TURKIYE BURSLARI SCHOLARSHIP GUIDELINE

The link for turkiye Burslari scholarship is

https://www.turkiyeburslari.gov.tr/en/english-home/

Click the apply button.

Register yourself first.

REGISTRATION:

In name tab write your first name, in second tab write your middle name and in third write your family name. Write your email address and password.

Password should be of 8 characters minimum and should contain numbers also.

Write the verification code given in the box, check the agreement line and save.

VERIFICATION:

Wait for the verification email. It will contain the link, click that and your account will be verified.

Now login with your email and password.

You will go to home page, there it will show you some instructions, read that carefully step by step.

Now, it’s time for you to start filling your application.

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Click the edit button to complete this tab.

Fill in the info: gender, date of birth, ID card number, pdf file of ID card copy.

There are few options optional, religion, ethnicity (search for Pashtun, Punjabi, sindhi etc),,and about disabilities.

Click save. If two green ticks appear that means you are good to go to the second tab.

FAMILY INFORMATION:

Your mother’s name, is she alive, your father’s name, is he alive, how many brothers and sisters you have (write excluding yourself), tick mark if your mother and father earns, monthly income (add two zeroes with the dollar amount to estimate in (Pakistani rupees).

CONTACT INFO:

Give in your country and city. If your city is not in the list, chose the tehsil in which your city is included. Write the postal code. The format of address is different. In street you can mention your street no and muhalla, like street xyz, DHA phase 1 and in building no you can write your house number and block number like 123 AA etc. You can skip the door number, it is not necessary to fill. Give your contact number and mention from how much time in either months or years you have been staying at your current address. If your residential address is different from your contact address then mention that too. Give your social media links, if you don’t want to then at least give your link to LinkedIn profile, if you have one.

EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION:

This tab is confusing for many people.

Start from middle school. Put in your matriculation result. First add your country, your city, and then your institution. After adding your city, wait for a few seconds for the website to load all the institutions.

In grade type there many options:

For matriculation chose grade type 100, so this is your percentage basically. Now in grade type your percentage i.e. 87, in grade point decimal write the decimal part i.e.67 if your percentage is 87.67% in total. If its 87% then chose 0 for grade point decimal. For transcript and diploma, there is first initial marks sheet issued, use that for transcript, then there is final marks sheet also called as your degree, upload that in diploma part. If you were a position holder mention that, and if you have a proof of your position then check the option and upload the document.

For high school, enter your Intermediate result. Everything is same as matric, now you also have to choose your field. Go for science related option if you are from pre medical, pre engineering or general science. For inter, in grade type you can chose 1100 as they are the total marks of inter.

Leave the associate degree option if you don’t have one.

Now for Bachelor’s enter your BS grades, similarly following the previous educational formats. If you cannot exactly find your degree, chose the nearest option.

Same goes for masters if its applicable.

If you have two years BA and two years MA, try adding both in the Bachelors section, if that does not work then only add your Msc or MA degree in the Bachelors section.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES:

Here you can add your thesis, research publications, book chapters, conference proceedings etc.

LANGUAGE DETAILS:

Give your native language. Also add additional languages.

For English you will be asked if you have any proof, there you can add your TOEFL/IELTS etc. test report.

Tell whether you know Turkish or not.

DO SAVE EACH AND EVERY STEP.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

You can add your internships or job experience and also upload your CV here.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION:

IF you have given any standardized tests like GRE, GMAT, GAT, etc. then you can add their score reports here. It is not a compulsory step.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:

Here you add all your certificates (trainings, workshops, awards, and projects), social and volunteered work.

TURKEY EXPERIENCE:

In this you have to tell if you have visited TURKEY, do you have any relatives there.

NOW you are done with the profile filing. NOW, go back to your home tab, you will now see an option to apply for the scholarship. As I entered my MS degree so I got the PHD option only.

Click that, now you have to provide reference letter, letter of intent and preferences.

