How to Win a Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship to Study in Hungary

Stipendium Hungaricum is a relatively new program, the first intake took place only in 2013.I was very lucky, as my Russian university (Republic of Karelia) had curators of this program who helped with the submission of applications.Why did it happen?The answer is simple, due to the huge number of applications received for this program from our university and the high passing rating, an employee of the international department of the university decided to help the next generation of applicants in the admission process.

I'll start with the main question that interests many:

What does this scholarship give?

1. Free training.

2. Scholarship of 43,700 forints (approximately 130 euros) for undergraduate and graduate students, 580 euros for graduate students.

3. Free accommodation in a hostel or an additional 40,000 forints to pay for renting a room / apartment.In truth, it is impossible to rent something for such a price alone, so be prepared to pay a certain amount from your wallet, since, for example, the prices for utilities are simply unrealistically high here.

4. Medical insurance.

5. Exemption from payment of consular fees when applying for a single Hungarian visa to enter the country.

6. Free travel and activities funded by the scholarship fund.

PS The only thing you will have to pay for is the flight and the deposit when checking into the hostel.

So, being a 4th year undergraduate student at a Russian university in September (!) 2017, I started preparing to apply.That year (2017/2018 recruitment), as in all previous ones, 200 grants were allocated for Russia, it was possible to choose three specialties of study.However, every year the rules of the program change a little and already this year (2018/2019 enrollment) only two directions can be chosen.

Your choice of directions should be deliberate and final, because in your applicationyou specify the priorities and, for example, having received a scholarship for the first and second priority, you cannot change anything.Those.Please consider your choice carefully.After choosing directions and universities, I began to work on motivation letters, which are subsequently read by representatives of universities and have a key role in choosing a scholarship finalist.

Then came January - the month of collecting documents and February - the official start of filing documents.You have two weeks to upload all documents, so prepare the kit in advance.

What was required for the magistracy:

1. passport

2. Certificate of language proficiency (both toefl \ ielts and language assesment sheet may work).

3. Statement of grades for all semesters with notarized translation into English.(By the way, it's okay if you are not an excellent student and not a good student)

4. Medical certificate that you have no contraindications to travel abroad (also translated), as well as test results (for HIV / AIDSetc.)

5. School certificate (translated and certified).Someone said that he was needed, while others did not.I decided not to risk it, so I attached it to the application too (optional).

6. CV (sample europass)

7. Motivation letters for each direction.

8. Certificates of participation in various forums (optional,but I have attached about participation in two international schools and one university conference).

9. Declaration that you will send additional documents no later than August 1.For example, until you have a bachelor's degree.

PS Usually the set of documents is not very different, but each university has the right to set different requirements and ask for different documents.

All documents are submitted through thesite .This is where you attach your documents, keep track of your application status, and so on.

In addition touploading documents, you send a curriculum vitae of your achievements, a letter of introduction from the university and abroad.passport to the Ministry of Education of your country.First, the Ministry considers you, and if the candidacy is approved, it will nominate you. In my year of admission all over Russia, if I’m not mistaken, there were 600 applications, only 200 were approved, plus about 40 were left in reserve.Having received a letter stating that you will be considered next, you are waiting for a letter from the university.

The university of your choice can conduct an entrance test: a test, an interview, or nothing at all.So at the beginning of May 2018, a 7-minute interview with representatives of the university on the first priority took place.Then I waited for the final results.

On June 5, I received a refusal from the second university due to the fact that I had already been chosen.It immediately became obvious that I passed, but I decided not to rejoice ahead of time and wait for an official letter.The next day it came to me.

I won a scholarship to study in the English-language master's program at the University of Pecs (Hungary) in the field of International Relations.However, my status in that very online system did not become a scholarship awarded, but changed to a conditional scholarship awarded.Why conditional?Because I needed to upload my bachelor's degree.At the end of June, I received it, translated it, notarized it and attached it to the system.

Then I began to wait for the change of status in order to receive two letters of awarding scholarships from the university and from the funding fund.Without these letters, you cannot start the visa application process.

A week has passed, but nothing has changed, then I began to write to all sorts of addresses with a purpose, but here you need to understand that Hungarians are very slow, so no one answered me.I signed up to the consul without having two letters, without which, in fact, there was nothing to do there.July 18th has finally changedmy application status, BUT there were no letters, I had to go to the consul already on July 26th.Only on the 23rd, after our (!) Call, letters came to Hungary, and three weeks later a visa was made.

PS If you have a Schengen visa, you can go directly to Hungary and apply for a residence permit there.

In concluding this article, I want to say, be prepared to spend at least a year on the process of applying, receiving a response, obtaining a visa and leaving.So please be patient and remember, nothing is impossible. Good luck!

Darina Mozgovaya

Student of the University of Pecs in Hungary,
Stipendium scholarshipHungaricum in 2018

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