Across the world, two things marked Nigerians out as a people: our seemingly insatiable thirst for education and our boisterous lifestyle – our lively and colourful gatherings are legendary. Official reports in the US, the UK, and elsewhere across Europe regularly show that Nigerians are some of the most highly educated migrant groups in these nations.
Nigerians’ love for education
Long before japa became a trend, Nigerians were known to search for quality education within the country and overseas. And lately, with the japa trend in full bloom coupled with challenges in our education sector, Nigerians are trooping overseas for their and their wards’ educational needs. In 2022, for instance, all the graduands in the Master of Laws (LLM) programme of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, were Nigerians.
High cost of foreign education
However, quality foreign education comes at a steep financial cost. Recent data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that Nigerians spent $1.8 billion on foreign education in the first nine months to September 2024. The amount showed a 27% increase on the $1.44 billion spent in the same period in 2023. These figures tell half the story as the CBN captured only money spent by homeland Nigerians. Money spent by diaspora Nigerians is not captured in the report. But considering Nigerians’ penchant for quality education wherever they are based, the true figure of education spend by Nigerians will be much greater than the CBN figure.
The average yearly college tuition in the US is between $25,000 and $45,000, with costs varying based on course, institution, and state. In the UK, cost ranges from £11,400 to £38,000. These are huge financial commitments even for the most well-heeled families living in Nigeria or based abroad.
Scholarships can reduce or eliminate the cost
It is a huge financial burden for Nigerian immigrants in the US to train their children through school, including college education. However, this burden can be assuaged if the children can secure scholarships to colleges. The costs can be defrayed with appropriate scholarships. There are several US scholarship opportunities that Nigerians based in that country or hoping to study in the US can take advantage of, ranging from sports-related scholarships, needs-based to gender-based, merit-based, and SAT/ACT scores-based.
Many universities in the US, including Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale, have well-established scholarship programmes for deserving students that Nigerian parents and high school students with an eye for a college/university education can explore.
Read also: APM Terminals supports education in Apapa with 45 scholarship grants
Merit-based scholarships
These are scholarships based on academic excellence, demonstrated leadership potential, or extracurricular involvement and almost all US universities offer this in one form or another. Nigerian immigrants and their children are eligible for merit-based scholarships. However, they require high GPAs and impressive SAT or ACT test scores. These merit-based scholarships are given by different entities: schools, governments, foundations, companies, and even individuals. For instance, the Nigerian American Foundation (NAF) Scholarship is available to students of Nigerian descent pursuing higher education in the US. The African American Women’s Association also offers scholarships to African and African-American students. Organisations and foundations such as Coca-Cola, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Scholarships, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Scholarships, and Toyota Scholarship Fund, among many others, have well-established scholarships that brilliant students, including Nigerian American students, can take advantage of.
How to access the scholarships
Platforms such as Niche or College Prowler, Cappex, Scholarships.com, and Fastweb are effective in pointing interested parents or qualified students to the right scholarships tailored to their needs. The process of securing these scholarships is, however, tedious but well worth the effort if the scholarship is eventually secured. While the process may seem daunting, there are numerous steps Nigerian immigrants can take to navigate the scholarship landscape for their children. A critical step to take is to start early enough to research possible scholarship opportunities for high school children. Early research should reveal available scholarships, the target beneficiaries, the schools offering the scholarship and for what programmes, the criteria for qualification, the period of application, and other relevant information. It also helps to contact the Admissions Office in the target schools for further information.
Academic excellence is critical to securing a scholarship
But perhaps the most critical step is to prepare the high school kid for academic excellence and high grades in school and in his or her SAT or ACT scores. And, as mentioned in a previous article I wrote, research has shown that when parents work in conjunction with their children in their academics such children tend to outperform their peers. SparkXplorer is one platform that is helping both children and parents work together to achieve academic excellence. Smart Nigerian parents who desire academic excellence for their children are already taking advantage of the platform and the results so far are telling.
Some of the benefits of the platform are that it enables both the child and his/her parents to collaborate on the child’s academic journey; it has unlimited on-demand tutoring in any subject for a fraction of the cost of hiring a tutor per subject; the tutors, over 4,000 of them, are top-tier Princeton Review Certified tutors that are available whenever the child needs help with any subject; it has self-practice tools that enable the child and the parent monitor performance progress; the child can take the SAT/ACT practice tests multiple times ensuring they achieve the best test result; and most importantly, it has rewards programme that motivate and celebrate learning milestones achieved by the child. The platform’s motivation for kids who are learning and earning is remarkable. Parents can take advantage of the platform to encourage their children to shoot for high GPAs and even enroll in challenging courses such as Advanced Placement (AP).
Rather than stifle children’s other extracurricular activities, SparkXplorer enables them to pace their after-school studies and also engage in their favourite sports, community service projects, and other leadership initiatives that would further strengthen their scholarship applications. Children on the platform are already showing great promise as many of them have managed to master hundreds of new skills.
Winning a US scholarship is very competitive but with early preparation, determination, and a strategic approach it is easily within reach. For most scholarships, academic excellence takes the cake, followed by extracurricular activities and demonstrated leadership abilities.
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