How To Get Full Scholarship at University of Toronto as an International Student

Today, I’ll be sharing with you everything you need to know to get a 100% scholarship at University of Toronto for your undergraduate studies. Not only this, I’ll be telling you the exact steps you need to take to apply and become a recipient of this scholarship.

Are you ready? okay, let’s get started.

Firstly, I want to warn you that if are a Canadian student, I’m sorry, but this post is not for you as I’ll be covering the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship Program which only International students can apply for, but don’t worry University of Toronto has a slightly better scholarship program for Canadian Students and with a similar application process to Lester B. Pearson scholarship called the National Scholarship Program which fully funds the studies of fifteen Canadian students to U of T every year. You can find out more about it’s application, eligibility criteria, and deadlines on U of T’s National Scholarship Page.

Ok, my international friends, let’s talk about the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship. But before that, if you are like me, who prefers watching videos over reading posts 😅, you can watch my video on the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship down below 👇 and get back to the post for essential links.

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Lester B. Pearson Scholarship

In simple terms, the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship is an annual, fully funded scholarship awarded by University of Toronto to incoming international students for their undergrad studies at U of T.

When I got to know about the Lester B. Pearson scholarship, I wondered why it was called Lester B. Pearson Scholarship and why not just U of T International Scholarship?

This is because, the scholarship is named to honour Canada’s 14th Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson who was also a U of T graduate. He won a Noble Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing UN peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis.

Maybe after you become a recipient of this award and you’ll be expected to know who he was 😅

What’s interesting about this scholarship is that it is open for all majors at U of T. It’s not just for CS students, or law students it’s open for all the areas of studies. So from the 700 undergraduate programs U of T has, you can chose any program you’re planning to pursue and apply for this scholarship.

Now that U of T made it so open, you can guess how competitive it’ll be. It is U of T’s most competitive scholarship for international students because every year only 37 students from all over the world receive this scholarship.

Let me put the competitiveness of this scholarship in perspective, this scholarship is given to at least one student from every faculty at U of T, so every faculty will have at least one Pearson scholar in their department which means that for each and every major, students are competing against top students from all over the world who are interested in that major for the few spots available.

For instance, you are interested in pursuing Business studies at U of T and you apply for the Lester B. Pearson scholarship. Now, your profile is competing against all the students who are interested in Business studies at U of T for the few spots for business students.

Yea, this scholarship is extremely competitive but it is worth giving a shot because the benefits you get from this scholarship are honestly life-changing.

Benefits of the Scholarship

This scholarship covers almost everything a student pays to study abroad.

Lester B. Pearson scholarship package includes your tuition fee, living expenses, book allowance, meals, transportation and any other incidental cost for all four years of your undergrad studies. Basically, you just need money to Apply to U of T and if you receive the scholarship, it’s done deal, next 4 years, you study at U of T for FREE.

✅ Tuition Fee
✅ Living Expenses
✅ Book Allowance
✅ Meals
✅ Transportation
✅ Any Incidental Cost

Eligibility Criteria

Ok, now let’s see who is eligible to apply for this scholarship and who isn’t? But before that let me caution you that the eligibility criteria I am about to share are for students who will be starting their undergrad studies in the fall of 2022. So if you are starting your studies in the fall of 2023, 2024 or later, I recommend you to check the up-to-date eligibility criteria on U of T’s Lester B. Pearson International Scholarships Page.

1. The applicant needs to be an International Student and not a Canadian national. International students studying at Canadian high schools are also eligible to apply.
2. The applicant needs to be in their final year of secondary school i.e., which is Grade 12th. And if a student has graduated, they can only apply if they didn’t graduate before June 2021—should’ve graduated after May 2021.
3. The applicant must to be a first-entry graduate and shouldn’t have started studying at any other post-secondary institution.

Yea, so these are eligibility criteria and if you are meeting all three of them, you can and you should apply for the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship 😉

but now the question is, How do you apply?

Application Process (Step-by-Step) and Deadlines

1. Get Yourself Nominated by Your School

The Scholarship application process is quite simple but unique, in the sense that you do not apply for this scholarship directly, but rather your school has to nominate you for the scholarship and the school can only nominate one person for one academic year based on a few factors (which I’ll discuss in a while).

Even if a school feels that there are 10 brilliant students in their school who can win the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship, there will be only one student nominee from one school for one year.

Now you might be thinking of changing your school because there are students more accomplished than you, No no !! you need to work hard and show your school that you are an ideal student for this scholarship, but how? will discuss it in a while.

Now, if you are an aspiring Lester B. Pearson scholar, you’ll be in one of the two conditions I am about to mention.

Your school has no idea about the Lester B. Pearson scholarship or they know about the scholarship but have never nominated any student for this scholarship.

