Today, I am going to talk about something that I wanted to share with you guys since quite sometime. Most of you think that I am in Canada, studying at the University of Toronto but that’s not true. Yea, I did become University of Toronto’s International Scholar which gave me a massive scholarship of 225,000 CAD for completing my education but I had to reject this scholarship as well as my offer of admission to U of T and in this post, I’ll be uncovering the reason that made me reject it and will also be giving some advice to all of you planning to attend U of T or any other college.
With that said, let’s get started !
Disclaimer
First things first, I am not talking about whether studying at U of T is worth it or not. That up to you to decide depending on your financial condition, options available, future plans and other specific circumstances unique to you; however, I just want to share my story and my personal experience and thoughts that will definitely resonate with most of you but it will help all of you better plan for college and your future in general.
As always, if you prefer video over text, do watch my video on the same topic down below 👇
Affordability
For almost all low to middle income families, affordability is the most important factor when deciding whether or not something should be undertaken. And my situation was not far from this truth. I did one of the world’s most expensive high school programs, the IB Diploma, only because I received a very generous scholarship from my school to do it. But when it came to college, I knew (based off my financial condition) that I will not be able to attend one without a 100% scholarship and thus I only applied to universities that could give me one hundred percent scholarship because without it, it would be impossible for me to study there.
But when I started the application process, I got to know about the real expenses of applying to universities. I was shocked to see their total application cost. Forget paying the tuition, even the application fee of these generous universities is highly burdensome for low to middle income students esp. international students in the developing world.
Though most top universities in the U.S. are trying to eliminate these application costs for low income students, universities like U of T aren’t making an effort to do so (as far as I know). U of T doesn’t have an OUAC Application fee waiver for students who want to study at U of T and can’t pay the application fee as it would pose a financial burden on their families.
And even in order to apply and be considered for U of T’s fully funded scholarship which is the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship, a financially weak family should be ready to risk 180 Canadian dollars for the application fee.
When I was applying, I thought it was worth losing 180 CAD for a fully funded scholarship to U of T. So, I asked one of my teachers to pay the application fee for me and later I would return the money to him. He agreed and paid the fee. Then, I applied to U of T and it’s 100% scholarship. I did not receive the 100% scholarship, but did receive a scholarship called the International Scholar Award which could’ve approximately covered 60% of my total cost of attendance to University of Toronto.
This scholarship opportunity could have made U of T a lot more affordable to someone from a high income family but not me. The remaining 40% cost that I had to pay after the deduction of the scholarship was coming out to be 121,200 Canadian dollars for 4 years of study, which honestly my family couldn’t afford.
So overall, for me, receiving the U of T International Scholar Award which waived 225,000 Canadian Dollars was actually the same as not receiving any award because it didn’t make U of T as affordable for me as my financial condition would require it to.
So affordability was the only reason I rejected U of T’s offer of admission and their 225,000 CAD scholarship. I would’ve loved going to U o f T for my studies had U of T considered my financial situation and gave me a more generous scholarship.
But my dear international students, that does not happen at U of T. And on top of it, you should know that U of T knows this problem but they continue to give partial scholarships to low income students despite knowing that these partial scholarship won’t help a lot.
U of T mentions on their Finances page that “the value of scholarships is rarely sufficient to cover all costs the student will incur while attending University of Toronto.”
But this is not to say that these scholarships don’t help students. They do make U of T’s education more affordable to a lot of students esp. Canadian nationals and high income foreign nationals. If you are a Canadian national, U of T has both scholarships and financial aid for you but if you are an international student, you have a lot of partial scholarship opportunities but no financial aid.
U of T’s again says on their Finances page that, “If you are an international applicant, you should find out about your home country’s financial aid programs to see if you qualify for assistance. The University of Toronto is a publically-funded institution and because of that cannot offer financial aid to international students.“
Lester B. Pearson Scholarship
Now, you might be thinking that okay, most of the scholarships offered by U of T will not be able to cover my full cost of attendance but what about the Lester B. Pearson scholarship? I think the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship is a great opportunity that U of T has introduced recently, only a few years back, and you should definitely apply for it if you are eligible.
If you don’t know about the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship, do check out my detailed post on this scholarship covering it’s benefits, eligibility criteria, application process, questions and more 👇
Check Here 👉 How To Get Full Scholarship at University of Toronto as an International Student
But again, the competition for this scholarship is INSANE esp. for low income students because they are competing against the top students from all over the world, who have full access to resources, opportunities and guidance. Furthermore, it is harder to become a Lester B. Pearson Scholar than to get into Harvard for your undergraduate studies because for the Class of 2025 Lester B. Pearson scholarship had an acceptance rate of 1.68% whereas Harvard had an acceptance rate of 3.4%.
I am not trying to demotivate you but rather I want to share this reality with all of you planning to study at U of T, if you can’t afford U of T’s tuition then the Lester B. Pearson scholarship is a do or die situation for you because you are either getting it or you are not studying at U of T despite U of T giving you any other partial scholarship. Therefore, make sure you putting your best foot forward for your Lester B. Pearson scholarship application.
Moreover, in my personal view, rather than selecting Lester B. Pearson scholars irrespective of their financial condition, the Lester B. Pearson scholarship committee should give priority to low income students who won’t be able to attend University of Toronto despite U of T giving them a 60% scholarship through the International Scholar Award as low income students across the developing world have remarkably less access to opportunities, resources and guidance to pursue their interests and engage in impactful extracurriculars compared to accomplished students, from a good background, who can afford U of T’s tuition.
This is just my personal view, you may or may not agree with me but I would love to know your views about this. Do comment them in the comment section below.
Importance of Side Hustle
In general, all the top universities have exorbitant tuition for international students and I personally don’t think that, in today’s world, it is worth taking a hefty loan to pay the tuition as might turn out to be a big burden for you and your family in the future. Instead, what I definitely suggest you to do is to have a side hustle, an online presence that can change the game for you.
We all use social media, but what if we are not mere consumers of content daily but also active producers of content. Today, the creator economy is booming and if you utilize your writing skills, filming skills, video editing skills, communication skills and all the other skills you have. You can help people and simultaneously create a revenue stream for yourself no matter what your age or experience is?
You can start your own YouTube channel, write articles on a blog, do affiliate marketing, post content on Instagram and there are tons of other ideas waiting for you.
If you consistently create content (no matter which platform and medium you choose) you can, in the long-term, grow it to the point that it can help you fund your undergrad studies for all four years without needing to ask your family or the university for money, all on your own. And if not your undergrad studies, it can definitely help you in your grad studies. Isn’t that great.
This is precisely the reason I have created this YouTube channel – to help everyone, no matter what their socioeconomic condition is, navigate the college application process with ease but at the same time my content will one day drive me revenue which will help me support my family as well as my studies.
So yea, it’s a win-win and if you are interested in the content production game, do DM me on Instagram or comment your interests and ideas down below. I would love to guide you and help you start your own side hustle in the form of an online business.
I hope you learned something from my story and perhaps gained a new perspective today. If you did, don’t forget to share it, so this information helps out other students like you and me as well.
Thank you so much for reading this.
See you in the next one. Good bye and take care 😀
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