How to apply for a scholarship?

If applying for a scholarship is your first time, it is natural to have questions. Where exactly should you submit your application? When is the deadline? Is a letter of recommendation mandatory? That is why we have put together a simple and clear guide to applying for a scholarship, which will help you go through the entire process step by step. We have also compiled frequently asked questions to answer the concerns that we receive most often. Our goal is to make the application process as understandable, smooth and successful as possible for you — so do not hesitate to contact us if you need additional information or support.

To apply for a scholarship, follow these steps:

1. Find a suitable scholarship competition

Opened scholarship competitions can be found on the UT Foundation website in the scholarship competitions page. Once you have found a suitable scholarship, fill out the scholarship application.

2. Make sure you have all the materials you need to apply for the scholarship

Letter of recommendation

Most competitions also require a letter of recommendation from a lecturer. You can enter the recommender's email address in the appropriate field of the application, where an automatic email will be sent after the application is submitted with a request to upload the letter of recommendation for the applicant. It is a good idea to agree in advance with the recommender on providing the recommendation. If desired and if you have already received the letter of recommendation before applying, you can also attach it to the application as a file. In this case you don’t have to fill in the name and email of the lecturer.

Transcript of records
Most competitions also require a transcript of records showing the grades of your studies. This is an official document that can be requested in digital form from the student advisors in faculties. Both signed and unsigned certificates are acceptable for submission. Screenshots of the study information system are not acceptable for submission. For first-semester students, the transcript of records from the previous level of study is acceptable.

Additional materials
If the scholarship requires the submission of additional documents (essay, research summary, CV, letter of confirmation from the host university, etc.), then these can also be added to the scholarship application as files in the correspondingly named blocks at the bottom of the application or in the additional documents block. To add multiple files at once, select them from the documents folder at once or upload them as a zip file.

3. Fill out the application form

The application form contains personal data, an overview of the applicant's professional and social activities, a justification for receiving the scholarship in the form of a motivation letter, and an estimated budget for using the scholarship. Once you have selected the correct scholarship competition from the drop-down menu at the beginning of the application form, the form will display all required fields for you.

To apply successfully, carefully read the scholarship competition announcement, which is used as a basis for awarding the scholarship, and answer the questions thoroughly.

4. Confirm the application

Once everything necessary has been entered and the application has been confirmed, the system will notify you that the application has been successfully submitted.

5. Submit an application to another scholarship competition

You can apply for several scholarships during one semester. After submitting the first application, the system will generate a user for the applicant based on their personal identification number and send a password to the applicant's email address, which will be used to log in to the application system in the future. The applicant can then submit a new application based on the same or updated data.

Please note that due to the structure of our system, when reviewing the application, fields that were not required for the selected scholarship competition will appear blank to the applicant. Please ignore this.

The foundation has a real-time overview of how many applications have been received for a specific competition. If the applicant suspects that their application has been lost for some reason (the browser page was closed during the loading process, the network connection was interrupted, etc.), they can ask for it by phone or email or check it by logging into the application submission system.

If you have any further questions, please contact us at tysiht@ut.ee or by phone at +372 73 75 852.

Frequently asked questions:

Can you apply for multiple scholarships?

Yes, but only one scholarship can be awarded per semester. When applying for multiple scholarships, you cannot add preferences. The selection will be made based on which scholarship’s committee reaches the decision first.

Is it allowed to apply for a specific scholarship again if the scholarship has already been awarded?

Yes. Unless otherwise stated in the statute, you can apply for a scholarship and have the scholarship awarded to the scholarship recipient repeatedly if the scholarship recipient has fulfilled their obligations to the foundation, i.e. the scholarship report has been submitted.

How do I send additional documents required for some scholarships?

Additional documents can be added at the end of the application.

How accurate should the budget be in the application?

The budget is a prognosis and it must generally reflect the student's plan for using the scholarship. A detailed overview is provided in the report submitted one year after receiving the scholarship.

What date should be followed if the statute has a different deadline than the one announced?

Be sure to follow the announced deadline.

Is a letter of recommendation required to apply for a scholarship?

If a letter of recommendation is required, it is also mentioned in the scholarship announcement. For the letter of recommendation, it is necessary to write the name and email address of the recommender in the appropriate field. When the application is submitted, the system will send an email to this address asking to write a recommendation for applying for a specific scholarship. It is a good idea to agree with the recommender in advance about providing a recommendation. The recommender has 5 working days to submit the recommendation.

The letter of recommendation can also be attached to the application as a separate file. In this case, it is not necessary to enter the recommender's name and email in the fields.

Is there a separate form or requirements for the letter of recommendation?

There are no direct instructions or requirements for the letter of recommendation, but the supervisor could provide a brief description of the applicant in the recommendation, as well as why the applicant is a suitable candidate for the scholarship and on what basis they are assessing it (study results, research results, social activities, financial situation, etc.).

I submitted an application, but when I go to review it, I see that I have left some fields blank. What should I do?
If you selected the correct scholarship competition name from the drop-down menu at the top when you started submitting your application, the application form only showed you the fields that were required to apply for that specific scholarship. However, when reviewing the application, all fields are displayed to the applicant, which may give the impression that some fields were left blank. The reason lies in the specifics of our application management system. However, there is no reason to worry - we check all applications and if there are any shortcomings, we will contact you ourselves.

How can I make sure that my application was successfully submitted?

Once everything necessary has been entered and the application has been approved, the system will notify you that the application has been successfully submitted. The foundation has a real-time overview of how many applications have been received for a specific competition. If the person writing the scholarship application suspects that their application has been lost for some reason (the browser page was closed during the loading process, the network connection was interrupted, etc.), they can ask for it by phone or e-mail.

How are scholarships awarded?

There are two scholarship application rounds per year: in the spring semester and in the autumn semester. Spring semester competitions usually end no later than June 1st and autumn semester competitions no later than December 1st.
Scholarship competitions are announced on the website of the University of Tartu Foundation in September and early February, but they may be added during the semester if a new scholarship fund is established in the meantime.
Applications for scholarships can be submitted until midnight on the competition deadline. For example, if the deadline is October 1, applications can be submitted until 23:59 on October 1.
After the competition, the submitted applications are checked for correctness and the applicant is contacted in case of deficiencies. The scholarship evaluation committee then reviews the applications, which selects the scholarship recipients based on the criteria set out in the scholarship statute.
A scholarship contract is concluded with the scholarship recipients, and no later than one year after signing the agreement, the scholarship recipient submits a report on the use of the scholarship. The report must describe what was done with the support of the scholarship and provide documents proving the expenses.
Scholarships are awarded at a ceremonial reception at the end of the spring and autumn semesters.

Is there a tax to be paid on the scholarship?