I applied for CSC scholarship in China successfully by myself and will graduate in 2022. I can share my experience here and hope you can get into your dream university too.

What Is a Full Scholarship to Study in China? 

Some students may don’t even know what a Chinese full scholarship covers? A strict full scholarship should cover the cost of these aspects:

1. Tuition fees and activity fees organized by the school during the study period
2. Dormitory fee or Accommodation allowance
3. Living allowance
4. Medical Insurance

The conditions of the strict scholarship seem to be met only by full scholarship in the Chinese Government Scholarship. But we generally think that a scholarship that covers tuition, accommodation, and monthly stipend in China is also a full scholarship. Because the cost of these three aspects are the main expenses for studying in China and the amount of other expenses is small and negligible. BTW, during the COVID-19 pandemic, before you arrive at school in China, you won't get a living allowance or accommodation allowance but you can take online courses for free.

What Are the Types of China Scholarships and Among Which A Full Scholarship Is Available?

1. Chinese Government Scholarship (full/partial scholarship available)
2. Local Government Scholarship (full/partial scholarship available)
3. Confucius Institute Scholarship (full/partial scholarship available)
4. School Scholarship (full/partial scholarship available)
5. Scholarship for Enrolled Students (partial scholarship available for enrolled students)
6. Enterprise Scholarship

The Chinese Government Scholarship, also known as the CSC scholarship, got the name because China Scholarship Council (CSC) is responsible for the enrollment and management of the Chinese Government Scholarship programs. We generally think of a CSC Scholarship as a full scholarship, but in fact, few CSC winners who have only received partial scholarships which only cover one or some items of the full scholarship. This situation also is mentioned on CSC official website. 

The CSC programs for undergraduates are only taught in Chinese. To be honest, it’s not easy to learn Chinese well even you get full scholarship in China. Every year, some students' scholarships were canceled because it is too difficult to pass the final exam as they study their major in Chinese medium. So please consider your language skills carefully before applying. If you want to apply for full scholarship in China on a graduate program, then both Chinese and English taught courses available with CSC.

The Confucius Institute Scholarship is set up to promote the Chinese language, spread Chinese culture, and train qualified Chinese language teachers and Chinese language talents. If you are very interested in Chinese, you can consider such a scholarship. For more details, please click on the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship Application System then you will know how to get admission to the Confucius Institute Scholarship.

For new students, Local Government Scholarship and School Scholarship with stiped are also good options and there is less competition compared with CSC. But again, there will be more chances of full scholarships for graduate students, especially for doctoral students. Even in some schools, all doctors are on full scholarships as long as you get in. Among the scholarships that undergraduates can apply for, partial scholarships are in the mainstream. Partial scholarship conditions vary from school to school, from type to type, even from major to major. Full Tuition fee, half tuition-free, dorm free only, etc. may happen when you apply for a full scholarship in China. To find the course that suits you, the more scholarship information you get before applying, the more helpful it will be.

Chinese Government Scholarship-Chinese University Program Application Procedures and Requirements

Chinese Government Scholarships include these types of scholarships: Bilateral Program, Chinese University Program, Great Wall Program, EU Program, AUN Program, PIF Program, WMO Program, Marine Program, MOFCOM Program, and Chinese Trade Unions Silk Road etc. Applicants shall apply to the designated organization such as dispatching authorities for overseas study of their home countries, National Commissions for UNESCO in their home countries, Chinese Embassy, etc. For specific information and CSC scholarship coverage and standard, please refer to the Introduction to Chinese Government Scholarship. What postgraduate applicants can apply directly to Chinese universities is【Chinese Government Scholarship-Chinese University Program】. How to apply for CSC Chinese University Program? 

