Around this time last year, I was bustling with preparation of my master study includes admission to the dream university (ok wait) and the most wanted scholarship (self proclaimed).
Firstly, let me apologize to my future self i.e tomorrow self: maybe you're gonna regret writing this things up in your most productive hours instead of studying for exam.
Back to the admission things. If studying abroad (w/o having financial breakdown) is one of your dream then NOW is the time to take real action and make dream comes true. Why? Because admission period for new academic year (August/fall semester) usually close on March/April of the same year. After gathering your soul and spirit, this maybe the first question that pop in your mind (a lot of my friends and acquaintances asked this one): Which one you apply first, scholarship or university; and how? My personal answer of the first question would be: up to you. I did my applications simultaneously both for scholarship and university, mostly because it was basically the same procedure. For the second questions: the mighty answer is GOOGLE IT! You have to diligently visit those websites containing information of your desired scholarship and study program. This list below is what my browser history full of a year ago:
Besides official websites of institutions those offer scholarship fund and study programs, you also need to get ready for english proficiency test. TOEFL iBT and IELTS are two of the most familiar test which you can use to enter thousands of university around the world. Afaik, TOEFL is more common if you want to study in USA/Australia while IELTS is more customary in Europe (side notes: even I applied to universities in Netherlands, I chose to take TOEFL iBT because American English is somehow more comfortable for me -oh and the test was cheaper!- just make sure what kind of the test accepted on your destined institutions). After that, you only need to focus on the struggle. Doing your best and pray! What is/are the most difficult part(s)? Personally, preparation for TOEFL iBT was so damn hard and tiring; my english is a mess (is, not was, because it is still a clusterfudge) but at least I managed to pass the limit for acceptable grade. I didn't join any TOEFL-preparation class whatsoever because of financial recces lol yet I used this illegal copy of Barron's TOEFL iBT 12th Edition. It really help much! You can always ask me if you want a copy. Another points which I found quite hard was.. writing essays and motivation letter, those are not my things, apparently. After all, if you put every efforts unto, it should paid off :)
For building the hype, maybe this time is perfect to introduce the magnificent "Sahita Sahwahita" all glorious PK-28 LPDP. PK (Persiapan Keberangkatan) is the reason why LPDP is kinda different with any other scholarship. It may sounds as formality and seems uninteresting at first but it turns out the best thing happens for you in a while (yes it was definitely tiring but all those experiences you can't buy with money were worth it). Lurk it yourself in our video below!
I am not really a person who can make such post full of motivation and clear steps of doing something right but I do hope that very-short explanation means something to help any of you.
Lotta love,
Noya
