Funded Study Abroad — The Whole Toolkit, Free
Funded Study Abroad — The Whole Toolkit, FreeEverything to land a funded Master’s or PhD abroad: the essays, the test prep, the scholarship databases, even the tools that read research papers for you. New to all this or already deep in it — it’s all here, nothing paywalled.
Starter kit — CV · SOP · GRE · GMAT · IELTS · TOEFL · Letter to Prof · Reference letter · Research Proposal · Visa answers → 
HOTSPOT folder
Everything else sorted below 
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🎓 The winners' folders — exact essays, timelines & accept/reject stats from people already in
(repo = a public folder on GitHub, the site coders share work on)
- pliang279/awesome-phd-advice — master index of grad-app threads + funding docs.
- shaily99/advice — huge stash of application + PhD advice.
- chinasatokolo/csGraduateApps — materials + list of fee-waiving departments.
- gwisk/gradguide — STEM PhD guide, big fellowships walked step by step.
- jedyang97/awesome-cs-phd-application-advice — advice from the profs who decide.
- helenahartmann/awesome-PhD — everything to know before you start.
- poloclub/awesome-grad-school — survival guide + fellowship lists.
- kirklong/GradSchoolResources — one full submitted packet, honest stats attached.
- alirezasamar/awesome-phd — tight curated prep tips.
📝 Real accepted SOPs — the actual files people got in with, not blank templates
(SOP = statement of purpose, the essay answering: why you, why this program)
- siddu1998/Graduate-Admissions — one person’s real SOPs across many schools + 2 cycles.
- Dieselmarble/PhD-Application — SOP + personal-statement samples, plus profs’ research statements.
- Swapnil-Gandhi/SoP-Template — free-to-reuse layout with a finished example.
- ljfranklin/SOP — a real essay under version control; watch it evolve.
- ducalpha/SOP_Generator — spits out one tailored essay per school.
- Annotated SOP (5-offer admit) — line-by-line from a Berkeley/MIT/UW admit.
- Annotated SOP (do / don’t) — another paragraph-by-paragraph teardown.
- Live SOP feed — new templates + per-field variants as they drop.
🤖 Bots that read the research papers so you don't have to — most run free on your own machine
(self-hosted = runs on your laptop, nothing uploaded; RAG = lets an AI read your own files and answer from them)
- paper-qa — point at a PDF folder → cited answers (flags retracted papers).
- Awesome-Auto-Research-Tools — the master menu of every auto-research tool.
- AI-Scientist — full pipeline: idea → experiment → written paper.
- AI-Research-SKILLs — turns your AI coding assistant into a research agent.
- assisted-literature-review — free lit-review stack, zero paid service.
- openpaper.dev — open thesis writer, cited drafts, exports Word/PDF/LaTeX.
- Live research-assistant feed — new research-assistant tools as they land.
- Live lit-review-tool feed — systematic-review / evidence-synthesis tools.
- Live paper-writing feed — paper/thesis-writing agents.
🗄️ Talk to your own pile of PDFs like it's a person who read all of it
- khoj-ai/khoj — feed it thousands of PDFs/notes → chat + auto lit-review.
- mintplex-labs/anything-llm — “own-your-ChatGPT,” drop in docs, minutes to set up.
- VectifyAI/OpenKB — PDFs/links → a wiki you can question, even turn into slides.
💰 Where free tuition + a monthly stipend actually hide (real databases, not blog lists)
(fully-funded = they cover tuition AND pay you to be there)
- EURAXESS Jobs — 1,500+ salaried PhD/research posts, 40+ countries, non-EU welcome.
- DAAD Scholarship Database — Germany’s official funding list.
- Scholars4Dev — scholarships open to international + developing-country students.
- anu0012/awesome-computer-science-opportunities — big open fellowship/scholarship list.
- Live fully-funded feed — applicant-built funding trackers.
- Live scholarships feed — broader scholarship-repo feed.
🎯 Find the professor who has funding + an open seat (skip the ones who ignore you)
- ApplyKite — surfaces profs matching your interests with recent funding / open spots.
- Applyindex — academic résumé builder + structured prof-outreach.
📚 IELTS / TOEFL / GRE / GMAT prep without paying the racket
(Anki = free flashcard app that shows a word right before you’d forget it)
- cdla/anki_gre_vocab — auto-builds a GRE flashcard deck.
- castrovictor/TOEFL-vocabulary-flashcards — ready-made TOEFL deck.
- surajk95/wordsta — GRE/TOEFL/IELTS practice + raw word lists.
- Live IELTS feed — Cambridge dumps, 45-day plans, band-boost apps.
- Live TOEFL/GRE word feed — high-frequency word repos, many bilingual.
- AnkiWeb shared decks — thousands of free decks; search GRE / TOEFL / IELTS.
🌍 The inside knowledge outsiders never get handed (first-gen · international · low-income)
- nlp-phd-global-equality — resources to close the info gap, country-by-country pages.
- dynaroars/phd-cs-us — how US admissions really decide + faculty/program explorer.
- ghousetazeem/Masters-Abroad-Guide — whole journey: tests → essays → visa paperwork.
- jbhuang0604/awesome-tips — pro tips: research, writing, replying to reviewers.
- CSRankings — ranks schools by what profs actually publish → build a real shortlist.
🌏 Every program per country + the leaked admit results (see who got in before you apply)
- MyGermanUniversity — commission-free database of ~24,000 German programs (many free).
- uni-assist — the office that pre-checks int’l apps for 180+ German unis.
- Yocket — India’s biggest platform; finder uses past admits from profiles like yours.
- LeverageEdu — course finder + country/visa/money guides.
- 1Point3Acres — Chinese-language forum, a decade of real admit + funding data (use translate).
- TheGradCafe — open database of who got admitted/rejected/interviewed, and when.
- Live study-abroad feed — open finders, comparators, offline prof/deadline trackers.
💥 The 'ohh shit, I could use this' moments
- Blank SOP, deadline in 3 days → open a folder of real accepted ones, copy the shape, done tonight.
- Can’t afford a $2,000 agent → the folder + these databases are the agent.
- Every professor ignores you → find the one with actual funding and an open seat, email that one.
- 80 papers to cite and no time → a bot reads them and hands you cited lines.
- No clue if your GPA even has a shot → check leaked admit results, see exactly who got in with what.
The whole pipeline — files, money, essays, reading, results — one post, zero paywall, works cold-start or mid-application.
The whole game runs on who knows what. Now you know everything they do.
Good news: the Core-Community AI just made the post above better.
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