The steps to apply Chinese Government Scholarship-Chinese University Program:

1. Search and find your target university and major at the CSC application website and check at the school official website for double confirmation whether that major still available for CSC
2. Prepare all documents that need to be submitted (Application Documents Sample & Standard for Applying for Chinese Universities)
3. Apply to the official website of the target school as required
4. Create an account on the Chinese Government Scholarship Information System
5. Input Personal Details
6. Input Application Information (refer to Chinese Universities Agency Number List)
7. Download Application Form
8. Delivery application documents to the school according to the university requirements
9. Follow the website information and wait for the results

What are the CSC application requirements?

1. Applicants must be non-Chinese nationals and be in good health with designated medical examination report.
2. Master applicants should not be older than 35 years old and have a bachelor degree. 
3. Doctoral applicants should have a master's degree and no more than 40 years old.
4. Language skills certificate such as HSK certificates, IELTS or TOFEL certificate.
5. Applicants under the age of 18 should submit the valid documents of their legal guardians in China.
6. Never had a criminal record.

When to apply to CSC in China?

The application time is usually from the beginning of January to April. Please contact the relevant school for the specific application duration.

How to Apply Non-CSC Full Scholarship to Study in China?

We can find that not all scholarship information from all over China and the latest news can always be found on campuschina website. And among these scholarships, it is difficult to quickly find which ones are full scholarships. So where can we find this kind of scholarship information easily? We can go to some company websites which work on studying in China and get full scholarship in China to search. I can recommend one of the most reliable Website with the latest and most comprehensive information I've ever seen. They also offer free consulting services, which is very friendly. 

In my personal experience, most provincial government scholarships and school scholarships can be applied from the school's official application website only except Shanghai and Jiangsu provincial government scholarships, although some schools don't run their websites well, or don't even have an online application system lol. In this case, we may need an agent to help with information and admission if you want to get full scholarship in China.

You’d better start preparing application documents in winter and send your documents to related institutions or agencies by April. The deadlines for most local government scholarships are in June. No full scholarships are supposed to be simple to get but your chance would be better if you have followed the right procedure and your language skills and exam performance are excellent. You’d better check the details of university scholarships carefully before applying since the requirements vary from school to school.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Applying for Scholarships through Agents

If getting a full scholarship in China is much more important for you than the teaching medium and university ranking, then get the right major and university to apply to is the key point for you to get a better success rate. If you have enough time and knowledge about applying to China university on full scholarship, you can apply by yourself. But some of us may don’t know what to do to get full scholarship in China even after reading this article or don’t have much time to apply by self. Then you can choose to take the service of admission agent, who can provide you the newest school information, clearest guide, and reasonable price as well. And the point is that most universities will firstly check and choose students with agent recommendations as agents help the schools organize documents and select the excellent students first and agents are experienced enough to smooth the process. But please be clear that more and more school will not give confirmed scholarship seats to any agent, which means, the agent can recommend students and have some privileges but that’s the school that can decide which student to give scholarship to. Never trust any agent or institution that tells you they can guarantee the scholarship seats for you no matter how much your GPA is and overcharge you. And be noted please, if someone you don’t know at all told you he can get your admission with scholarship in several days even without your documents completed, then he must a scammer! About how to identify a scammer, we can discuss it properly next time.

How to make an application plan suitable for yourself

As we all know, what suits us is the best. If you have very good academic performance, then full scholarship is approachable for you. Apply CSC at the proper time and choose your three universities with different levels of ranking and can apply non-CSC of other universities at the same time to secure the seats as well. If you still have time until the next application opens, you can try to get a good language certificate like HSK, IELTS, or TOEFL. But if your GPA isn’t that good, maybe you can also apply for some partial scholarships as supplementary options, which also have an easier application process and faster result announcement. What’s more, even if you don’t gain any scholarship as a new student, you will have a chance to apply for a scholarship from the 2nd year of university course as a current student.

Alright, hope my writing is easy to understand. Thanks for your time! Hope you can get full scholarship in China soon!

The application time is usually from the beginning of January to April. Please contact the relevant school for the specific application duration.