How to Read a Scholarship Offer Before You Accept It

A student I was advising last year had two offers. One was a 70 percent scholarship at a well-ranked private university. The other was 30 percent at a mid-ranked public one.

She was ready to accept the 70 percent without doing the arithmetic. When we worked it through, the 70 percent offer left her paying about 14,200 dollars a year after the discount. The 30 percent offer left her at 9,800. The bigger headline number was the more expensive choice by a wide margin, and it took eleven minutes with a calculator to find that out.

This happens constantly. Scholarship percentages are marketing. What matters is the number you write on a cheque every year, and what happens if something goes wrong.

Step one: convert every offer to one number

Ignore percentages entirely. For each offer, calculate the total annual cost you are personally responsible for:

Tuition after the award, plus mandatory fees, plus health insurance, plus housing, plus food, plus local transport, plus visa and immigration costs, plus one flight home.

Then multiply by the number of years in the programme, and adjust for tuition inflation. Many institutions raise tuition every year, and almost no student factors this in. Over a four-year degree at four percent a year, the final year costs roughly twelve and a half percent more than the first.

How much fees rise depends on the country and, increasingly, on the individual university:

• United States. The College Board's 2025 pricing report found published tuition and fees rose 3.4 percent for out-of-state students at public four-year universities and 4.0 percent at private non-profit ones, before adjusting for inflation.
• Canada. Statistics Canada's tuition survey shows average international undergraduate tuition rising from about CA$40,400 in 2025/26 to about CA$42,100 in 2026/27, roughly 4 percent. Over the past decade the average has risen faster, close to 6 percent a year.
• United Kingdom. International fees are set by each university, so the rules vary. Check whether yours holds the fee flat for the whole course or raises it each year. Reading, for example, says that from 2026/27 entry international undergraduate fees rise each year in line with UK inflation, capped at 4 percent.

Find the fee-increase clause in your own offer and use that number, not an average.

Now compare. The ranking of your offers will often reverse. In my experience it does about a third of the time.

There is one more number to add before you compare, and it catches students out because it arrives before the course does. To get the visa at all, most countries require you to show you can cover living costs, on top of whatever the scholarship does not cover. For Canadian study permit applications made from 1 September 2026, a single student outside Quebec must show CA$23,448 a year for living costs alone, excluding tuition and travel. For a UK Student visa you must show £1,529 a month in London or £1,171 a month elsewhere, for up to nine months, held in your account for at least 28 days in a row. The gap between the scholarship and the real cost has to exist in a bank account before you leave. You cannot plan to earn it after you arrive.

Step two: find out if the money continues

This is the question that ruins the most degrees, and it is buried in paragraph four of the award letter.

You need to know exactly:

• Is it renewable, or first year only? A one-year entrance award advertised as "a scholarship" is a discount on your first year and nothing else.
• What GPA maintains it? A 3.5 requirement in a demanding programme is a real risk, not a formality. Ask what percentage of holders keep it. A school that will not answer has told you the answer.
• Is there a grace period? Some programmes give you a probationary semester to recover. Some withdraw the award immediately and permanently.
• Does it cover credit hours or a fixed amount? If your programme requires more credits than the award covers, you pay the difference.
• What happens if you change major, take a lighter semester, or need a fifth year? Any of these can void an award silently.

I have seen a student lose a full scholarship in year two because she dropped one course while ill. The clause was on page three. Nobody had read it, including the agent who placed her.

Losing an award is common even when the system is designed for students to keep it. When researchers at Georgia State University studied Georgia's HOPE scholarship, a domestic US merit award with a GPA condition, they found that 30 percent of students who entered with it went on to lose it. International awards are not usually tracked that carefully, which is exactly why you should ask the university for its own figure.

Step three: work out whether you are allowed to work

Your study permit determines whether the gap between the award and the real cost is bridgeable.

