Scholarships for Singaporean students — what students ask us most.
Why aren't Commonwealth Scholarships open to Singaporeans?+
The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission funds students from lower- and middle-income Commonwealth countries as development assistance, and Singapore's high-income classification takes it off the eligible list — membership of the Commonwealth alone isn't the criterion. The same logic excludes Singapore from Australia Awards and Manaaki New Zealand. None of this affects merit awards without country lists, which is where Singaporean applicants should concentrate.
Which flagship scholarships can Singaporeans win?+
Rhodes has a Singapore constituency sending scholars to Oxford, and Fulbright operates for US graduate study. Beyond those, the open-to-all elite awards are fully available: Gates Cambridge, Oxford's Clarendon Fund, Stanford's Knight-Hennessy, the ETH Excellence Scholarship and the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship among them. All are postgraduate and all are decided on academic excellence and leadership rather than nationality.
Is it worth studying abroad when NUS and NTU rank so high?+
It depends what you're buying. Students leave Singapore for courses NUS and NTU don't offer, for direct-entry medicine and law in the UK and Australia, for the US liberal-arts model, or simply for four years in a different system. Merit scholarships change that calculus — a strong award at a UK or Canadian university can bring costs surprisingly close to home, and the overseas degree adds a network Singapore alone can't.
Do Singapore A-Levels and IB scores help win scholarships?+
Substantially. Singapore-Cambridge A-Levels and Singapore's IB results are recognised everywhere and score at the top of merit-scholarship rubrics — many university entrance awards are effectively rank-ordered on exactly these grades. For offer-stage awards, strong predicted grades and early applications matter most, so the scholarship strategy is largely an admissions strategy done early and well.
Is the university placement service really free?+
Yes, our service is 100% free. Counselling, university matching, application support and guidance right up to your offer cost you nothing. There are no consultation fees and no agent fees, because we are funded by our university partners. The only cost you take on is the university’s own tuition or semester fees, which you pay directly to the university after you accept your offer.
What exactly do you help with?+
Everything from start to finish: understanding your options, shortlisting the right programme, preparing your application and personal statement, submitting to the university, and guiding you through the offer, enrolment and visa paperwork, all with a dedicated counsellor.