Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan. - I hope to get a research scholarship next year.

Correct, natural:
- Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa.
- Saya berharap lulus ujian. (I hope to pass the exam.)
With untuk:
- Saya berharap untuk mendapat beasiswa.

The version with untuk is not strictly wrong, but it sounds more formal/bookish and less natural in everyday speech. In most cases, native speakers just say berharap + verb with no untuk.

So: Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan is the most natural everyday style.

What is the difference between mendapat and mendapatkan here? Could I say mendapatkan beasiswa riset?

Both are possible:

mendapat beasiswa riset
mendapatkan beasiswa riset

Differences:

Meaning
- In this context, they mean essentially the same: to get / receive a scholarship.
- mendapatkan can in some contexts emphasize obtaining something (sometimes with more effort), but that nuance is often weak or absent in casual use.
Style
- mendapat is slightly shorter and very common.
- mendapatkan can feel a bit more formal or complete, and is very common in written language.

In your sentence, both are fine:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
Saya berharap mendapatkan beasiswa riset tahun depan.

The first one just sounds a bit simpler and more conversational.

Why is there no future marker like akan before mendapat even though the meaning is “I hope to get a research scholarship next year”?

Indonesian usually doesn’t need a future marker if the time expression already shows the future.

tahun depan (next year) already tells us this is about the future.
Indonesian verbs do not change for tense, so mendapat can be past, present, or future depending on context.

You could say:

Saya berharap akan mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.

This is still correct and a bit more explicit/formal, but akan is optional here. The original sentence is already perfectly natural.

Could I move tahun depan to another position, like Tahun depan saya berharap… or … beasiswa riset saya berharap tahun depan?

Yes, tahun depan is flexible, but some positions are more natural than others.

Most natural options:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
Tahun depan saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset.

Less common but still acceptable in some contexts (for emphasis or style):

Saya tahun depan berharap mendapat beasiswa riset.
(Sounds slightly marked/poetic, puts extra emphasis on tahun depan.)

This one is unnatural:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset saya tahun depan.
… beasiswa riset saya berharap tahun depan.

You generally keep tahun depan close to the verb phrase whose time it describes, or at the beginning of the sentence as a time frame:

[Tahun depan], [saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset].

What’s the difference between berharap and mengharapkan? Could I say Saya mengharapkan mendapat beasiswa…?

berharap and mengharapkan are related but not always interchangeable.

berharap
- Often used with a clause (what you hope will happen) or a verb:
  - Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa.
  - Saya berharap dia datang.
- Very common and neutral.
mengharapkan
- More often takes a noun object:
  - Saya mengharapkan beasiswa. (I expect/hope for a scholarship.)
  - Kami mengharapkan bantuan Anda.
- Can sound a bit stronger, sometimes closer to “expect” than just “hope”.

Saya mengharapkan mendapat beasiswa… is grammatically possible but sounds less natural. You’d more likely say:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
Saya mengharapkan beasiswa riset tahun depan.

The first is the most natural way to express “I hope to get a research scholarship next year.”

Could I use ingin instead of berharap? What’s the difference in meaning?

Yes, but the nuance changes.

berharap = to hope (there is an element of uncertainty and wish)
- Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa.
  → I hope I will get a scholarship.
ingin = to want (desire, wish, not necessarily about probability)
- Saya ingin mendapat beasiswa.
  → I want to get a scholarship.

So:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
= You hope it will happen but you’re not sure.
Saya ingin mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
= You clearly want it; it’s more about your desire than about hope/probability.

Both are correct; choose based on whether you mean “hope” or “want”.

What exactly does beasiswa riset mean? Is it different from beasiswa penelitian or beasiswa untuk riset?

All three refer to a scholarship related to research, but with slight stylistic differences:

beasiswa riset
- Literally: research scholarship.
- riset is a loanword from English “research” (via Dutch).
- Common, especially in academic/international contexts.
beasiswa penelitian
- Also: research scholarship.
- penelitian is the more original, formal Indonesian word for research.
- Often used in formal writing, official documents, proposals.
beasiswa untuk riset
- Literally: scholarship for research.
- Slightly more explicit because of untuk (“for”).
- Used when you want to emphasize the purpose.

In your sentence, beasiswa riset is natural and idiomatic; beasiswa penelitian would sound a little more formal but is also correct.

What do the prefixes ber- in berharap and men- in mendapat actually do?

They’re verb-forming prefixes attached to root words.

berharap
- Root: harap (hope, request, wish).
- Prefix: ber- (often forms intransitive verbs: doing/being something).
- berharap ≈ to hope.
mendapat
- Root: dapat (can; able; to get).
- Prefix: men- (a variant of me-, forms active transitive verbs).
- mendapat ≈ to get / obtain / receive (something).

So:

Saya berharap → I hope…
mendapat beasiswa → to get a scholarship

Could I just say Saya berharap beasiswa riset tahun depan without mendapat?

That sounds incomplete or unnatural.

Saya berharap beasiswa riset tahun depan.
→ Feels like something is missing (hope [for] scholarship). Native speakers normally expect a verb or a clear structure after berharap.

You need either:

A verb phrase:
- Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
- Saya berharap bisa mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
Or use mengharapkan with a noun:
- Saya mengharapkan beasiswa riset tahun depan.

So in your pattern, keep mendapat (or mendapatkan).

Is the sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Would I say this to a professor or in a casual chat with a friend?

The sentence is neutral and can be used both formally and informally.

Saya is the neutral/formal “I”.
Vocabulary: berharap, mendapat, beasiswa, riset, tahun depan → all standard, neutral words.

Usage:

To a professor:
- Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan, Pak/Bu.
To a friend (still polite, but you might also use aku):
- Aku berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.

So the base sentence is safely usable in almost any context.

Why is there no word like “to” between berharap and mendapat? In English it’s “hope to get”.

Indonesian doesn’t need a linking particle like English to in this structure.

Pattern: [verb 1] [verb 2]
Here: berharap mendapat
Literally: hope get.

Examples with the same pattern:

Saya suka membaca. → I like to read.
Dia mulai bekerja. → He/She starts to work.
Kami berusaha memahami. → We try to understand.

So Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa… is the normal way to say “I hope to get a scholarship …”, with no extra word between the verbs.

Could I replace mendapat with menerima here? What would menerima beasiswa riset mean?

You can, but there is a nuance difference:

mendapat beasiswa
- General: to get / obtain / receive a scholarship.
- Used both when you’re applying and when you just generally talk about getting something.
menerima beasiswa
- More specifically: to receive a scholarship (especially the act of receiving/being awarded it).
- Focuses slightly more on the moment of receiving or being given.

In your sentence:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan.
→ Most natural for “I hope to get a research scholarship next year.”
Saya berharap menerima beasiswa riset tahun depan.
→ Grammatically fine, but a bit less idiomatic when talking about a future hope. It can suggest “I hope I will be the one selected to receive it,” but mendapat is more common here.

Why is it tahun depan and not something like di tahun depan?

Time expressions like tahun depan, kemarin, besok, sekarang, etc. usually stand without a preposition.

Correct/natural:
- Saya akan pergi tahun depan.
- Dia datang kemarin.
- Kita bertemu besok.

Adding di is usually unnecessary or wrong:

Saya akan pergi di tahun depan. → Sounds odd in standard Indonesian.

You might see di tahun … in some fixed expressions (like di tahun 1998), but even there it’s optional and tahun 1998 alone is very common. For tahun depan, you normally never add di:

Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset tahun depan. ✔️
Saya berharap mendapat beasiswa riset di tahun depan. ✖️ (unnatural)