Rules differ sharply and change often, so verify against the government immigration site rather than a university brochure or a consultant's summary. What you need to establish: how many hours per week during term, whether full-time work is permitted in holidays, whether on-campus and off-campus are treated differently, and whether your dependants can work.

Here is where the four most common destinations stand as of October 2026, from the official government pages:

The US line deserves emphasis because students misread it constantly. Off-campus work in the US is not a general right. Curricular Practical Training is only available when it is an integral part of your programme's curriculum, and Optional Practical Training is mostly used after graduation. If your budget depends on an off-campus job in year one in the US, it does not work.

On dependants, the answer is now often simply no. In the UK, most taught master's students who started on or after 1 January 2024 cannot bring family members; only PhD and research-based higher degree students can. In Canada, since 21 January 2025, spouses qualify for an open work permit only in limited cases, such as master's programmes of 16 months or longer and doctoral programmes. If a family budget assumes a spouse working, check this first.

Then be honest about the arithmetic. If you need 20 hours a week at minimum wage to close a 6,000 dollar gap, you are also committing to a schedule that will affect the GPA your scholarship depends on. That is a real trade-off, not a detail.

Step four: check the outcome, not the ranking

Global rankings measure research output and reputation surveys. They are close to irrelevant to whether you will find work after graduating.

Ask for the things that actually predict outcomes:

• Graduate employment rate for your programme, not the university overall, six and twelve months out
• Whether the qualification is recognised by the professional body you need, in the country you intend to work in
• Whether the programme includes an internship, co-op or placement year
• Post-study work visa length for that country and that level of qualification
• Whether the institution's graduates are actually in the country's labour market, or mostly returning home

A programme with a placement year at a mid-ranked institution routinely produces better employment outcomes than a prestigious degree with no industry contact. Employers hire people who have done the work.

Some of this you can check yourself, for free, with official data. In the UK, Discover Uni, run by the higher education regulators, shows what graduates of each undergraduate course were doing 15 months after finishing. In the US, the Department of Education's College Scorecard shows earnings by programme, with one catch for international students: its earnings figures only cover graduates who received federal student aid, which international students do not, so treat them as an indication of the programme rather than of your own prospects.

Post-study work rights matter as much as the degree, and they are moving:

• United Kingdom. The Graduate visa lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, and 18 months if you apply on or after 1 January 2027; PhD graduates get 3 years. Most students starting a course now will graduate after that date, so plan on 18 months.
• Canada. A Post-Graduation Work Permit can be valid for up to 3 years for programmes of two years or more, and master's programmes of at least eight months can also qualify for three years. Since November 2024 some college programmes have field-of-study requirements, but bachelor's, master's and doctoral graduates are exempt, and you will need to meet a language requirement.
• Australia. The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) gives 2 years after a bachelor's or coursework master's, and 3 years after a research master's or doctorate, for applicants aged 35 or under, with some exceptions.
• United States. Optional Practical Training gives up to 12 months for each higher level of study, plus a 24-month extension for qualifying STEM degrees. One thing to watch: in October 2026 the Department of Homeland Security proposed charging schools $70,000 for a student's first OPT recommendation and $30,000 for later ones. It is a proposal open for public comment, not law, and legal challenges are expected if it is finalised. But if your plan depends on US work after graduation, check where it stands before you accept.

Step five: read the offer as a legal document

Before you pay a deposit, establish in writing:

Is the offer conditional or unconditional? If conditional, list every condition and the exact deadline for each.

Is the deposit refundable, and under what circumstances? Specifically: what happens if your visa is refused? A good institution refunds in full minus an administrative fee. Some keep everything. This single clause has cost students I know several thousand dollars.

Read the actual policy, because the details vary more than students expect. UWE Bristol keeps a £500 administrative fee on refunds after a visa refusal. The University of Chester keeps £250, wants the refusal letter within a week, and lists situations in which it keeps the whole deposit. And some universities ask for more from applicants in particular countries: the University of Manchester says applicants from Bangladesh, Ghana and Pakistan need to pay a higher deposit. None of this is unreasonable. All of it should be known before you pay.

