Interview, Bureaucracy and Moving to Turkey
UPDATED!
Hey guys!
Few weeks ago I've posted first post with the information about scholarships offered by the Republic of Turkey (bachelor, MA and PhD). I have seen that many of you have read my post and also many of you asked me some questions. Last week I updated the post Study in Turkey which can be find here. Also don't forget: all news and important dates are anounced on the official page of Türkiye burslari (Turkey Scholarship), because some important dates or rules might change from year to year.
If you are readin this post now, you are probably waiting THE EMAIL that you were selected for an interview. I hope this post can give you some answers to your questions.
So before I will explain you about interview and other procedures, I would like to repeat and reply to some most frequent questions which I got from you. Firstly, the scholarship in the schope of Turkiye burslari are government scholarships, not university scholarships, so if you are already enrolled in one of the Turkish universities, than check Tübitak scholarships. Those of you, who already filled in the application form already know, that application also has a question: in which university do you want to study and in which departement, which means, if you will win the scholarship, you will also win one of the universities and departaments on your application form. If you are ALREADY studying in Turkey on your own expense, than check the post Study in Turkey about other scholarship opportunities.
When waiting for interview invitation, many students are panick stricken when they read or hear on Facebook, that some other candidates have already been invited on an interview. Well, since interview is conduccted in more than 100 countries world wide, it's not possible that all the interviews are held in the same period. Most of interviews, however are held between APRIL and JUNE (both included). The best way to know if the interviews for the successful candidates have finished is to call the Turkish Embassy in your country (and not to consult a Facebook :).
Other very frequent question was about Turkish language course. If you have sufficient knowledge of Turkish, which means level C1, you will be able to start university education after arriving to Turkey. If you do not have any certificate prooving your knowledge, than you will have test of Turkish language after your arrival. If your knowledge of Turkish is not sufficiente, than, during 2 semesters (or less), you will have to attend Turkish language course. You will need to learn Turkish even tought your university education language will not be Turkish.
INTERVIEW
After you have completed your application and after application period is close, probably everyone will wait for an interview invitation. Be patient. Invitation might come one or even 2 months after the application period has finished. It also varies from country to country. My interview was held at Turkish embassy in my country in second half of May, meanwhile some candidates from other countries got their already in April (this dates are for MA and PhD students; bachelor students interviews were in June). So be patient and reguraly check your email and your account on the page where you had applied for Scholarship. Not all students get invited to an interview, only the one who managed to get in second round of selections.
Please, read a special post, where I write more about interview and the questions they might ask you. You can read it here.
SCHOLARSHIP RESULTS and BUREAUCRACY
The scholarship results are not anounced during interview, but later. In 2013 this was at the end of June (bachelor, MA and PhD). Only the selected candidates got email with the news, that they were accepted (and also some rejected students, but not all).
About one month after the application results we got another email regarding university and departement we won and also about the language of instructions. Most students will study in Turkish. After this, the bureaucracy really began :) We had to translate some documents to Turkish, namely passport, health report, diploma (or a paper which indicated that you have graduated) and academic transcript. We had about 10 days to do so and to bring all documents to Turkish Embassy in our country. At the embassy we had to sing our scholarship agreement and start student visa procedure.
In this period, many of us were facing some problems, because Turkish embassies in our countries didn't know that we won scholarship or our scholarship agreement was delivered to embassy with delay. Student visa procedure also depends from country to country: some citizens can get it in a day, meanwhile other wait for it a week or so. Here, again be patient and prepeare yourself that you will (probably) need to visit Turkish embassy a few times before you will arrange everything.
MOVING TO TURKEY
So, you have won the scholarship..Congratulations! But what to do next??
Firstly, don't panic! You will need to arrange lots of documents, which is not very pleasant job, but hey, everyone has managed to do it before you, so you can also do it!
By now, you have probably get used to waiting for emails from scholarship comitee. And thing will not change a lot after you won scholarship (but you must know, that there are many students - new and old, so comitee has lots of work).
So, read carefully the email the scholarship team sent you and check again the page of university/department you won. Read carefully email and check which documents you need to bring with you, when you'll sign scholarship agreement. Most of you will sign it at Turkish Embassy in your country, so you need all papers to be translated in English (or Turkish). I know in some countries there are no or very few Turkish translators, that is why some of you will need to translate their documents into Turkish in Turkey. This is very easy if you live in one of big cities, such as Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya, Izmir, etc.
Before going to Turkish embassy to sign agreement, check if your passport is still valid (it's good to be valid at least one more year), because they will give you single entry student visa and when you'll come to Tukey, you will need to ask for residence permit. When you are at Embassy you can also ask the staff questions regarding to visa or residence permit procedures, because your embassy should know it better than Scholarship comitte, since every country has different regulations. Generally (at least this is my experience), they won't know much about scholarship procedure, because it's changing frequently.
After you have singed your scholarship agreement, make some copies of it (you will need them and save original for you). Also I advice to you make several copies of all the documents you have shown to the embassy and also copies of your passport (page with photo and visa). Make an additional copy of passport page with visa after entering Turkey (you will need it, when you will ask for residence permit). Also bring with you (or take the first day in Turkey) at least 20 (or more) photos for documents. In Turkey almost every document procedure requires a photo of you. After all this, enjoy your last days at home, with your family or friends. Scholarship comitee will let you know all the missing information in about one month or so. Probably you are still waiting some info- especially the one regarded to your flight.
In 2013 first students left for Turkey around 18th September and last in the beginning of October. Our ticket have been sent to us only a week or 10 days in advance, so be ready. Scholarship team bought tickets for us, however some students had to buy their own connecting flight in case, if there was no Turkish Airlines flight to their country. In this case, their ticket was refunded (but few months later). After your arrival to Turkey at the biggest aiports (Istanbul and Ankara), scholarship team will wait for students. If you have some questions, you can ask them. I guess especially those of you, who will need to find their dormitories or travel by bus to other city, can get some useful information how to get there.
After you've arrived to dormitory, you will need to register. That is why it's important to have scholarship agreement, photos and other copies of documents allways with you on this first days. After this you have to register at university, language school (as most of you will probably learn Turkish in the first year). You will also have to apply for residence permit. This might take some time. Also register for it, after you already have your student certificate, because without it you cannot get student visa.
Before coming to Turkey also take enough money with you. You will probably get first scholarship about one month after your arrival to Turkey, so don't forget to bring enough money with you, since you will need it for travel expenses, food and also registration fees. Also residence permit is not for free. Take some more money in case you will need to translate your documents to Turkish in Turkey. It depends on how many documents you have, but translation will cost you at least 200 TL. Probably many of you will buy new phone in Turkey or bring your own phone from your country. If you decide to use foreign phone with Turkish SIM card, you need to register it, otherwise it will get blocked. The registration costs around 150TL.
This all might sound little scarry right now, but after all this is arrange, I believe that you will enjoy your experience in Turkey. Also I would like to mention that you will meet many foreign students and you can help each other during all this procedures. Also you can also contact with scholarship team.
If you have more questions, feel free to ask them by commenting this post.
If you find any error, please let me know.
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Labels: scholarship, Štipendije Turške vlade, Study in Turkey, Turčija, Turkey, Turkiye burslari, Turščina