REFERENCES:

You have to upload the letter and give the details about the person. I only added one references. There was option to add more.  2-3 letters should be enough.

LETTER OF INTENT:

This contain a few questions which have to be filled carefully.

YOU SHOULD HAVE A TOPIC OR FIELD IN MIND IN WHICH YOU WANT TO DO RESEARCH.

First you are asked to state the topic only, like the main title.

In next question, explain that title briefly.

In the next question explain your research methodology used i.e. you will be using any software, you will be developing something, using questionnaire, applying some statistical methods and so on.

In next question tell about the main headings, like introduction, research methodology, dataset used, technique used, expected outcome and results etc.

Next you have to tell how your word will add to the existing knowledge. Basically what you will be doing different that has not been done. Or you have to find the research gap in your domain.

 NO ONE ELSE CAN FILL IN FOR YOU AS EVERY ONE HAS DIFFERENT DOMAIN OF STUDY.

You can extend your MS thesis for this.

Lastly mention the resources which will be helpful for you in conducting you research.

PREFERENCES:

Choose from the preferences shown, there is no other option. If you field name is not showing this may imply that there is no scholarship for your applied field.

In the preferences list, there is red mark shown after some universities, do check that. This contain their minimum requirement of GRE or IELTS or TOEFL. Not every university has these requirements.

And I don’t know the last date to apply.

At the end, click submit, after viewing your summary.

ONCE YOU SUBMIT, YOU CANNOT EDIT YOUR APPLICATION.

About GRE

What is GRE?

GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATION.

Taken after 16 years when you graduate, so basically it reflects your 16 years of education rather than 2 months prep that you do before giving GRE. This examination just not only tests your English and mathematical skills but also checks how well you perform under pressure? How you manage to complete all questions within the time limit? Can you continuously focus for about 4 hours? Can your mind continuously give the best for about 4 hours with only 10 minutes break?

I am not a GRE pro- I didn’t get high score, still there are few things that I would like to share as people are asking about GRE and the test centers. DON’T ASK ME ABOUT GRE PREPERATION OR GRE MATERIAL PLEASE.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

Do READ EACH AND EVERY WORD OF INSTRUCTIONS.

Do timed practice i.e. note your time while attempting questions.

Do not stress out. First give a diagnostic test and discover your weak areas and then work on them.

Do not ask for study plans from someone else because no two prescriptions can cure the disease for two different patients. Find out your own areas of improvement and work on that. Only you know how much hours to spend on a particular section.

ABOUT GRE:

There are three main divisions in GRE test: First is the writing part, second is Verbal part and third is Quantitative part.

WRITING PART: Also knows as AWA

This is the first section of your GRE test. It consists of two parts:

In first part you will be given a few statements and you will have to give your OWN opinion about those statements whether you agree or disagree with proper reasoning and examples. Make sure you writing has proper sequence and you divide it in paragraphs with each paragraph consisting of one specific sub-topic.

Example: The statements can be like:

Education nowadays is limiting the mind and soul whereas the purpose of education is to free one’s mind and soul. (I am just giving an idea here, actual statement will be 5-6 lines long)

Should risk be taken? Or every consequence should be analyzed before taking the risk.

In second part you will be given a statement which is given by someone else and you have to analyze that in how many possible ways conclusion drawn by the other person can be wrong or what are the things that are being assumed in the given statement.

Example: The statements can be like:

Scientists found remnants of “xyz” animal’s bones, does that mean humans killed them or they were extinct due to drastic climate change etc.

ABC bakery changes butter with margarine, only 2% customers files a complaint, so this means this change can be implemented to all their branches throughout the country etc. etc.

TIPS:

From a total of 30 minutes spend first five minutes in careful reading and writing down points and making an outline for your essay. Then start writing, following your outline for a good sequence structure of your essay. There is no autocorrect or auto punctuation in that window as you can have in Microsoft Word. So, save a last few minutes to proofread your essay, or to elaborate any point etc. Do not keep writing till the last minute. Proofreading is important, too many spelling mistakes will not leave a good impression.