What is the refund schedule if you withdraw? Usually a sliding scale by week.

Is the programme accredited, and by whom? Verify with the accrediting body directly. Accreditation can be withdrawn, and websites are not updated promptly. For the UK, the government's check if a university is officially recognised page points you to the official registers. For the US, the Study in the States school search tells you whether a school is certified to enrol F-1 students at all. That is visa eligibility, not academic accreditation, but a school that fails it is not an option.

The questions to ask the university directly

Email admissions. Their willingness to answer plainly tells you a great deal about how you will be treated for the next four years.

1. What percentage of students who receive this award still hold it in their final year?
2. What was the average total cost of attendance for an international student in this programme last year (not the published estimate, the actual figure)?
3. What is the employment rate for this programme's graduates twelve months after completion?
4. If my visa is refused, what portion of my deposit is returned, and how long does it take?
5. Can I speak to a current international student in this programme?

A clear answer to all five is a strong signal. Vagueness on question one or four is a reason to be careful.

On agents and consultants

Many students use an education consultant. Some are genuinely useful. The thing to establish early is who pays them.

If a consultant receives a commission from the university, their recommendation is not neutral. That is not necessarily disqualifying, but you are entitled to know. Ask directly: "Do you receive a commission from this institution, and what is it?" Anyone who will not answer that question should not be advising you.

Governments say the same thing. The Australian government's own advice to students is plain: some education agents are paid by education providers to recommend them, the cost is usually included in your tuition fees, and you should ask which providers an agent represents. In the UK, the Home Office's guidance for universities that sponsor student visas refers to agents receiving commission payments, and requires sponsors that use agents to commit to the Agent Quality Framework. Commission is normal and legal. Hiding it is the problem.

The consultants worth having will tell you when an offer is bad, including offers they would be paid for.

What I tell students to do

Build a simple table. One row per offer. Columns: total four-year cost to you, renewal conditions, work rights, programme employment rate, post-study visa length, deposit risk if the visa is refused.

Fill it in completely before you feel anything about any of them. Most students decide emotionally and then look for numbers that support the decision. Do it in the other order.

The best offer is the one you can still afford in year three, in a programme that leads somewhere specific, in a country that will let you stay long enough to use the degree. That is rarely the biggest percentage on the letter.

Sources

Immigration rules and fees change often. Everything below was checked in October 2026; always confirm on the official page before you decide.

1. College Board. Trends in College Pricing 2025: Highlights.
2. Statistics Canada. Table 37-10-0045-01: Canadian and international tuition fees by level of study. Year-on-year and ten-year rates calculated from the table.
3. University of Reading. International undergraduate student fees.
4. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Proof of financial support; Work off campus; Help your spouse or common-law partner work in Canada; Post-Graduation Work Permit overview and eligibility.
5. GOV.UK. Student visa: money you need; Student visa: family members; Graduate visa; Immigration Rules Appendix Student; Check if a university is officially recognised.
6. Lee, J. (1 July 2021). Keeping and Losing HOPE. Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, summarising research by Georgia State University's Georgia Policy Labs.
7. Australian Government. Study Australia: Work in Australia; How to choose the right education agent for you; Department of Home Affairs, Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485): Post-Higher Education Work stream.
8. US Department of Homeland Security, Study in the States. Working in the United States; Applying for practical training; School search.
9. Fragomen (October 2026). DHS proposes $70,000 fee for initial OPT and $30,000 fee for subsequent OPT periods.
10. Office for Students and UK funding bodies. Discover Uni: about our data; US Department of Education, College Scorecard data glossary.
11. University refund policies: UWE Bristol; University of Chester; University of Manchester.
12. UK Home Office (2026). Student Sponsor Guidance, Document 2: Sponsorship Duties.