This is a guest post from my friend Tuğba who is a merit-based scholarship holder in Politecnico di Milano. So, I asked her to kindly tell her experience from the first hand so to give most accurate information. If you are interested, you can also have a look at How to Study Master in Italy as an International, and another scholarship: Invest Your Talent in Italy. Here she explains her merit-based scholarship from Polimi:
Each university has its merit-based scholarships. Politecnico di Milano has three types called Platinum, Gold, and Silver. For more details and the latest information, you should refer to the PoliMi website.
As a Platinum merit-based scholarship holder, I, Tuğba Sarı, would like to share with you my experience in a couple of lines.
How do you apply to Merit Based Scholarships in Politecnico di Milano?
I wanted to start my two-year master’s degree in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 Academic Years. And in January 2019, I received my acceptance letter from PoliMi for the Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology course. The letter stated that if my documents are complete, I will be automatically considered for the scholarships. Later, I got a notification e-mail in March 2019 saying that I was awarded a Platinum scholarship. To accept the scholarship offer, I had two weeks to decide and pay the one-time non-refundable administrative fee of about 170€. I was also waiting for other acceptance letters and some news of scholarships from several other universities in Europe.
Even if I hadn’t made up my mind yet, I paid the fee, thinking that worst-case scenario, I would only lose 170€, but the scholarship offered by Politecnico was too good to be thrown away. So, at this point, I would suggest awarded students pay the fee to guarantee their scholarship in Politecnico.
How much financial aid is given to the scholarship holder students?
Concerning the awarded students admitted to the academic year of 2019-2020, the Platinum scholarship offer included 10,000€ gross per year, tuition fee waiver, and single room accommodation in residence called Camplus Lambrate. On the other hand, for gold scholarship holders, the offer was 5,000€ gross per year, accommodation in a double room at Camplus Lambrate. The annual rent was paid directly to the dormitories by Politecnico di Milano. Students didn’t have to do anything. The remaining amount after the scholarship, after taxes, was given to the students as pocket money. How much the remaining amount will be was not communicated to us until we received the total payment. The platinum scholarship was paid in 3 installments; one in December, one in April, and the last one in July. The remaining amount was around 4800€. Gold scholarship holders only received about 250€ pocket money in December.
Knowing that I did not have to search for accommodation as an international student coming to Milan for the first time was quite relaxing. Especially after having heard how tricky it is to find suitable accommodation in Milan. However, staying in a student residence might not be for everybody since it brings along many rules, whereas if you have a room in a flat you are more independent. However, the scholarship did not offer the option to refuse the accommodation provided by PoliMi and instead receive all the awarded money in cash. It led to all merit-based students accepting the given accommodation.
Either the school must have received some negative feedback regarding this kind of obligation to stay in the given residence or just decided to change the policy. They are no longer offering the scholarship including the residence, but they provide cash for both platinum and gold scholarship students. The scholarship offer and how many scholarships will be offered every year are changing year by year. So, I strongly suggest prospective students refer to the latest information provided by the Politecnico di Milano website.
How to renew the merit-based scholarship at Politecnico di Milano?
After having successfully achieved the requirements that are communicated to awarded students at the beginning of the academic year, the scholarship is automatically renewed for the second year. The requirements might also change every year. As a platinum scholarship holder, I had to gain a total of 1000 points in the first year. 1000 points resulted from the weighted average obtained in the examinations taken, multiplied by the number of ECTS credits obtained during the Academic Year. For instance, your average grade at the end of the first year is 25/30, and you got this average by successfully passing 60 ECTS credits of courses, you have a total point of 25×60=1500. As you can see, it is not very difficult to obtain. On the other hand, for gold scholarship holders, the required total point was 700, which is even easier to get.
How to get the merit-based scholarship?
During my studies, I have received this question the most. How did you get this scholarship? Did you have a GPA of 4.0 in your bachelor’s? The answer is NO. My GPA was 3.8/4.0; I know it is still a good GPA, but as you can see, GPA is not everything to get this scholarship. I worked so hard on my motivation letter, and it was three pages long. It was clearly mentioning why I choose PoliMi and this program. What are my strengths to overcome the challenges I may face here at PoliMi? How my background fits with the program offered by Politecnico di Milano, in which research groups I will consider working.
I submitted three reference letters by merging them into one pdf. The reference letters were written of course by professors who know me very well and did projects with both in my university or for an internship. One reference letter was from my supervisor, who supervised me during my internship in an R&D company. So not necessarily a professor. I also heard that the reputation of your graduating university has an influence as well. Altogether I think they made a difference, and my application was considered for this merit-based scholarship for the committee.
Requirements and offerings may change each year. Therefore, I once again recommend all scholarship candidates to carefully read the information provided on PoliMi’s website. If you have any inquiry I would be happy to answer your questions. You can reach me via e-mail: zahidetugba@alumni.sabanciuniv.edu
Related post: How to find an internship in Italy as a foreigner.
After reading the blog, I have a small question for Tuğba Sarı. Mam, you have received the Platinum scholarship for two years right? So my doubt is that have you applied for any other scholarships during the applications process, like the DSU or IYT scholarships? If so, was there any option to choose between the better choice available, or does the application automatically gets requested? Thanks in advance, hope you all are doing fine in these tough times.
Hi Goutham,
There is no separate application for platinum scholarship, you find out already in the application profile if you get it or not before the applications for all other scholarship opportunities you listed. So basically if you get a gold scholarship instead and want to try your chance to IYT because it is better you should apply for it and if you get it you have to tell them you do not want the gold scholarship. In case of platinum you would not say that because it is better than IYT as far as I know. Applications are always possible but getting two scholarships at the same time is not. Btw yes all merit-based scholarships are for 2 years.
What month did you apply for the Politecnico admissions? How long did it take before the results were released?
I think I applied like in October and got accepted within a month. But I don’t exactly remember as it has already been 4 years ago :). But Polimi releases the application deadlines every year on their site.