there is
no harm in calling Professor’s name as social hierarchy is horizontal. It looks
a minor point but I am telling you it reflects a lot if you do it rightly. Do
not flatter the recipient beg or plea as it is not considered a good thing.
Be precise
As mentioned earlier, message should be precise and to
the point. If you are referring to some of professor’s papers, just mention the
title of paper/project. You do not need to go in details of your own work at
this stage, just try to connect that with the research interests of professor.
How you find him
Do tell him how you found him. Professors are always
keen to know this, as it also indicates how serious were you to join his group
and did not try thousand email addresses in a go to try your luck.
Attachments:
Never forget to attach a CV and ideas about your
expected area of research. Do not attach all those award certificates and
transcripts at this point in time.
Review Email
Check all the grammar, spelling, typos and similar
careless mistakes. These would not put good impression about finishing of your
work. Conclude your email well, ask him to talk more about your ambitions and
do let you know if need more information
How make a good Research Proposal:
Research Proposal:
I all the cases you may need a research proposal which
must show the area of your interest and skills that you can use in fulfilling
the project. In this regards it is suggested that research proposal should be
designed according to the area of interest of professor. You should visit the
website/personal profile of the professor and should what he/she is working on
currently in his lab. This will help you a lot.
To narrow down search, you have to first know what your
interest/ambition is. I know it is not easy to know exact topic of research at
such an early stage but you should know your area of research. One way is to
search some latest survey papers related to your field, just skim through the
content, do not expect from yourself to understand everything at this point,
look at the author profiles at the end of papers. After doing some literature
review, you can see that leading professors in your area of research would be
most cited and by this you can point to potential supervisors currently
involved in your topic of interest. Another way is to further narrow down your
search by universities; where you wish to pursue your degree then visit
university’s website and your program’s page. Here you will see couple of
professors doing similar research, you must see their latest publications to
finalize potential supervisor. Be careful, do not email to more than one
professor at the same department simultaneously, because if a professor finds
you suitable he will arrange an interview with more than one or two other
professors and usually you end up with same professors you emailed, besides one
who is interested in you and this raises a question about your commitment or
seriousness because you cannot be ambitious about different research interests
at the same time.
Good Luck you all for your future. Please find me by email if you have any
question regarding the issue of getting scholarship in Korea. I will hopefully
reply you at my earliest.
Dr Fakhar Khan
PhD graduate
College of Pharmacy
Hanyang University, South Korea
Email: fakharscholar@yahoo.com
(This article is exclusively written for the wbsite of Pakistani Students in Korea. While writing this article material is taken from many scholarships providing websites).
