So, universities give you two types of scholarships.

One is merit based scholarship which is given seeing your academic and professional achievements. It is similar to the scholarships people get in colleges of Nepal after SEE based on their GPA criteria.

Another one is need-based scholarships. Need-based scholarships are scholarships given to you based on your financial condition. During your application process, you’d be asked about your financial conditions and if you get accepted to universities which give full need-based scholarships(its hard), all of your financial need are covered by universities including your plane ticket, your stay and food for the 4 years, your tuition and they even provide money for plane ticket to other countries(including Nepal) during summer breaks, etc. These types of universities are the best universities like Ivy Leagues, Duke, Lehigh, etc.(List is long).

It’s kind of tricky, need-based scholarships are somewhat merit-based scholarships for Nepali students. Like to get accepted into the universities that give you full need based scholarship, you’d need to show some exceptional capabilities.

So, let me basically explain what do you need to get merit( and need-based scholarship). I haven’t gone to these universities so I cannot tell you much but I can give a rough direction for you to explore.

1. Exceptional academic record: People in Nepal like to discard the education system and say that GPA is not necessary for your future. I used to think that only and some part of me still thinks so but this thinking hurts you when you apply to US universities. Because no matter how smart or hardworking you are, your grades are the only proof university can see. So, if you are in your 11 and 12, please focus on your grades. At least aim for 3.6+. If you have passed grade 12, it's still okay. We will figure something out soon.
2. Good personal essays: It’s actually hard to define what personal essay really means because someone has written about Ludo, someone has written about their 2 personalities within them (Watch this video here). As Rachin dai says in the video, it's really vague. But what you really need to do is convey your story, convey your reasons why you deserve to be in that university and that can come in any form of content. I’ll give resources about what to really write good personal essays.
3. Good ECAs(Extracurricular Activities): ECAs are and should not be limited to your academic pursuit. If you have represented your country on an international level for sports or on Olympiads, if you have done something for a social cause like this here, or you have just taught some students in rural parts of the country, or you tried to create a startup (I meant club lol). All of them are ECAs. If you want to see what does an academically sound ECA looks like watch this website of Abhisekh dai here. Participate in Incubate Nepal, try to do some research, apply to Olympiads etc. I will talk about all of these stuffs in other articles. But for now just believe that anything of significance you have done for the world count as an ECA.

I’d like to say just one thing here, DO NOT DO ECAS FOR THE SAKE OF APPLICATION ALONE. Find your thing, until then, just keep exploring.