The first and most important thing is “what is a GK scholarship?” The GK scholarship is a fully-funded scholarship like Fulbright, force USA, or Erasmus Mundus. For Europe, this global Korean scholarship is offered for both masters and Ph.D. and undergraduate students. If you want to go to South Korea, this scholarship is an amazing opportunity. You go to South Korea and study there for free, and the best thing is, after completing your studies, you don’t have to go back to your country; there is no contract like you have to go to your country. You can stay in South Korea and work there; there is no bond, no contract, so it’s an amazing and beautiful scholarship.
This scholarship is one of the most beautiful and prestigious
scholarships in the world, and this is because everything is fully funded, so you don’t have to pay anything; you don’t even have to pay a single penny. Your flight ticket, let’s say from Nigeria, from Botswana to South Korea, will be free. They give you a monthly stipend of almost nine hundred dollars per month, so you are studying for free and even getting paid to study. Aside from that, your health insurance is covered; you get almost 200 dollars settlement allowance. There are other lots of benefits, so you get the idea it is a fully-funded, very beneficial, and amazing scholarship.
Let’s go to the eligibility criteria;
Your nationality
You can apply if you are not a Korean citizen, but you cannot apply if you are a Korean citizen.
The second thing is age.
For undergraduate students, you need to be under 25 years of age. If you are applying for a masters program, you can check the age in the official guidelines.
The third thing is your school.
If you are applying for undergraduate, the whole session will mostly cover your undergraduate studies, but the application process and everything are similar for both masters and Ph.D. and undergraduates.
The next thing is GPA.
For this scholarship, GPA does matter, so you need to have almost 80 percent of your grades if you want to apply for this scholarship. If you are applying for masters, you need to have almost a 2.8 GPA out of four, and for an undergraduate, you need to have almost 80 percent of your marks in your high school to apply for this program.
The next thing is your health.
Edge is for health. It would be best if you have good health and a good physique, and you should be mentally stable.
According to the official website, if you have level 3 in the Korean language, you will be given 10 percent more scores for your evaluation; you will have more points and more chances if you have the Korean language certificate. It is not a must, but you get more chances in the same way they say like someone was asking if you can apply without IELTS or TOEFL. Yes, you can apply without an English language certificate. Still, they say that if you have those certificates, you have more chances because when you go to South Korea, you need to know the English language, so if you have more certificates, you increase your chances to apply, but it is not a must. Language certificates in Korean or English are not needed documents, but if you have them, You’ll be more likely to be selected.
The next and most important thing is how to apply.
There are two tracks, and this procedure is the same for undergraduates and graduates. First of all, there are two tracks if you want to apply for this scholarship; the embassy track and the university track. You can only apply through one track. You can not apply for both tracks; let’s first talk about the embassy track:
If there is a Korean embassy in your country, this scholarship will be announced on their website. So, first and foremost, you must download the application form and all the required documents, send your documents, and then the embassy shortlists. They will send your names to the Korean government, and then the Korean governments make the second selection, and then they will send the names to the universities.
You send your documents to the university, and the university selects them, which is round one for the university track. After university selection, the ambassador sends your documents to a Korean government that handles the scholarship. The second round of selection is the organization will sort out or select some people, and the third is they will send your names to the universities where you will study. Then the universities will finalize by selecting you.
The embassy track has three rounds of selection; the embassy, the Korean government, and then the university.
But the university track has just two rounds. Firstly, instead of sending your documents to the embassy, you send your documents directly to the university in South Korea. The first domain means the university’s first selection, so if the university selects you, they will send your name to the Korean government. If the Korean government picks you for the second round of selection, you are selected.