Real people, real scholarships, real savings.
Every outcome below shows the Crossroads intervention that made the difference — and the rough agent fee + funding it unlocked for the family.
“I had never heard of Erasmus until Crossroads. Six months later, I was on a plane.”
Crossroads shortlisted 4 consortia that matched her CGPA + statement, drafted her motivation letter, ran a mock interview.
“No agent would take my calls. I used the checklist, wrote the emails myself, and got an NSERC offer.”
Mentor (Crossroads alum, now a postdoc in Toronto) reviewed his outreach to 6 NSERC-funded labs.
“The difference was knowing which scholarships actually fund living costs, not just tuition.”
Crossroads filtered out 3 'partial' awards and pointed her at the full-stipend Hungarian track.
“My supervisor said she gets 200 emails a year. Mine was the one she replied to because it was specific.”
Crossroads paired her with a mentor in the same lab who co-edited her outreach email line-by-line.
“I applied to three places. Two said yes. I chose the one that fit my research, not the one that paid an agent.”
Crossroads matched her interests to 3 NWO-funded supervisors and verified each had open seats.
“The mentorship call before my interview changed everything. I knew what they would ask before they asked it.”
Two prep sessions with a Crossroads alum who won the same Commonwealth award in 2021.
“I thought funded study was for other people. Turns out it just takes the right list and a few well-timed emails.”
Crossroads built her a 6-week timeline against the Swiss embassy deadline, edited 2 drafts of her research proposal.
“My family borrowed for undergrad. For my master's, I flew on a scholarship with a monthly stipend.”
Crossroads matched her to a DAAD EPOS-eligible programme and connected her to two alumni already enrolled.
Outcomes from the Crossroads fellowship since 2018. Names shown with consent; others anonymised. Agent fees are typical local market rates at the time of placement.
How we verify outcomes
Our impact figures come from the documented Crossroads fellowship, which has guided students since 2018. The mentors who verify matches are real alumni who won comparable scholarships and now guide the next cohort. Every match you see inside the product is generated live, in real time, from your profile against our curated funded-programme database.
Real guidance, real outcomes.
I didn't know where to start. Two months later I had an acceptance letter and a flight booked.
Every agent I contacted quoted ₦400k. I did this myself for free and got funded.
The matched list saved me from applying to scholarships that don't cover living costs.
The outreach draft was the difference between being ignored and getting a reply in 48 hours.
Testimonials shared with consent from Crossroads-guided students. Names may be anonymised where requested.
Logos shown as monogram marks — full partner brand guidelines respected on request.
In pilot conversations with faculty at the University of Alberta, University of Toronto, University of Maryland, Simon Business School (University of Rochester), and Flinders University.
How we reach students — all the way to the district level
Our reach goes to the district level through clubs in schools, colleges and universities. With Rokomari.com — Bangladesh's leading book site — we've sent 20,000+ Bengali guidebooks on studying abroad with scholarships across all 64 districts. QR codes inside bring readers to ScholarMatch, where they take on-demand Bengali lessons, use our tools, or attend a divisional event — we ran 18 in the last six months, where nearly 4,000 students tried ScholarMatch.
A trusted, Bengali-first funnel from a rural bookshelf to a funded scholarship — at near-zero cost per student.
Every district counts. The dots above mark towns where a Crossroads guidebook, QR scan, or in-person event has put ScholarMatch in a student's hand — including rural districts no agency reaches.
This is the funnel we built before the AI existed. The AI just makes it scale to the next 200,000 students without changing the unit economics.
A bright student in Dhaka — or Lagos, or a town no agency reaches — has the grades. They just never apply.
They can't afford a 1.5–2 lakh agent. They can't trust a foreign chatbot with the biggest decision of their life. The funded path is slow and lonely to find.
The money to teach her already exists; she and that funding just never meet.
So she never applies.
You, at home, in control — no middleman.
Field, research interests, scores, CV. Takes a few minutes.
A ranked list of fully-funded scholarships, programmes and professors that fit you — each with a 'why this match' line tied to real funded outcomes.
A tailored draft for each match. You review and send it yourself. Track replies in one place.
