Why you need a university scholarship (from the perspective of an overseas student)

International students bring in heaps of money to the universities in Australia. And then spend years paying back the loans. And I mean years.

As an international student studying a Science bachelor's degree, you will spend approximately 22 K AUD each year on fees alone. This is based on a full time university load of 8 units per semester. Now let's include living expenses, which is estimated at say 15 K. That makes it a total of 37 K AUD each year. And a total of 148 K AUD over 4 years for the full degree uptil honours.

Now let's assume this international student, who is from Singapore, goes back home and finds a job that pays a graduate pay of 2.08 K AUD per month (or 2.5K SGD), which is a best case scenario, in reality this could be as low as 1.66 K AUD (or 2 K SGD) or lower even. Now let's assume the student, now working, gets a pay rise of 83 AUD per month, (100 SGD) each year.

Total earnings after 1st year = 2.08 x 12 = 24.96 K AUD
Total earnings after 2nd year = 2.163 x 12 = 25.956 K AUD
Total earnings after 3rd year = 2.246 x 12 = 26.952 K AUD
Total earnings after 4th year = 2.329 x 12 = 27.948 K AUD
Total after 4 years = 105.816 K
Deficit of 42 K!!

After 4 years that's still well over 40 K short of what they paid for their degree, in fact it will probably take about 2 more years to achieve the same amount that was spent on a degree. That's 6 years of your life. Remember the 105.816 K is the amount that they are paid for and does not take into account living expenses, one will surely not even come close to saving that amount over 4 years. What's my point ? Well if you have a scholarship, the outlook is very different.

Let's say you have a full undergrad scholarship which covers all tuition fees. After 4 years, you only spend 60K. Still a substantial amount but less than half of 148K.

After graduation, and assuming you earn the same amount as mentioned early (but of course being exceptional they will probably get much more), you will cover the costs in slightly over 2 years. That's an almost 4 year difference between not getting a scholarship. 4 years is quite a big difference in terms of money, and time. If you include living expenses this gap will be much wider.

My point is, if your parents are paying for your uni fees, think about them and what they are doing for you. You always want to provide the best for your children. Getting a scholarship, as a son or daughter, will help them (and yourself) immensely. Not to mention bragging rights too.