In this case, you need to approach your school counselor and if you don’t have one, approach your school’s headmaster or principal, inform them everything about this scholarship, tell them that you’d like to be nominated and in order for you to get nominated, the school needs to submit an application to U of T which is available on the U of T’s Lester B. Pearson Scholarship Page, so that University of Toronto can verify the school’s identity and give them the access to nominate a student.

When I was applying for the Lester B Pearson scholarship my school had no counselor and no idea about the scholarship, so I informed my school principal about this and on September 17, 2020, I sent him an email and asked him to submit the school participation form to U of T.

Here is the email I wrote:

I am planning to apply to the University of Toronto and to be considered for their 100% scholarship programme the school has to nominate a student first. Only after nomination, the university will send a scholarship application form to be filled.

Before nominating the student, the school (counselor or headmaster) needs to fill a form to be verified by the University of Toronto. Sir, I request you to please fill this form, so our school can get verified at the earliest and we can then proceed to the nomination process.

“In order to nominate an outstanding student for the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship at U of T, we require additional information about your school. Please complete the form below and submit your school for verification. Once submitted, you will be sent a confirmation email at the address you provide. You will then be sent instructions for nominating your student directly”

Form Link: https://www3.adm.utoronto.ca/Pearson/schoolApplication.php?ref=644a95b1

Sir, if you have any questions please let me know.

In my case, it took University of Toronto more than a month to verify the school, so I would encourage you to ask your school authority to fill this application form as soon as possible, ideally in early September, so the school gets verified and can then proceed with the nomination.

Now, if you are in the second category of students that is

Your School knows about the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship program and has previously nominated a student from the school.

In this case, you don’t need to worry about asking your school to fill the school participation form because they are already verified by U of T. You just need to ask your school counselor or headmaster about getting nominated because once they decide who to nominate, they will nominate the person without you having to worry about explaining anything to them.

But don’t just tell them and rely on them, you need to follow up with them so they don’t miss the nomination deadline because they would already know the nomination process but they can miss the nomination deadline.

The School Nomination Deadline is November 30, 2021, so ensure that your school is verified and has completed the student nomination before this deadline.

After your school has nominated you, you will receive an email from Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship acknowledging your nomination and giving you all the necessary information and instructions to complete the rest of the scholarship application.

Now, the next steps for the scholarship application process will be the same for both category of students because your school has completed the first step, to nominate you for the scholarship.

2. Apply to University of Toronto

The second step is to Apply to University of Toronto by creating an OUAC Account and submitting your OUAC Application before the Deadlines.

If you want to know how to apply to university of Toronto for your undergrad studies without missing out on anything, I have already created a detailed step-by-step post on this, in which I also share my best tips to maximize your chances of admission.

Check Here 👉 How to Apply to University of Toronto (Step-by-Step Guide) for Canadian and International Students

Here I want to reiterate one thing that I have already said in that video, which is that even though Student OUAC Application Deadline is December 15 every year, make sure you are submitting your OUAC Application as soon as possible, ideally by November 7, to increase your chances of admission and also because spaces of popular programs may fill out before the application deadlines.

Another thing to keep in mind while filling the OUAC Application is to carefully choose your programs and rank them properly because you will be considered for the Pearson Scholarship for your first choice program ONLY.

In the program choices section of your OUAC Application, you can choose and rank 3 U of T programs you want to apply for, and if you receive the Lester B. Pearson scholarship it will be valid only for your first choice program, you’ll not be able to change it afterwards.

For instance, you apply for CS an all the 3 campuses of U of T. Your first choice is St. George Campus, second is Scarborough and third is Mississauga. If you become a Lester b. Pearson scholar, you can’t say “no!! no!! now, I want to go to Scarborough for CS.” In this case, you’ll have to study at St. George, if you want to be a Lester B. Pearson scholar because you chose it as you first choice. Therefore, chose your first choice program carefully and double-check it before submitting.

After you’ve submitted your OUAC Application, U of T will sent you an email acknowledging the submission of your OUAC Application and providing you with the login details to activate your Join U of T portal’s account.

Once your U of T account gets activated, you need to go back to the email you received after your school nominated you for the scholarship. In that email you will find a personalized link to the Student Scholarship Application, which you can now access through your activated login details.

3. Complete the Student Scholarship Application

Now that you are able to access the Student Scholarship Application, the third step is to complete the Student Scholarship Application and submit it before January 17, 2022. Last year this deadline was January 18, 2021, so if you are watching this video in 2022 or later, I’d recommend you to again check the up-to-date deadlines on U of T’s Lester B. Pearson Scholarship Page.

If you have completed all the steps, you have successfully applied for Lester B. Pearson scholarship at University of Toronto 🙌

Student Scholarship Application Questions

Now a lot of you might be wondering what exactly is asked in the Student Scholarship Application ?

