Dear applicant,
Welcome to the Ukraine Global Scholars application. Despite the war, we are committed to continuing our mission to provide the best education opportunities to Ukrainian youth with the aim of making Ukraine a prosperous country. With that in mind, the UGS program conditions have changed, with the changes underlined. Please review the guidance below carefully.
Logistics:
1. Make sure to review the Admissions page on our website to ensure you understand the eligibility requirements and the structure of the admissions process.
2. You will need more than one day to prepare all required documents and essays. Please do not wait until the last minute and plan ahead. Now that many parts of Ukraine experience problems with Wi-Fi connection, it is essential to be prepared and submit early. The application deadline is 23:59 March 17, 2025, Kyiv time.
3. You can save and return to your application anytime, but you WON'T be able to change your application after hitting the "SUBMIT" button.
Truthfulness and accuracy:
1. Answer our questions honestly. We receive hundreds of applications each year and can assure you that we can sense copy/paste answers from a mile away. The only way to stand out is to be YOU and write all the answers manually by yourself. We are not OK with you using ChatGPT or similar AI tools to create essays and answers. Those tools do not deliver the highly personalized stories and individual reflections we are looking for. We can spot this quickly by using tools that identify artificially generated text and by relying on our experience. If we notice that you have copied your essays or any other part of your application from someone else or the Internet, including an LLM, we will never consider your application again.
2. Providing untrue or inaccurate information at any stage of the process could jeopardize your status as a UGS finalist and will result in your suspension from the program.
Current age and enrollment:
1. If you are 14 or 15 years old, from a modest background, and dream of becoming our finalist, however, your English level or academic achievements are not strong enough to become the UGS finalist this year, you can still apply to UGS. We will look at your profile and may offer you a place in the UGS Junior cohort consisting of ~15 students who are not ready to apply to the world's best institutions this year but have great potential. Starting in September, they follow another curriculum that prepares them to become the UGS finalists next year. UGS Jr program does not guarantee admission to UGS the following year.
2. Starting this year, we are limiting our boarding school track to 15 students annually, with many of these spots reserved for students from our UGS Junior preparatory program. As a result, there will be fewer openings for the boarding school track, leading to increased competition for students currently in the 8th, 9th, or 10th grade who wish to join the boarding school before applying to colleges with us. Nonetheless, we strongly encourage you to apply to UGS. Depending on your age and application, you may either join our Junior Program for one year or proceed directly to apply to colleges with our guidance (provided you graduate high school in 2026). Additionally, applying to UGS can serve as valuable practice for future applications to the world’s top schools or colleges, should you decide to do so independently.
3. We realize that many students have left Ukraine amid the invasion. If you study at a high school abroad and want to attend school or college through UGS, you are welcome to apply. However, we will prioritize students who are located physically in Ukraine.
Application advice:
1. Although all parts of the application are important, essays are our favorite part. This is the place to express something unique about yourself that other application parts cannot show. Please spend a lot of time preparing your essays and use spell check to eliminate obvious mistakes.
2. Use close to the maximum number of allowed characters for the required essays and short answers. If we give you 3000 characters, we want to see a complete and well-structured answer.
3. If you have any unusual circumstances you want us to know about, please describe them in the last section of the application, titled "Optional Explanation." Don't be shy or afraid. We are very understanding, and our goal is to help you. Having all the necessary context is crucial to a fair admission process.
4. When listing your academic and extracurricular competitions, please DO NOT include school-level awards. For big cities, start with the district (rayon) level; for smaller towns, start with the city level.
Future considerations:
1. Be advised that if you are chosen as a UGS finalist, you commit to participating in SAT/Duolingo English Test online classes in June/July and the 10-day UGS boot camp in Ukraine in July/August 2025.
2. For the 2025 admissions, the updated return policy requires an immediate return to Ukraine after graduation for at least five years, with a $25,000 compensation to Ukraine Global Scholars applied to those who choose not to return. Finalists may utilize OPT (Optional Practical Training) in the US or an equivalent in another country for up to two years after graduating from the university; however, failure to return after this period will result in an increased compensation of $50,000. Additionally, pursuing a two-year postgraduate degree in engineering or STEM is permitted, but finalists who do not return immediately after completing their master’s program will also be required to pay $50,000 in compensation to Ukraine Global Scholars.
Other notes:
1. Please note that UGS supports applicants from modest backgrounds only, typically with a gross annual income of less than $35K. If your family income is significantly above this level, we won't be able to offer you a place, but you can consider our partner organization ASSIST. Also, do not forget about alternative educational opportunities. Consider applying to our partner organizations, like Ukrainian Leadership Academy and Svitlo School, and keep working on improving your English with ENGin.
2. You cannot apply to UGS if you are a Competitive College Club (CCC) Cohort 2025 finalist. As the purpose of CCC is similar to that of UGS, which is to provide help during the application process, you cannot participate in both organizations.
3. If you have been a participant in the social project "Iron Squad" ("Zalizna Zmina"), please mention your participation in the question regarding your Extracurricular Achievements.
4. If you have any questions about this application, please email info@ugs.foundation or send a direct message to our Instagram or Facebook.
Good luck! We look forward to receiving your application!
The application deadline is 23:59 March 17, 2025, Kyiv Time.
Slava Ukraini!
Ukraine Global Scholars Team