This is SECTION 1 of your GRE. This will take one hour.

Now the next section can be Verbal or Quantitative: it is random. There will two sections after the writing section and then there will be 10-minutes break. After that there will be three more sections and then you are done with the test. There are two verbal sections and two quant sections in the test. There is also one extra section which can be either verbal or quant whose score is not entertained for your test score, but you don’t know which section is the extra one so you have to attempt every section with full concentration.

VERBAL SECTION:

There are different types of questions in the verbal section. Sorry I am not a verbal pro but still there are few things. As it is already said by many of GRE takers that only ratifying vocabulary is not enough, it is important to understand the sense of the sentence, especially for sentence completion. You need to focus on the words like “despite, although, however etc.” which changes the sense of the sentence from positive to negative and vice versa. For reading comprehension you need to get an overall idea about the passage rather than reading each and every word. Consult any good TOEFL book for tricks regarding reading comprehension.

QUANTITATIVE SECTION:

Quant section also has different types of questions from almost every section of mathematics and basic statistics. For this section I would say that go for the basic concepts, learn the tricks to solve questions faster, cover every topic, basic theorems and formulae and then practice practice practice!!!

REGISTRATION:

Register yourself NOW if you want to apply for Fulbright, you will not get a slot after.

Make an account on ETS website and register yourself.

Make sure you have a smart CNIC and Valid passport.

Make sure that you enter the same name and detail while making your account as they are on your CNIC/Passport.

Search for you location: there are selected test centers in few of the major cities of Pakistan.

Select the date and then time and pay for your test.

Payment cannot be done via DEBIT card.

Take a print out of your Email receipt which contains all your details, just in case.

ON TEST DAY:

Make sure that you don’t give any full length test the day before your test day.

Make sure that you slept well and are well fed.

Do take your Smart CNIC and Passport to the test center.

There is no need to take any pencil/pen/clipboard etc. with you as the test will be computer based and you are not allowed to take anything with you.

Arrive early at the test center. You will be asked to mark your entry on a register, to show your ID card. They take your cell phone switched off at Islamabad center but not at the Lahore center. In Lahore center you can keep your phone in the locker also.

After your entry, they will scan you and ask you to deposit every extra material, wallet, rings, chains, watch etc. in a locker and you will take the key with you. You will also be given a visitors lanyard.

Then you will proceed into the main hall with you ID card and locker key in your hand, along with any eatables that you have brought.

BONUS TIP: Take a bite of your energy bar and a sip of your juice before entering the test area. In this way no one else can eat your snacks and they will be safe till break time J

You will be given a form to fill in which you undertake that you are the person who registered and you will not tell anyone about the test questions. After that a USEFP person will give you guideline about the test.

Then one by one you will asked to enter into the testing area. You will be asked to sit for facial scanning, another entry, ID confirmation and then full body scan. In the scan you will be asked to roll up the sleeves till your elbow and also show your ankles. Make sure you dress up accordingly.

At your screen you information will appear and you will confirm, read all the instructions and start the test.

If you need anything just raise your hand quietly, the USEFP officials will be watching you from outside, they will come to you.

Do take that 10 minutes break, refresh yourself and again all the entry protocols are followed.

After the test you have to submit your scores. For Fulbright aspirants you must send your scores to USEFP and IIE at that time, for others you can send your score reports for free upto 4 institutions at that time.

And that’s it you are done with GRE J

P.S: There are already many posts about how to prep for GRE and loads of material available.

Fulbright Scholarship: Personal Statement VS Study Objective

First of all I would like to thank you all for being supportive and responsive, which boosted me to write more. In the last few days after my first post about application guide I have received loads of queries regarding personal statement and study objective. So in this post I have jotted down few points about both essays which you can include. 

In study plan you talk about

ü  Your current degree and situation

ü  Your major field

ü  The reason behind choosing this field

ü  How will you utilize the degree?

ü  What are your future goals?

ü  How are your goals aligned with this degree?

ü  How this degree from USA will help you achieve you goals?