Honestly, I don’t know the questions you’ll be asked for the year 2022, 2023 or 2024. I will tell you all the questions I had to answer to complete the scholarship application for the fall of 2021 and there is a high probability that you’ll be asked the same or similar questions for your scholarship application.

There were 4 sections in the application:

1. Academic Objectives Section

First, Academic Objectives Section, which had 1 question.

Describe your academic objectives and indicate how these are appropriate to your long-range goals. Please include specifically how a Bachelors degree from the University of Toronto will contribute to your achieving your longer-range goals. (100 word maximum)

2. Self-Letter of Reference Section

Second, Self-Letter of Reference Section, which had one question:

The students who are nominated for the Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship are students who have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement and creativity, who are accepted as leaders within their school, and who have the potential to contribute to the global community in the future. They can be distinguished from other students who may have equally high academic results by virtue of their breadth of interest, intellectual energy and impact on the life of their school and community. Write a letter of reference for yourself in the third person describing how the applicant (you) meets these criteria. The letter should refer to the specific achievements and experiences. It may also comment on any weaknesses. (300 word maximum).

3. Essay Section

Third, Essay Section, which required a one long-answer question:

Describe a personal life experience that has had particular significance for you and highlight the reason(s) it was significant, whether it had an impact on others, and any insights or understandings you gained from it. (800 word maximum)

4. Additional Questions Section

Fourth, Additional Question Section, which had two questions:

If you are not awarded a Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship, what are your plans for the next four years? (100 word maximum)

Second question was related to the family income where I was not required to write anything but answer it in numerical values.

Criteria for the Scholarship

Ok, so I know what U of T will ask me, but how should I answer these questions and how should I make them stand out? There are certain attributes and achievements that U of T looks in your answers and in the second question of the student scholarship application, U of T actually laid it all out.

Unlike the U of T International Scholar Award which almost covered 60% of my total cost of attendance to U of T, the deciding factor for the Lester B. Pearson scholarship is not your Academic Performance because there is no one determiner for this scholarship, there are several factors that should be considered alongside high academic performance for you to become a recipient of this scholarship.

These factors include your background, financial need, leadership skills, community involvement, future potential, intellectual rigor, passion, impact you had in school and in your community.

These factors or criteria help the school decide who to nominate for this scholarship and the scholarship committee to decide who to grant the scholarship and the only way you can demonstrate them is through extra-curricular involvements.

U of T mentions that what distinguishes Lester B. Pearson scholars from other top scoring students is their breadth of interest, intellectual energy and impact on they had on the life of their school and community.

So U of T doesn’t just wanna see extracurricular involvement. First, they want to see extracurriculars in the areas you are interested in and are passionate about, which means that your extracurricular activities should be related to the programs you are applying to. For example, if I am interested in pursuing law, some great extracurriculars to show this can be engaging in debate competitions, MUNs, public speaking events, leadership positions in student council etc.

Second, they wanna see your commitment for the things you are interested in and you care about, your commitment to your extracurriculars shows in time you have spend doing these activities and how far have you gone in your extracurriculars? It’s not enough to participate in MUNs or other public speaking events once in a while. You should’ve engaged in these competitions for a long time ideally for a number of years or even throughout high school. Moreover, they expect you to show your growth, for example maybe you first participated in in-school MUN, then you made your way up to state, national or even international conferences.

Third, they wanna see how you have made an impact on your school or any community through your extracurriculars. From your past contributions to people around you, they will see your future potential to become a leader in the modern world. So, it’s not enough to be the president of the student council, what did you do? did you bring major positive change in school? what policies you implemented and how they impacted your community?

Now, this might seem a lot and it is !! but big things never come easy. Imagine doing your whole undergrad education in one of the best universities in the world without paying a cent. You need to start putting in the work, no matter whichever position you are in right now.

If you are in middle school, don’t think you’ve got time, identify your interest and start working towards them and if you are in high school, utilize your time and take up every opportunity to engage in your interests and contribute to your community.

To get a better idea of who gets accepted, I recommend you to see the profiles of previous Lester B. Pearson scholars, which you can check out on Lester B. International Scholarships page on U of T’s website.

If you’d like to know my experience of applying for the Lester B. Pearson scholarship, my advice and the mistakes which got me waitlisted for the scholarship (seriously, you must avoid them if you’re planning to apply!). I highly recommend you check out my post on it down below 👇

Why I Got Waitlisted For The Lester B. Pearson Scholarship at University of Toronto

Thank you so much for reading this post. In case you’ve missed my previous posts, I recommend you read them as well so you don’t miss out on anything.

I hope you liked this post and if you did, let me know in the comment section.

If you have any questions, do comment them down below.

See you in the next one. Good Bye and Take Care 🙂