Today I will briefly give updates about the GKS 2021 scholarship for graduate students. If you want to do a Masters or PhD in Korea. Irrespective of what major you want to do, the process is the same for every subject. Whether the subject is available or not you have to check the details of the universities and majors.

You can check them at www.studyinkorea.go.kr

Contact the scholarship incharge. They will help you.

The GKS for 2021 will be announced by February end. In India specifically for embassy track. It can be a little bit late. But it’ll be coming in February that’s for sure.

What you can do in the meanwhile ?

You can go through the previous years GKS graduate scholarship documents. 80% content of the documents will be the same. So there is no harm in going through them once to make yourself familiar with all the regulations and the eligibility criteria etc.

More important than that:

• Prepare yourself for how you will work on your study plan. For SOP, which is the most important thing in your application. What will you do after coming to Korea? How will you explain those things ? What you have studied so far, what is your research plan and how you will achieve it ?
• Prepare yourself for the interview by going through the SOP samples easily available in google. You will get so much information just by going through the documents once.
• Make drafts and get it checked by someone. Get your SOP checked by a third person. And get their different perspective.
• Prepare all the required documents.
• They ask for notarized and apostille documents. Check where you can get your documents notarized or apostille. The cost and time it takes.
• Apply for passport. If you haven’t applied you should do it as soon as possible because it may take some time.
• If you require some doc. Certain documents like English speaking proficiency. NIIED- GKS scholarship they have a provision that if your bachelors or Masters degree study has been in English medium. Then you don’t need to submit a IELTS certificate. But you need to submit a doc from your university informing about your medium of education in English. So for that you need to contact your office. Your department in university which may take some time.

Apart from that :

• You need to furnish some recommendation letters. You need to contact your university professors for recommendations in advance.

Approaching university professors a day before is really an unprofessional way. They won’t appreciate that and it will be reflected in the recommendation letter. Approach them regarding this way before so they have appropriate time to analyse the situation and can provide you a proper recommendation letter.

See also : Common Questions About Korean Scholarships

Last thing I would say is : Don’t expect too much. 

Don’t apply thinking that if you are applying you will definitely get this scholarship. In that case if you’re not able to get it. Your disappointment will be huge. You are doing your job of applying. If it happens or not, it has a lot to do with luck actually. I have seen very highly talented people getting rejected and I’ve also seen very average people getting the scholarship.

Not getting selected doesn’t mean that you are not skilled or talented enough. Be realistic and calm and do what you have to do.

I wish you all the best.

Thank you !!