ü  How your degree will help your country?

ü  How will you serve your country after this degree?

ü  What is that service which you can offer that the same person studying from Pakistan cannot?

ü  Basically how your degree from USA will help you?

In personal Statement

ü  They want to know who you are as a person

ü  What is your family background?

ü  What is your family environment?

ü  What challenges have you faced in your life?

ü  How these challenges have molded you in a better person?

ü  What you did to handle those difficult situations?

ü  What have you learned from your previous education?

ü  What other qualities you have apart from academia?

ü  What other skills have you developed while doing any internship, project, organizing an event, socializing with people, handling the community, leading any project, doing some research, fighting back any disease, or standing up for yourself.

ü  Any event in your life that changed your perspective

ü  What you want to be in life and how going to US will help you being a better person

These are just the points, the sequence may change depending on how you write your essays. It was just to differentiate between the two. I hope that it clarified many ambiguities. 

Keep me in your prayers.

Regards

Rabia Munsaf Khan

Fulbright Cohort 2018

Twenty Tips by RMK

1.       Don’t be afraid

2.       Believe in yourself

3.       Never think it’s impossible

4.       Always tell yourself you can do it

5.       Never quit before even trying

6.       Do not let the fear get hold of you

7.       Never look at the big picture: divide your tasks always and conquer them one by one

8.       Educate yourself for the sake of enlightenment, not for the sake of degree or job

9.       If someone gives you a favor, the best you can do is pass it on

10.   “Scope” is not presented to you on plate in any field, carve out your own path

11.   Your best teacher is you.

12.   Self-analysis is important: Take a few minutes before sleeping to think about what good or bad you did all day and how can you improve it

13.   Discover yourself and find that one thing at which you are the best and no one can compete you in it

14.   Always play with your strengths

15.   Indulge yourself in productive activity whenever you are free: reading any article or doing any online course. This will give you a sense of usefulness and eliminate all the negative thoughts

16.   Always check your work critically i.e. you CV, letter of motivation, any project report etc. The best way to do is to think that it is someone else’s work and you have to find mistakes in it

17.   Embellishment and length does not offer quality always, brevity works sometime

18.   Always endorse if anyone guides you even a little rather than complaining about what he didn’t do for you, because it is your job not his.

19.   If you find it difficult to memorize something like GRE words or any formula etc., write it down several times while speaking it aloud. In this way all your senses will be involved.

20.   Lastly never hesitate to share knowledge for knowledge is the only treasure that increases manifold when shared

Cheers!!

Rabia Munsaf Khan 

Fulbright Scholarship: Application Guideline

This series of blogs is a meager attempt to help all aspiring individuals with regards to Fulbright Scholarship. Although there are many online resources and blogs available already, however I believe that every personal experience counts. So, I am going to share my experience and my learnings. Fulbright Aspirants are highly encouraged to visit USEFP page for the detailed instructions, also Scholar Den website and Facebook pages (Scholar Den-Fulbright and foreign scholarships and Scholar Den-GRE) are very useful in this regard, I would like all the ambitious individuals to visit and follow the above mention pages to get maximum benefit. Also there are numerous other scholarships all around the world apart from Fulbright. I will also highly encourage for Direct Admissions because Fulbright comes with a bond to serve Pakistan after completion of your Degree. I am honored to be a part of Scholar Den team, all thanks to Kamil Ahmed for giving me a chance for mentoring. This has been always my favorite thing to do: mentoring others and guiding as much as I can.

For this very first blog, let’s talk about application process as a whole.  Let me remind you first that step by step guide for Fulbright Scholarship Program is available on Scholar Den website, I will be giving the guideline from my own perspective.

YOUR APPLICATION AS A WHOLE IS IMPORTANT:

Some students only focus on getting higher GRE scores while totally or partially ignoring all the other elements of the application. Let me clarify this, GRE is not that much important for getting Fulbright scholarship: it is vital for securing admission in top universities which is of course the next step. The first is to get this scholarship, for which a score near to 300 is enough. I have also seen candidates with 289 getting selected for scholarship.

