Question about Funding, Financial Need and Cambridge Trust

I have already been accepted as an overseas student looking to study at Cambridge for my MPhil next year. I qualified for the Cambridge Trust Scholarship as well as the Santander Scholarship, in addition to the St. John's Benefactor Award. I'm also applying for another fellowship source that provides partial funding.

Originally on the demonstrated financial need form I didn't list any other potential funding sources at the time and suggested that I would need full funding on the GRADSAF from Cambridge Trust. I'm starting to think that it would be highly unlikely for them to give me a full scholarship and it would increase my chances if I instead indicate that I am applying and will hear back from other funding sources later in the spring as well, which might make them more willing to give me a partial funding offer.

Would it thus be better to maybe lower my financial need and also tell them I might be able to match their partial funding with partial funding elsewhere? How should I go about making this change given I have already been admitted and have an offer at a college?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Klix88

17

Original post by needurgenthelp

I have already been accepted as an overseas student looking to study at Cambridge for my MPhil next year. I qualified for the Cambridge Trust Scholarship as well as the Santander Scholarship, in addition to the St. John's Benefactor Award. I'm also applying for another fellowship source that provides partial funding.

Originally on the demonstrated financial need form I didn't list any other potential funding sources at the time and suggested that I would need full funding on the GRADSAF from Cambridge Trust. I'm starting to think that it would be highly unlikely for them to give me a full scholarship and it would increase my chances if I instead indicate that I am applying and will hear back from other funding sources later in the spring as well, which might make them more willing to give me a partial funding offer.

Would it thus be better to maybe lower my financial need and also tell them I might be able to match their partial funding with partial funding elsewhere? How should I go about making this change given I have already been admitted and have an offer at a college?

You will be asked what form your partial funding will take. Unless you know with certainty where that money is coming from, I wouldn't risk it.

Applying for full funding is definitely not a guarantee that you'll get it. But saying that you'll partially fund yourself without being able to state how, would be a guarantee that your offer is withdrawn.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

needurgenthelp

OP

I think what I was trying to say was that I want as much money from the Cambridge Trust as they would possibly give me, otherwise I would pay it with my parent's money or from other funding sources that don't reply to me until April. Obviously I want to minimize any costs on my parents, if any, but I wouldn't mind asking them to cover some of the expenses for me to study at Cambridge (basically it's a better case scenario for Cambridge Trust to give me partial funding than zero funding because I asked for full funding). And from what I can tell, most of the funding from Cambridge Trust is partial... so I don't know if it would ruin my chances of getting funding from them, period, if I requested full funding. Would it thus be alright for me to amend it, at least to suggest that there are other funding sources that might give me funding later in the year?