FFE Scholarship

In today’s world, where knowledge is the most precious asset that you can ever own, there are students who are deprived of quality education. Even the academically brilliant minds who come from financially constrained families have to sometimes leave their higher studies just because of the lack of funds. To support students and their families in reducing the financial burden, the government, banks and various organizations have come up with scholarship schemes and educational loans. This blog introduces you to one such scholarship for Indian students known as ‘FFE Scholarship’.

About Foundation for Excellence (FFE)

• Incorporated in 1994, Foundation for Excellence (FFE) is a publicly funded charitable organisation situated in California and established its Indian entity in 2003 which is known as Foundation for Excellence India Trust (FFEIT).
• FFE offers scholarship programs to avail financial aid to meritorious students from economically weaker families in order to provide them with the necessary monetary assistance for studying Engineering and Medicine programs in Indian academic institutions.
• Until now, FFE has provided more than 40,000 scholarships to students all across the country.

What is the FFE Scholarship?

Foundation For Excellence (FFE) Scholarship invites applications from meritorious students who wish to study professional degree courses in the technological, engineering and medical fields and need financial assistance. Since its inception in the year 1994 with more than ₹162 crore distributed for the FFE Scholarship scheme, over 57,449 students have been awarded the scholarship.

FFE Scholarship Eligibility Criteria

For the students to be eligible for the FFE Scholarship scheme, they need to fulfill certain eligibility requirements which have been elucidated in the following sections:

Academic Eligibility

The academic requirements for FFE Scholarship are as follows:

• Eligible degree courses for this scholarship are only BE/BTech as well as Integrated 5-year dual degree MTech courses and MBBS.
• Admission to professional degree programs or universities and institutes will be carried out on the basis of merit, i.e. the rank obtained by the student in the state or national level entrance exams or else on the basis of a counseling process which will be organised at the state level.
• The first-year students who have begun their BE/BTech or Integrated 5-year Dual degree MTech and MBBS are only ones eligible for the scholarship.
• Applicants must have completed their senior secondary or pre-university or intermediate or ISCE or CBSE or equivalent board exam after 2018 with a minimum of 70% marks.

Note: Diploma students taking B.E. or B.Tech courses on a lateral basis and B.Arch, B.Pharma and BDS students are not eligible.

Eligible JEE & NEET Ranks

FFE has also provided separate scores for eligibility for those wanting to pursue engineering courses (BE, BTech & integrated MTech) and Medicine, i.e. MBBS. The following paragraphs elucidate the ranks you need to get to apply for FFE scholarship:

• If you are aiming to pursue an Engineering degree at IITs, NITS, and institutes in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Nagaland, the admission will be carried on the basis of JEE Main Rank (Overall All India General or Common Merit Rank-Non category): 75,000
• For those opting for IITs, the other eligibility prerequisite you need to qualify is the Cutoff Rank in the JEE Advanced exam of the last ranked general category student who has been selected to any of the IITs.

If you are aiming to study an Engineering degree in any of the following states, the JEE rank you need to obtain is as follows:

States	Maximum Eligible Rank for FFE Scholarship
Delhi, Jharkhand, Assam, Puducherry, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar	600
Chandigarh, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Meghalaya	500
Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka	5,000
Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Chattisgarh	2,000

Eligibility for MBBS

Applicants need to appear for NEET exam to pursue an MBBS degree with FFE scholarship and must score the maximum qualifying rank (Overall India-Common Merit Rank; not in any category) under 40,000.

Financial Status & Income Eligibility for FFE Scholarship

For the criteria regarding income and financial status, the most important requisite is that the annual income of the parents or guardian of the applicant must be less than 2.5 lakhs (income before any tax deduction, etc.). Further, another thing that would be considered for an FFE scholarship is the education as well as the occupation of the parents and family members [ inclusive of their elder sister(s) and brother(s)] which will include their family conditions and expenses incurred on the candidate’s education. Preference will be over those graduating first in the family than those who are a second or third child of the family to pursue a bachelor’s degree. The documents for financial income proof as per different categories have been listed in the next section.

For more information on eligibility, you can visit the official site of the Foundation For Excellence Scholarship here. 

Documents Required for FFE Scholarship

If you are interested in enrolling yourself with the Foundation For Excellence Scholarship, then there are certain documents that you need to submit. Here is a list of the key documents to be submitted:

1. Marksheet of both class X and XII
2. Bonafide Certificate from the college/institute
3. Rank Certificate
4. Counseling Letter for Seat Allotment
5. A Copy of the Bank Passbook for Bank Account Details Confirmation
6. Tuition, Hostel and Mess Payment Receipts
7. Statement of the Estimated Expenses from the College/Institute

Also Read: Difference between B.E. and BTech

Other Important Documents

• For Salaried Parents: Last 3 months’ salary slips issued by the employer/company.
• For Self-employed Parents: Income Certificate issued by any government authority or Income Tax Return specifying the gross family income
• For Retired Parents: A Pension Statement issued from the authorized bank showing the gross monthly pension along with an appropriate reason for retirement and the number of lump-sum benefits obtained at the time of retirement. 
• For Parents who are Agriculturalists, Cultivators or Farmers: Income Certificate issued by a competent or recognized authority along with the details of size and nature of landholding crops grown.

Application Process

We have formulated simple steps for hassle-free scholarship application. Have a look at those steps:

1. Visit the official website of the FFE Scholarship.
2. Carefully fill in the basic and academic details.
3. Once done with your application, the FFE Facilitators will get in touch with you after checking your eligibility factor.
4. Wait till the results are declared.

Selection Procedure

The students are selected for the FFE Scholarship scheme based on the fulfillment of the above-stated eligibility criteria. The FFE coordinators or facilitators will reach out to the selected candidates and instruct them with further procedures. Shortlisted students will be provided with all kinds of financial assistance during their course duration. 

Other Popular Scholarships

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• Ratan Tata Scholarship for Engineering Students
• Scholarships for Indian Students to Study in the UK
• Top Scholarships for Indian Students To Study Abroad
• GRE Scholarships

Apart from just supporting the financial requirements of the scholars, Foundation For Excellence provides soft-skills training to enhancing the skills of future engineers. We hope that this blog helped you in understanding the significance of FFE Scholarship scheme and its role in providing financial aid to Indian students. If you’re looking for the right scholarship that suits your chosen course and university, our experts at Leverage Edu can guide you in finding the best scholarship that can support your dreams of studying abroad.