Oxford and Cambridge scholarships-need some advice

To cut the long story short, my 17 years old sister would love to apply to either Oxford or Cambridge to study English. She is starting her last year of secondary school back home in September and would need to submit her application in early October, however, there are a few questions I would like to ask before she makes a decision.

Does Oxford or Cambridge offer any scholarsips for EU students? I know that the government provides a tuition fees loan, but is there anything available apart from that? She's a high achieving student and is predicted to graduate with equivalent of A*A*A in English, Lithuanian and History. In terms of EC's, she's a Drama school graduate and has been acting since the age of 6. She now performs both nationally and internationally with her Drama group. In addition, she's a published writer (mainly prose) and has recently made it into the group of 50 best english students in Lithuania (don't know the exact place she was awarded after the final round of the competition). So, overall, I feel like her application is quite sound, however, as our family is not really well off financially, our parents won't be able to fund her studies, even if they tried their hardest Neither could I, as will be starting university myself in October. Overall, she would need approximately £8,000-£10,000 for 3 years, excluding the tuition fees, and that amounts to approximately £40,000 in our national currency, depending on exchange rates.

Therefore, I was wondering if either of the two universities offers any form of scholarship for EU students, possibly something to do with Drama (similar to Organ Scholarship)? I tried to search for it online, however, didn't come across anything.

Also, does Cambridge still provide European Trusts Scholarship, because that's all I have found online

Would appreciate your advice or any information that you could share!

Thanks!

Hey, I'm an EU student at Cambridge so I thought I might be able to help. Whiel your sister will be able to have her tuition fees paid for by the UK government, and then pay them back once she starts working after graduation - the same deal that UK students get.

Unfortunately there is next to no money available for maintanence/living costs available for EU students. The only thing she could possible apply for is money from the Cambridge European Trust, but even that is only partial, not a full scholarship. The majority of her living costs will have to be met privately.

"Through the Cambridge European Trust, the University of Cambridge gives awards to enable students of outstanding academic merit from Europe (not exclusively from countries of the European Union) to study at Cambridge. The Trust offers a number of modest part-cost bursaries and scholarships, tenable for up to three years depending upon the course of study, to a limited number of students who have been accepted for admission by a Cambridge college, and who must pay fees at the overseas or European Union rate. The value of a bursary will be determined in the light of the financial circumstances of each candidate. Bursaries are normally held in conjunction with other awards and sources of funding. Competition for the awards is severe and candidates are advised to apply for as many alternative sources of funding as possible."

From my perspective, it seems like the other way. Especially when considering that the tuition fees are at least about triple for non-EU students...

She's not. She was just considering her options.

Where did you get that from anyway?

in my book wanting to know about funding at Oxford or Cambridge but no other UK unis does kinda insinuate that somebody with an oxbridge complex.

A lot of funding opportunities will come from a fund associated with individual colleges rather than the university. You need to look on the web-sites of seperate colleges to see what you can find, e.g. http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=455

in my book wanting to know about funding at Oxford or Cambridge but no other UK unis does kinda insinuate that somebody with an oxbridge complex.

Pretty sure it's same difference.

You have to consider she may want to return to Lithuania after finishing her degree, though, and outside the UK, most UK universities are practically unknown and the only names which ring any bells are Oxford and Cambridge. Doing a degree anywhere in the UK will almost certainly be vastly more expensive for her than a degree in her home country, so it's only reasonable that she won't want to spend that sort of money on a degree which people at home won't actually be massively impressed by. I wouldn't really call this an Oxbridge complex, it's just that as soon as she returns to her home country, any other university, no matter how good it might be considered in the UK, will simply become "a university in the UK", and she'd have to be rather naive not to take this into account when making her choice...

As usual, hobnob is right. Back home everything outside Oxbridge is pretty much unknown of, with a possible exception of certain colleges of UOL.

If Oxbridge is well known in your country, you can simply try asking for companies to sponsor you. Though it is unlikely, it can work. I've heard of people who have succeeded in doing that, and have received substantial grants.

That's a great idea, actually, and some people do succeed in getting sponsors that way, but it could be a bit tricky to get a company to sponsor you for a degree in English... All the people I've met who managed to pull that off (though admittedly I've only met two or three) were scientists.

Yes, it is a great idea, however, I have never heard of anyone in my country securing such form of sponsorship and I very much doubt that the trend is likely to change anytime soon. In addition, the current economic climate is not great and Lithuania is struggling quite a bit. I really fail to see how anyone would be willing to sponsor a student, even if he or she gets in to Oxford or Cambridge.

It's a shame, but that's the reality...

The economic climate could be a lot better 1.5 years from now, so don't give up on that! And I know getting companies to sponsor you sounds highly unlikely (I did not believe at first that companies in my country would have cared enough to sponsor), but it's worth the shot!

I've also found that societies aiming to improve the relations of your country and Britain are potential sources of scholarships. For instance http://www.britishlithuaniansociety.org.uk might be a possible source of at least some support.

In any case, I think your sister should definitely apply and worry about finances if she gets an offer.

You have to consider she may want to return to Lithuania after finishing her degree

I am also of opinion that she should try applying, at least there wouldn't be any what if's in the years to come. However, I cannot even start to imagine how sad it would be if she did manage to get an offer and couldn't go due to lack of funds

By the way I know foreign students are usually really good or even better than the ones here, but their main purpose is to earn our unis some more cash.

It would be absolutely horrible. However, as an optimist at heart, I'd like to think that it wouldn't ever come to that and somehow it would end up working out fine, be it working long hours during summers and other holidays or catching a lucky break with one of the big companies. I refuse to believe that a chance like that would be unachievable because of finances.

I sort of think this is the reason why the govt shouldn't be spending too much money on helping foreigners learn at our universities. They usually go back to their home countries and our money is in effect 'wasted.' Obviously if she is very talented she should deserve to learn here and I hope she finds some funding, but you can understand why the govt is reluctant to give money?

By the way I know foreign students are usually really good or even better than the ones here, but their main purpose is to earn our unis some more cash.