College scholarships for 3,500 HS graduates

The Department of Science and Technology is offering scholarships to some 3,500 high school graduates nationwide for the first semester of the year in a bid to develop highly trained S&T professionals.

A total of 21,452 senior students will take the qualifying examinations on Sunday in 115 testing centers all over the country.

The DOST said the examinees come from the upper five percent of the entire graduating class of their respective schools and intend to pursue science-related or science-teaching degrees in college.

The degrees the scholarship qualifiers could take are agricultural chemistry, biochemistry, biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, chemistry teaching, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, electronics and communications engineering, food technology, industrial engineering, information technology, materials engineering, mathematics, mathematics teaching, mechanical engineering, molecular biology and biotechnology, physics, physics teaching, and statistics.

The DOST said the scholars will enjoy tuition and other school fees of up to P6,000 per semester; book allowance of P3,000 per academic year; Physical Education or National Service Training Program uniform allowance of P500; free economy-class roundtrip fare for those studying outside their home province; monthly living allowance of P4,000 for those pursuing physics and physics teaching courses, and P3,000 for those in other DOST-SEI priority courses; group health and accident insurance; and post-graduation clothing allowance.

The scholars are required to take up summer classes, thus getting a monthly living allowance, tuition and other school fees not to exceed P1,500 and book allowance not to exceed P500.

After graduation, the scholars are bound to serve in the country – but not necessarily in the government – corresponding to the number of years they enjoyed the scholarship. The graduating scholars could also avail themselves of scholarships for graduate studies.