norsul Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 I am a good student I think with some work I would even be eligible to study at Oxford / Cambridge, but the problem is that I can't afford to pay the amount that they demand. So I started looking for scholarships / financial aid programs, but I didn't find any. The closest thing I've found is the student loan, which I really wouldn't like to take. Then I decided that maybe there are smarter people out here who have already found the answer to my question, and came here . So, do you know any oxbridge scholarships / financial aid programs for European IB students? scholarships / financial aid programs for European (I'm from Finland) IB students? Or do you know for a fact that such things do not exist? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 Scholarships and so on are extremely few and far between - especially for UK and other EU members. The vast, vast majority of people are expected to take on the loans. There are more scholarships available for those who must pay the higher fees (i.e. non-EU international students), although these are also not that common. Some Universities will offer hardship loans and bursaries if you truly cannot afford to pay after having taken out the loan, but to be honest the probability of picking up money in any way other than taking on debt at least to the extent of the student loan is unlikely. The student loans are horrible and nobody really wants to take it, but for most people whose parents cannot pay/who do not have money to pay themselves, they do. The government consider the student loan equivalent to giving everybody access, in some warped way. I'm casually accruing my own student debt along with pretty much every other person I know who aren't being indulged by rich parents! Feel free to keep looking, I don't think anybody can tell you for certain that you won't find something, but I know of very, very few people who have - and they are either international applicants or people who meet criteria such as already being in over £30,000 worth of debt... clearly not the kind of criterion you want to TRY to meet!! You can actually get military scholarships in return for joining the army/RAF/navy afterwards for certain courses in the UK, so I don't know whether the Finnish military might fund you - although obviously you'd have to serve for a time afterwards, or pay it back. Universities were free not so long ago in this country, so a culture of privatisation and financial help has not emerged in the same way as in the US where universities have always been cripplingly expensive. With the use of loan schemes for everyone in the UK to make initial access still 'free' in a backwards way, I doubt it ever really will. My advice would be to apply to Scotland University there is still free for Scots and all EU members other than the English, insofar as I can tell... entirely unjust if you ask me, but then I am English! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynthia Posted June 22, 2012 Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 This is a bit late, but may still be helpful. I graduated from IB in Finland last year and am currently reading for a BA in Oxford. I went through all the Finnish sources of funding and scholarships last year, and could not find any that were applicable to my situation - Oxford does not offer any form of funding to EU students, except a hardship fund in most colleges that you can only apply for if your financial situation changes. It may be worth going through the Finnish ones as they are sometimes specific to a lukio or municipality, but there are very very few grants for students going abroad at undergraduate level and they would not cover anywhere near the full tuition and maintenance.To be honest, the terms for the tuition fee loan in the UK, especially considering the maintenance grant you get from the Finnish government, are pretty favourable, and if you can get into a decent university I'd say it is well worth it. As Sandwich said, you may want to look into Scotland -- or the US, as a friend of mine who got accepted to both Harvard and Cambridge chose to go to the former as it was so so much cheaper for him. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
norsul Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Thanks for all the help! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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