Outreach is assisted: you review and send every email. ScholarMatch AI is deliberately not a bulk-blast tool — quality is the point.
Find the right student — not 400 cold emails.
ScholarMatch AI works both ways. Professors with funded MSc and PhD seats post their criteria; we surface them to students whose academic profile actually fits. In pilot conversations with faculty at the University of Alberta, University of Toronto, University of Maryland, Simon Business School (University of Rochester), and Flinders University.
- Publish a funded position and the criteria you actually care about
- Receive a pre-screened shortlist of motivated, well-matched applicants
- Skip the inbox flood — every applicant has a verified academic profile
12 pre-screened applicants · 4 shortlisted by mentors
7 pre-screened applicants · 2 interviews scheduled
Hard-to-fake proof, not AI hype.
Anyone can spin up an AI wrapper this week. They can't spin up the mentors, the alumni network, or the data underneath this.
Replace the 1.5–2 lakh gatekeeper with software you can use from your bedroom, at about ⅛ the cost.
South Asia, Africa, beyond. South-to-South by design, not a Western import.
Trained on what actually got students funded since 2018 — data no global tool has.
Real humans who walked the path review and verify the matches we surface.
Reverse brain drain: every student we send out lifts the next.
Our alumni are now on Erasmus scholarships, US-funded PhDs, and at universities across 20+ countries. Many come back as mentors and verify matches for the next cohort.
The moat: a competitor can copy the AI tomorrow. They can't copy 2,000 students who trust us and the mentors who came back.
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Low-income student applies, self-serve
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Wins a funded scholarship abroad
- 3
Returns as a mentor, verifies new matches
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Network + data grow, the next student wins faster
The first place any talented, low-income student in the global South turns to find their scholarship.
We started in Bangladesh. Today the same software helps low-income students across South Asia and Africa find funded master's and PhD opportunities they would otherwise never hear about — the same regions where talent is dense and funded pathways are scarce.
South-to-South, by design. We add new countries as mentors return.
Expert guidance once locked behind 1.5-lakh agents, now free at entry.
A woman leads our operations, and our mentor-shortlisted pipelines surface women applicants who never reach an agent's desk.
A self-funded business — BDT 24 lakh earned, no outside funding — turning funded degrees into research jobs and high-skill careers.
A free tier and sponsored seats mean income and postcode no longer decide a student's odds.
I self-served my own scholarship path from Bangladesh — then kept doing it for other people, by hand, for years before AI existed.
I'm Sadid Bin Hasan. I left a job abroad in 2019 to start Crossroads Initiative after seeing what the agency system costs a low-income family — and how few people the agencies actually serve.
Since 2018 we have guided 2,000+ students by hand and reached 100,000+ through seminars. ScholarMatch AI turns what worked into software, so the next 200,000 don't have to wait.
Operations and partnerships lead. Previously at BIPSS (Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies). Runs the mentor network and faculty pilots.
A social enterprise, not a pitch deck.
Crossroads Initiative is an established Bangladeshi social enterprise, operating since 2018 — earned as a business, no donor dependency. ScholarMatch AI turns proven human mentorship into self-serve software for low-income students worldwide.
Visit crossroads-initiative.comA price that doesn't block the start — and stands behind the finish.
Three tiers, one promise: every student can begin, and a guided option costs a fraction of what an agent charges — with no commission and no subscription.
Your first ranked shortlist + matching, so cost never blocks the start.
Start freeThe full guided journey: complete scholarship and university matching, the exact professor to approach, polished outreach, and a mentor who stands behind your plan. About one-eighth of an agent's 1.5–2 lakh fee — no commission, no subscription.
Get the full productSchools, NGOs and diaspora donors sponsor seats — so a student who can't afford it still gets all the way in.
We're paid for outcomes reached, never for placing a student.
Short questions, plain answers.
Is this an agency?
How is this different from ChatGPT or a free AI tool?
Do you guarantee a scholarship?
Is my data safe?
Is it really free to start?
Sign in and see your ranked funded matches in under a minute.
Free to use. No agent, no middleman. We never email professors on your behalf — you review and send every outreach.