Hello, and welcome to the 'Applying to university funding' video.
The University of St Andrews has a large number of scholarships and funding awards on offer that one can apply to through a simple application on our website, so continue watching to see how you could apply to one or more of the awards offered.
Once you've applied to a course to the University of St Andrews, you will receive an email providing login information on how to access the 'My application' portal. In this portal, you will be able to find the scholarships and funding catalogue. To find this catalogue, visit the University's landing page, and in the search bar at the top right-hand side, search for 'my application', and you will be taken to this page and requested to log in. Note that you will be provided with the details to log in from an email sent to you once you receive your university application.
Once logged into 'My application', you can get into 'My scholarships and funding' through 'My pages' tab at the top of the page or down the right-hand side in the 'Useful links' box. Either of these links will take you to the main scholarships and funding options 'Create' homepage, and the four options you see here.
'Creat my funding financial profile' will help calculate your household income for any needs-based applications, and in turn, will pre-populate questions in your application form.
This tab [the 'View the scholarships and funding catalogue to apply' tab] will let you search for funding and apply to all types of funding offered.
This one [the 'View or continue my funding applications' tab] will let you view or continue your funding applications.
And this tab [the 'View my funding payments' tab] will only appear once you've been awarded funding and the payments have been set up. You can then view the schedule of payments to see when and if they have been paid.
It is recommended that applicants applying for needs-based income complete the funding financial profile before applying to a specific scholarship or funding award as the information you input here will pre-populate financial questions in the funding application form.
The funding financial profile will ask you to select if you are financially dependent or independent. Note that this information should reflect your current household income that you can provide evidence for. If you're aware of significant changes to your household income that will come up once you have become a student, you can detail this in the personal financial statement that you will continue that you will complete as part of your application.
Once you have chosen if you are financially dependent or independent, you will be presented with a series of questions relevant to the status you have chosen.
This is an example of the profile you will see if you select that you're financially independent. Enter a figure in each box that is relevant to you and your household. At a later stage, you will be asked to upload supporting documentation to confirm the figures you enter in this section.
Once you have completed this section, click the 'Update my financial profile', and you will then see a summary of the information you inserted and can then either edit if something is wrong or exit the summary and return to the homepage.
So, if you were to go back to the homepage, you can go on and view the scholarships and funding catalogue. When you're in the scholarships and funding catalogue, it should look a little bit like this. You can then choose options from the drop-down boxes to filter the scholarships and funding offered.
For selecting the academic year you're applying to, this will default to the current academic year. So if you're applying for a new course, such as one that starts in August or September 2021, and are looking for funding for that course, select 'Entry year funding 2021-2022'.
For the funding type, you can search for specific types of funding. For example, tuition and maintenance, accommodation awards, and financial assistance.
For 'School', choose the School you're applying to.
And for 'Study level', you will most likely be choosing 'Undergraduate'.
But do note that you do not need to make a choice for every drop down. You can just select an option in the first box - that being, 'Select the academic year you're applying to', and see what is on offer. However, the more detail you enter, the more accurate the funding awards will be.
Once you have made your selections, click on the 'Refresh list' at the bottom and you will see a list of scholarships and funding available in the funding catalogue.
The funding catalogue is where you can see all the options that are available from your selection in the funding search. Here, you can see more information on the specific scholarships or funding awards as well as applying for a specific one from here.
Clicking 'Apply' will open up the application form for a specific scholarship or funding award you have chosen. For example, this is what you will see if you were to apply for the Accommodation Award. Information here will detail the application deadline, the amount of scholarship reward per year, and a note on who is eligible for the award.
For each application, you will be asked to create a personal financial statement to give the decision panel as much information as possible and to decide on who gets the awards. This is a Word document that is not too long and is normally between half a page and a full page. Here, you can describe any history or financial needs, for example, free school meals or bursaries, your current financial circumstances as well as any changes to income once you've become a student.
You also want to detail how the scholarship would assist in your learning at St Andrews. So, for example, if you plan to be a commuter, a scholarship could possibly help cover most of the cost of commuting. Essentially, the financial statement will provide a background context for your application as the household income figures you inserted before is not enough to make a decision.
We would advise that you give yourself some time to think of the reasons you would need a scholarship or funding award and spend some more time writing up a coherent and concise financial statement.
You will also be asked to upload documentation to complement your application, so please ensure that you have access to these documents and get them organised. Highlighted here is some of the documentation you may be asked to provide.
Once you have clicked on the 'Start application' button, you will be met with this box [shows 'Course selection' box] where you will select the course that you're applying to and the link to the new course application button as you will be a new applicant to the University of St Andrews.
You will then be met with an application form that may look like this. Each box represents a set of questions that you need to answer, and each fund will have different questions, so the number of boxes and questions may vary.
The screen shows an example of how these will be presented, but depending on the fund you're applying for, there may be more or fewer sections to complete.
To complete the questions in each section, click the relevant box - for example, 'Student information' on the left - and complete the set of questions that appear.
Once you have completed the question in a specific section, click 'Next' and this will take you to the next section, for example, the student finance information. Or you can click 'Save and exit' and can return to your application at a later point to continue or complete your application.
The third section will usually be for uploading documents. Click 'Browse my computer' to find the relevant document and then click 'Upload' to save it to your funding application. File types such as these listed [DOC; DOCX; GIF; HTM; HTML; JPEG; JPG; PDF; XLS; XLSX] are normally accepted and should be no more than two megabytes of size. And if your document is successfully uploaded, the box will change to this [File status: Successfully uploaded 100%], and you can move on to uploading other documents if they are required.
Once you've completed all the sections of the application form and uploaded any required documentation, you need to check and confirm your acceptance of the University's terms and conditions before submitting your application.
When you have submitted your application, you will then be able to see your application in the 'View my funding applications' on the homepage.
You will then see a page that looks like this. This screen will show you a summary of your submitted applications. Check back for the status message as this will tell you the status of your application and if it's been accepted or rejected. It is not pictured here, but you will find status information in a box at the bottom of the screen that explains the different status types and the steps the application may be taken.
Should you have any questions or require assistance at any point of your application, there are a couple of places you can visit for help. You can type 'Ask a question' in the search bar on the University landing page, and you will see a number of frequently asked questions, but you can also ask another question if you can't find your answer. But you will also find the link to ask any questions in the summary box that will always be to the right or bottom of your application form.
Note that all funding information and images used within this video are for example purposes only and are not necessarily funding offered by the University at this time.
