Have you ever dreamed of something that
you always thought is impossible? That nothing you can do to achieve
that? I've always dreamed to continue study, take my master degree in
the Netherlands, one of the thing on my bucket list. But the tuition
fee is way beyond expensive, and when I thought nothing is possible,
a friend of mine told me about this scholarship, LPDP. The
scholarship is basically the eternal fund of Ministry of Finance, ….
that allocated for education.
But before we go to the scholarship
details, let me start first with the important things when you want
to apply for school:
1. Knowing
what you want
What I meant
here is what do you want to study and where. My approach is to look first about
the country where I want to study, and then find the best university that offer
the major that you want to take.
2. Timing
Knowing when
the admission process start (For both scholarship and University), and what
needs to be submitted. Why? Because some university requires English
Proficiency Test result (IELTS, TOEFL, etc). Those tests only have 2 years
validity, so timing is important. I took my test on September 6, 2014, the
school starts in September 2015, which means if I didn't get accepted in year
2015/2016, I can still apply for next year, and I don't have to retake the
IELTS test. I suggest you to submit your university application as soon as the
admission open, because you have a bigger chance to be admitted that they still
have lots of place to be filled. So timing from the IELTS preparation to when
to submit documents is important.
3. Completing
supporting documents.
Now when you
know what to do and when, you can start to complete your supporting documents,
it varies for every university.I applied for MSc in Business Administration:
Specialization in Financial Management at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and
they only need you to upload your CV, Transcript of Records, Thesis Summary,
and Diploma on their website. After the documents completed you have to pay 100
euro for them to process your documents. I really appreciate the help of the
International Student Advisor there, they are very friendly, and they are willing
to answer your questions whatever it is, so I suggest you to contact them if
you have any questions. Usually when you are conditionally accepted, they will
ask you to submit your IELTS test result (softcopy) and hardcopy of your
Transcript as well as your Diploma. Luckily they were on trip to Indonesia for
a student fair, so they told me to bring my documents there, so I don't have to
post it to NL (Thanks God)
4. Funding
Knowing where
to get the money, it is great if you can afford it, so you only have to worry
about point 1-3. In my case, I
need to count on scholarship to be able to get my master degree. The
scholarship I applied for is LPDP (I will tell about the details on my next
post)
5. Lots
of pray and do good
You know that
you can do your best, but there are things that you can not control. So after
you submit your application just leave it in God's hand, pray and believe that
He will give the best for you
Oh I forgot to tell you, thanks God, I
got admitted in MSc in Business Administration: Specialization in
Financial Management at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for the school
year 2015/2016, and if I get the scholarship I will start next
September :D