scholarships for masters in usa

[VasuG]

I want to apply for scholarship for ms in electrical engineering.Could u please tell me on what basis the scholarships would be given? how do they decide? what aspects they would consider to give a scholarship.When and how should i apply for it, if i'm planning for fall 2017

[TakeruK]

It depends on the scholarship. In Canada and the US, there are often many scholarships at the school-level (i.e. it's given out by the school for programs at that school only). Usually, you tick a box during the application stage and you will be considered for many of these scholarships automatically, but sometimes you have to apply separately.

Note that for many of these school specific scholarships, they are often funded by a donor that gave money for a specific cause. For example, there may be a scholarship for students who are part of military families. Or for residents of a certain area etc. After the eligibility requirements are met, the most common method of deciding is by GPA and GRE test scores. Sometimes, there is an evaluation based on an essay but since this is more work, the donors don't usually specify this requirement. Other times, the "need" of the student is considered, and usually this is evaluated by filling out a FAFSA form (i.e. a thing that adds up all of your costs and your income & savings and calculates how much you need the money). However, for almost all of these scholarships, there is only a small number that is open to international students (if that's what you are).

Finally, I just want to say that the above answer is only for things we normally call "scholarships" in science & engineering fields in North America. Usually scholarships like I describe above are awarded for programs that don't normally fund their students (like Masters programs in the US). But, when you apply for grad schools, you may also get funding from the department through things like TAships, fellowships or other scholarships that are really just coming from a pot of money somewhere and the admissions committee decides how to allocate it (i.e. no extra application needed and the criteria for deciding is the same as the criteria for being admitted basically). For Masters programs, funding is limited but it's always worth a try.