How to use this?
This wasn't here before; I added it here for a simple reason: you might get lost and not know what to do.
In this page, I'll try to explain to you simply what you should do to get into your desired Russian university with a scholarship/grant.
So first we'll assume you have some universities in mind; if not, some googling along with watching a few YouTube videos will be enough and probably won't take you more than 20 minutes to do; once you've done that, you can read along.
Ways?
I used to say there are two ways to study for free in Russia; it turns out there are three:
The university you have in mind must have at least one of these ways; if not, recheck if it's located in Russia.
I'll make a brief explanation of what each one is.
Scholarships
As simple as it may sound, it's just like many other scholarships: you just need a high GPA (in your years of studying at school) and achievements in the field you're applying for; for example, if I'm applying for a computer science degree (which I assume most of you do), it'd help me if I had won any programming competitions; it'd help more if that competition was from the university I'm applying for (more on that later), and so on.
I have to note that as of what I've seen, read, and watched, and from much emailing of universities, I noticed that unlike countries like the USA, Russian universities don't value volunteering and proving you have a leadership personality; if you're smart, you can study for free.
The most popular examples of scholarships are obviously Russian Government Scholarships.
And no, OpenDoors isn't a scholarship; hence it isn't included here.
Olympiads
This is the simplest one of the 3; you study, solve tasks, and you'll be studying for free.
To understand the definition better, since our definition of olympiad is different than the Russian definition of olympiad, formally, we can say that an olympiad is a competition, conducted by an educational institution; in our case, we focus on olympiads conducted by universities or institutes.
The point of participating is—obviously—awards; it could be simply being able to enroll in the university without entrance exams (winning an olympiad will make it as if you've passed the exam of the subject of the olympiad with a 100, so if you won the mathematics olympiad, it's as if you passed the maths entrance exam with 100 points), or you can get a full scholarship, or even more: a scholarship along with a monthly stipend (aka salary).
The reason this is so simple is because the tasks of the Olympiad are usually easy; I'm not really sure why, but it is.
The only problem is that to be able to participate in the more useful Olympiads, you need knowledge of Russian; you don't have to be proficient; you just need to learn the words used in the subject you're applying for, and even subjects like programming that require general knowledge of the language still don't need you to be proficient (I wrote an Olympiad in Russian in programming when my level was around A2/B1, and I understood all tasks). You just need to be able to understand it.
Lastly, the most popular example of an Olympiad is Open Doors, which some people mistake for a scholarship. In terms of our definition of a scholarship and an Olympiad, Open Doors is an Olympiad. You can also see more at Olympiads.
Entrance exams
Lastly, the hardest option, for several reasons, some of them are:
Probably requires knowledge of Russian, because you'll probably need to take exams in Russian (that is, an exam in the Russian language, not that the language of the exam is Russian).
Not all universities provide grants for passing entrance exams, and not all universities allow Egyptians to enter through entrance exams anyways (if any even exist).
What's an institute?
An institute (институт, in Russian): Is like a university but focused on one specialty. I myself don't understand this fully, so if you can help improve this definition, contact me, because MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) has computer science programs, while something like the University of Innopolis only focuses on robotics and IT (?).
Again, how?
So, enough of all these definitions; how do I apply?
Assuming you've probably chosen a few universities to apply to, you should do the following (preferably in May or before in the year before your year of graduation):
1. Find Olympiads in the university that allow international students to participate.
Usually any Olympiad conducted online would allow international students; it's just a matter of whether all stages are conducted online or not. If yes, then you may be lucky enough to get the chance to enroll in the university without any applications, just by proving your skills in an Olympiad.
The reason I said to email them in May is because most Olympiads are held in the time between November and April, and winning the Olympiad will allow you to enroll in November the next year (or the year after if you're an 11th grader), so asking in May should give you enough time to prepare.
As I've said above, knowledge of Russian will help you participate in many more Olympiads, and they'll also have less competition, thus making it easy for you to win.
Also note that even if the Olympiad doesn't give you a grant, it's still helpful when applying for a scholarship because you can show them that they themselves tested your skills in the specialty you're applying for.
2. Find scholarships made BY the university and ask about entrance exams/applications.
Other than the Russian government scholarship and opendoors, some universities have their own scholarship programs that you can apply for; sometimes this can be by submitting an application or by taking entrance exams. Either way, you should check if the university has this option, as it improves your chances.
When asking about entrance exams, you should also probably ask about:
- Whether it's possible to take exams online
- Whether it's possible to take exams in English
- What are the mandatory exams for applying for x (assuming x is the specialty you want to study)?
- Whether grants or stipends are given for passing the exam
- Also don't forget to tell them where you're from 😃
You have to email the university and check their website, because in some cases you can still get a full scholarship just by applying and having a good portfolio.
All of this information can be simply obtained by emailing the university or checking their website. I don't know anything, so I wouldn't advise you asking me about whether university X gives grants for passing entrance exams or not.
Wrap up
So to conclude, just make a list of universities you like, check information on their site, and if you still have questions or didn't understand something, email their international admissions (or just admissions) email, and they'll provide you with all the information you need.
If you still need further assistance, I don't mind helping with how's; you can ask here.
Sorry if this was too long; I tried to give the lower bound of information enough for you to understand what's what and how's how.