“Students and high school graduates do not easily know if they meet the selection criteria for one of the numerous scholarships,” said Mira Mayer. He recommends that every high school graduate, but also students who are planning to study further or stay abroad, work on the subject of scholarship. Looking at scholarships away from large funding agencies is especially effective. On the one hand, the success rate of small foundations is significantly higher than that of large funded organizations due to low applicants. According to a 2010 survey by the Allensbach Institute, the average success rate for applying for a scholarship is 41 percent. “If you consider that the chances of success with a large foundation for talent promotion are less than 20 percent, then there is an equally high chance of success with smaller foundations and scholarship providers,” Meyer calculates. Another advantage of applying to relatively unknown foundations: The selection process is usually much less complicated and lengthy. Although large fundraising organizations often require detailed CVs and reports and hold several days of standing election conferences with various tests, a CV and letter of inspiration are often sufficient for a small foundation. On the one hand, it slows down the effort, and on the other hand, students often know more quickly if they are getting a scholarship than the big companies for promoting talented students – where the selection process often takes at least half a year.
