Scholarship Merits

Scholarship and fellowship are awards that provide financial as well as professional support to students. Although both the terms are considered as grants, sometimes they may be used interchangeably.

Most of the fellowships are scholarships, but scholarships may not be fellowships. There are some differences between a scholarship and a fellowship. The difference is the degree of academic study. These differences can be varied and depend upon the grant-giving organization.

Scholarship

A scholarship is nothing but a gift of academic financial support that does not need to be repaid by the recipient. It is money paid to you or on your behalf to help you to pay for books, tuition, housing or other education-related expenses. Usually, scholarships don't have to be paid back, which makes them the most desirable form of financial aid!

Scholarship usually refers to grants in support of graduate as well as undergraduate education. Primarily, scholarships tend to be given to undergraduate students for the purpose of general education expenses. Scholarships are usually for generalized study.

As scholarships are worth seeking, they are based on merit. All graduate, undergraduate and perspective students that are seeking academic funding are eligible for merit-based scholarships. Scholarships come from a number of sources which includes individuals, colleges, the government, religious groups, corporations or non-profits.

There are different types of scholarship available to students such as merit-based scholarship, need-based scholarship, student-specific scholarship and career-specific scholarship, etc.

Fellowship

A fellowship is nothing but a merit-based scholarship. Fellowships are same as scholarships except it generally involves some sort of internship. Fellowships tend to pay for fieldwork or internships, so that students at the graduate level can improve their training in their field of interest. The fellowships further imply specific period of months or a limited time in which work or internships will be completed and students will be paid.

Most fellowships are payment for some type of work, such as teaching at the college level, while doing extra training in a hospital to get board certification as a specialist in a certain field of medicine or obtaining a master’s degree or Ph.D. Usually, fellowships are awarded to the candidates that are pursuing graduate or doctoral degrees. Fellowships are available for research, graduate school, international study, internships or completion of undergraduate education.

Fellowships can last for a few days, a few weeks, a couple of months, a year, or a couple of years depending upon the scope of the work, and they normally pay by monthly stipend or in increments, instead of awarding the total amount of money at one time.

Typically, the funding is provided by an institution, foundation or other organization to support research academic work, independent projects or community service activity. Some fellowships also support non-academic activities.