¿Do external fellowships help to get acceptances?

[YoungOldMan]

Hi guys,

 

I am an international student. I was wondering according to your experiences or what you have read. ¿Do external fellowships/scholarships help to get acceptances from Universities into PhD programs?

 

I know that in the UK, having an external fellowship or being rich is the only way to get into a program when you're not from the UE, I am really asking in the context of the US. I have been told by a few people that top ranking programs/universities in the US don't take into account this for their admissions, however I looked at the webpage of SEAS Harvard and they actually mention that they rely on students bringing external fellowships to be able to offer complete support for their acceptances. ¿What do you guys think?

[Hani2015]

I registered for the same question.

From what i read on internet.

Some said it does not help and some said it helps.

I think it will help.

If u look at those who got accepted, some mentioned that they did not get funding which means money is important.

If it does not help in this way it will help at least in another way.

Obtaining a external scholarship means that who funds u beleive u r good. Especially if it was university or recognized instituation

[ShadowFairy]

Any source of funding outside of a university means that they won't need to gather up some of their budgets to support you. That is good no matter how you look at it.

 

Sometimes, fellowships also indicate achievements in you that have been acknowledged by other entities. Other times, it shows your potential to financially support yourself to an extent. In most cases it can be both.

 

However, it is not wholly necessary, but graduate programs in the US will expect you to do as much as possible to apply for such. Top ranking programs/universities should already have enough funding to support all of their students, as they only admit so little of a fraction that apply to such programs in the first place.

[YoungOldMan]

Yea it seems it depends on the the faculty. Many people say that top universities are really rich and they don't care about it. Other say that it does because it helps them to prepare financial packages for other students. 

 

Well yea I bet it will help.