How to find Canadian Scholarships?
Scholarships are a great opportunity to fund your education without going into debt and it's free to apply. The following are 5 tips to get started.
University & Program: in the program which you’re planning to attend I would begin looking at your University and Program for scholarship opportunities.
a. University Scholarships: check the university you’re planning to attend and look into the graduate and undergraduate studies for awards and scholarships. Some Universities also post external awards and funding resources. For example, at the University of Toronto the graduates studies has a list of awards for students: https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/awards/. And the University of Toronto also has a list of external funding opportunities: https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/awards/external-funding-resources-for-graduate-students/
b. Program Specific Scholarships: check the program which you're planning to attend for program specific funding opportunities. Some of the scholarships might be automatic upon receiving an acceptance letter into the program (entrance scholarships), some may require an application and other funding resources are awarded upon good academic standing. I would also check to see if your program has a co-op program where you can study and work.
2. Professional Associations: check your local, federal, and international associations for funding opportunities. I would recommend starting with the following:
a. RAIC (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada) Foundation Scholarships and Bursaries: https://raic.org/raic/raic-foundation-scholarships-and-bursaries
b. Local jurisdiction: for example the OAA (Ontario Association of Architects) has scholarships and awards for students: https://oaa.on.ca/whats-on/news-and-insights/news-and-insights-detail/Scholarship-for-Students-and-Award-for-Emerging-Practitioners
3. Federal & Provincial: look into federal and provincial funding opportunities. The following is a list of federal funding opportunities in Canada:
a. Government of Canada Scholarships: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/educationfunding/scholarships.html
b. Government of Canada International Scholarships Program: https://www.educanada.ca/scholarships-bourses/index.aspx?lang=eng
c. Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships: this scholarship is open to both Canadians and international PHD students, https://vanier.gc.ca/en/home-accueil.html
d. Universities Canada: https://www.univcan.ca/programs-and-scholarships/
And some provincial scholarships in Ontario include:
e. Ontario international student: https://www.ontario.ca/page/study-ontario-international-students
f. Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program: https://osap.gov.on.ca/OSAPPortal/en/A-ZListofAid/PRDR019245.html
g. Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology Program: https://osap.gov.on.ca/OSAPPortal/en/A-ZListofAid/PRDR019236.html
4. Canadian Scholarship Search Websites: these websites are great search engines where you can search all the available funding opportunities for your education. The following are the top Canadian websites:
a. Student Awards: https://studentawards.com
b. 99 Scholarships: https://99scholarships.ca
c. Yconic: http://yconic.com
d. Scholarships Canada: https://www.scholarshipscanada.com
5. Research, Research, Research... there are many opportunities to fund your education and these resources noted are only scratching the surface. I recommend doing a google search to see what else is available.
If your looking for other ideas to fund your education I would recommend checking out this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YDZi7IcqY
