How We Grade Scholarships and Universities

This page explains how Fully Funded Scholar decides what to list, what to feature, and how we talk about universities. We publish it so you can judge our work for yourself. Our method is an editorial method. It is a set of checks and judgments made by editors who read official sources. It is not a scientific ranking, and it is not a statistical model. If you understand how we work, you can use the site with more confidence and spot the places where you should still check the official page yourself.

We Only List Scholarships We Can Verify

Every scholarship on this site has been checked against an official page. That page is usually the scholarship provider’s own website, the university’s official admissions or funding page, or a government program page. We read the official call for applications before we write anything. If we cannot find an official page for a scholarship, we do not list it.

This rule matters because the internet is full of scholarship lists that copy each other. A program can be repeated from site to site for years after it has closed, changed its rules, or never existed in the first place. We do not copy listings from other websites. We start from the official source and work from there. If the official page is unclear or out of date, we say so in the article instead of guessing.

We also leave out programs that charge students a fee to apply through a third party. A real scholarship does not ask you to pay an agent to submit your application. If a listing asks for payment, that is a warning sign, and it does not belong on this site.

How We Check Funding, Deadlines, and Eligibility

Before we publish a scholarship guide, we check four things against the official source. First, the funding package: what the scholarship actually covers, such as tuition, a monthly stipend, travel, or health insurance. Second, the deadline: the exact closing date and time, and whether the program runs once a year or on a rolling basis. Third, the degree levels and subjects: whether the program is open to undergraduate, master, or doctoral students, and which fields of study it covers. Fourth, the eligibility rules: which nationalities can apply, what academic results are needed, and whether an English test is required.

Where a detail varies by course, by country, or by year, we say so in the article and point the reader to the official page for the exact figure. Funding amounts and deadlines change, and a figure from last year’s call may not hold for this year. We never invent a deadline, a funding amount, or an application link. Every application link on this site points to the official page of the scholarship provider or the university.

We also re-check our published guides on a regular basis. When a deadline passes, we mark the program as closed or note when the next cycle is expected to open. When a provider changes its rules, we update the article. A guide that is out of date is worse than no guide at all, because it can cost a student a real chance.

How We Choose Featured Scholarships

Featured scholarships are the programs we think most readers should see first. We choose them on editorial grounds, not on payment. A scholarship is more likely to be featured when it is fully funded, when it is open to students from many countries, when its rules are clear, and when its official page is easy to find and apply through.

We also feature programs that are open right now. A scholarship with a deadline in two weeks is more useful on the front page than one that closed a month ago, even if the closed one is the bigger name. We rotate featured listings as cycles open and close, so the front page reflects what a student can actually apply for today.

Being featured does not mean a scholarship is the best choice for every student. A fully funded program in a country you do not want to live in is not a good fit. A program that needs two years of work experience is not a good fit for a recent graduate. We write the eligibility rules in plain language in each guide so you can decide for yourself whether a program fits your situation.

How We Handle University Rankings

We do not rank universities with our own scores. We do not assign a number to a university, and we do not publish a league table of our own. Ranking universities is a job for organizations that collect data from thousands of institutions every year. We point readers to those established rankings and explain what each one measures, so you can read them with a clear head.

The three rankings we refer to most often are the QS World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities, known as the Shanghai Ranking. They measure different things, and that difference matters.

The QS World University Rankings combine academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty to student ratio, research citations, and international staff and students. The 2026 edition covers more than 1,500 universities. Because QS uses reputation surveys, it reflects what academics and employers think of a university as well as what the university publishes.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings use 18 indicators across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry links, and international outlook. The 2026 edition covers more than 2,100 universities. It gives more weight to teaching and research conditions than QS does.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities, published by ShanghaiRanking, measures research alone. It counts Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals won by alumni and staff, highly cited researchers, papers in Nature and Science, and papers in the main citation indexes. It runs no reputation survey and gives no weight to teaching. The 2026 edition ranks 1,000 institutions, with Harvard in first place.

The same university can sit in a different place in each of these three lists, and that is normal. A university with strong research but large classes may rank high in Shanghai and lower in QS. A university with a strong teaching reputation may rank high in THE and lower in Shanghai. When you see a rank on our site, we name the ranking it comes from and link to it. We never present a rank as if it were our own judgment.

A rank is a starting point, not a verdict. It does not tell you whether a course is well taught, whether the city suits you, or whether you will be happy there. Use rankings to build a shortlist, then read the course pages, check the funding, and talk to current students before you decide.

No One Pays for a Better Position

No university or scholarship provider pays to be listed, featured, or ranked higher on this site. We do not sell positions in our lists. We do not accept payment to write a favorable guide. If we ever run advertising in the future, it will be clearly labeled as advertising, and it will not affect which scholarships we list or how we write about them.

This is a simple rule, and we keep it simple on purpose. A site that takes money to promote one scholarship over another cannot be trusted to tell you which program is actually worth your time. Our readers are students who are making a large decision with limited money. They deserve a list that is built on the value of the scholarship, not on who paid for it.

How to Report an Error

We make mistakes, and scholarship programs change. If you find a wrong deadline, a wrong amount, a broken link, or a program that has closed, please tell us. You can use our Report Incorrect Information page, or you can write to us at fullyfundedscholar@gmail.com. Tell us which page you found the error on and what the correct detail is, with a link to the official source if you have one.

When we receive a report, we check it against the official source and fix the article promptly. We do not argue with a correction that is backed by an official page. A reader who points out an error is helping every student who reads that page after them.

An Honest Note About Our Method

Our method is editorial, not scientific. We read official sources, we apply judgment, and we write in plain language. We do not run statistical tests, and we do not claim that our featured lists are the result of a formula. Two careful editors could look at the same set of scholarships and feature different ones, and both could be right.

What we do promise is that every scholarship on this site was verified on an official page, that no one paid for a better position, and that we will fix an error when you point it out. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and this page exists so you can hold us to it too.