CGPA IS CRUCIAL FOR THIS SCHOLARSHIP:

In my opinion your CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) plays a vital role in securing this scholarship. Those who have completed their degrees cannot do anything about it of course, but those who intend to go abroad and have a year or so in hand, please work hard to improve your grades.

GOOD RECOMMENDATION LETTERS:

For this scholarship you need at least three recommendation letters. One main point regarding recommendation letter is that you should be very careful in your choice of referee. Do not go for the heavy titles with their name, that person need not be a Head of Department or a senior Professor. Most important thing is that he /she should know you better, he should have taught you or mentored you, carried out a research project with you. So he/she can analyze you in a better way, know your strengths and weaknesses, know that how you differ from the rest of the class or batch. This factor is very important. Also please give your professor at least a month so that they can write a good recommendation letter about you.

ESSAYS:

The MOST important part of the application. DO NOT ASK ANYONE ELSE TO WRITE YOUR ESSAYS FOR YOU. PLEASE do not ask anyone to do this, your essays should be original and written by you.  TAKE YOUR TIME TO ORGANIZE THE IDEAS.

•         First take a couple of hours to think what YOU want to do. Do not go for what you have listened from a friend, or because you Uncle is abroad so you want to go study there or because you father wants you to choose this specific domain.  Fulbright cannot be won on these basis. You have to have a clear path in your head. You should visualize your final destination in your mind and right before your eyes, only then they will support you in your journey. Your dreams should be crystal clear and research objectives aligned with your career goals.
•          Although you can find the difference between two essays easily on the internet, still let me sum up for you. Study objective is all about your domain of academia, your intended research topic, why you chose it, how it aligns with your future goals, how it will help your country and what your intentions are after returning to Pakistan and how Fulbright can help you achieve your dreams. In personal statement it’s all about you as a person, what challenges have you faced, your self-analysis- strong and weak points, how have you improved, what have you learned from life, what challenges and difficulties have you faced in your life and how have you overcome that. These are the things that no one else can write it for you better than yourself.
•    Then write down rough points about your essay on piece of paper or word document. Do not think about the sequence, just write in bullet points whatever comes to your mind
•        After that elaborate that in proper sentences. This is your second draft.
•     Now read what you have written and arrange it. Add or remove as required. This is your third draft.
•     Now manage all your thoughts in 750 words because that’s the word limit. This is your fourth draft.
•     Again read you essay and rephrase the sentences or arrange the sequence as you feel necessary, this is your fifth draft.
•     Now you can send this draft to any of your friend, mentor, colleague or professor for opinion. I would suggest that you should take opinion of at least three persons and then adjust you essay if you feel the need of it.
•     Sharing my own experience, I didn’t use any pompous language. I wrote in very simple English with very simple sentence structure, no fancy vocabulary was used. Hence no quotes or fancy vocabulary is needed for acceptance. All you need is ORIGINALITY, TRUTH, SINCERITY and DEDICATION.

OTHER QUESTIONS:

Apart from these two 750 word essays, there are few other short questions which are equally important as these essays and also be completed just like these. They also have a word limit, so be clear about those questions too and make sure those don’t differ from your essays. For those questions too first make rough drafts and then complete you application. It took me a couple of hours’ correspondence with my sister for only two of those questions. So yes, think and put a lot of effort while answering. Think what you want and then find the best way of expressing your thoughts.

UNIVERSITY PREFERENCES:

Although it is optional, but I will highly encourage to put a few days effort into finding suitable universities and mentioning them in your application. This will show them how serious you are about your future and you know about the institutions which offer your required field of interest.

At the end, be pure, help others, do your best and leave the rest to Allah. IA you will get what is best for you.

Following this the other blogs will consist of GRE basic guidelines, Fulbright journey and TOEFL guidelines.

Remember me in your prayers

Cheers!!

Rabia Munsaf Khan

Fulbright Cohort 2018