Tuition is only one line in an international study budget. Build a realistic budget for visas, flights, housing, insurance and living costs.
Fully funded is not a universal accounting term. One programme may cover tuition, stipend and airfare; another may cover tuition and a monthly allowance but leave accommodation or visa expenses to the student. Gradometer therefore lists individual benefit categories rather than assuming every “fully funded” label means the same thing.
For example, HEC's current Omani scholarship announcement specifies tuition, a monthly stipend tied to accommodation, and one round-trip ticket per academic year.
Build the actual budget in the currency you will spend. Then convert the total into PKR as a planning view. Exchange rates move, so do not build a multi-year plan around a single exchange rate. Keep a small buffer for currency changes as well.
If Scholarship A gives a larger stipend but requires expensive housing, while Scholarship B provides a dormitory and a smaller stipend, B may leave you with more usable money. Compare the amount you must personally pay each month after guaranteed funding.
Fully funded rarely means every cost is covered, and the gap is where students get caught.
Budget separately for the application phase itself, which is real money spent before any funding exists. Test fees, attestation charges, translation, courier and the visa application all land in the same few months. Then add the arrival costs: a rental deposit, initial residence-permit fees, health insurance where the stipend does not include it, and the weeks of living expenses before your first payment clears.
That first payment is often later than you expect.
A monthly figure means nothing in isolation. Convert it into local rent plus food plus transport for the specific city, because the same national scholarship stretches very differently in a capital and in a regional university town.
Check whether accommodation is provided in kind or paid as an allowance. A dormitory place is a different financial proposition from a housing allowance that has to compete in a private rental market. Ask current students on the programme rather than relying on official cost-of-living estimates, which tend to be optimistic.
Student work rights vary widely and the scholarship terms can be stricter than the visa.
Some funded programmes prohibit paid work outright for the duration. Others permit a capped number of hours during term. A visa that allows twenty hours a week is irrelevant if your funding agreement forbids employment, and breaching that agreement can mean repayment.
Read both documents before you count on the income.
Run your own numbers with a calculator built on your university's actual grading scale.