Prestigious National Scholarships and Fellowships
The following is a list of prestigious scholarships and fellowships. For more information and for help with the application process, contact Stephen Gracia, 718.951.4796.
Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program
Areas of Study: engineering, mathematics, natural sciences
The Goldwater Foundation provides funding for highly qualified undergraduate engineering, mathematics, and science students who demonstrate the ability, potential, and desire to successfully pursue these fields after graduation. The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program is for sophomores or juniors pursuing a baccalaureate degree whose ultimate goal is to earn a Ph.D. Students who plan on attending medical school may apply only if they intend to work as researchers rather than clinical physicians.
Beinecke Scholarship Program
Areas of Study: arts, humanities, social sciences
The Beinecke Scholarship Program supports two years of graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Applicant must be a college junior who demonstrates superior standards of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement, and personal promise during his or her undergraduate career. Applicant must demonstrate financial need.
Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship
Areas of Study: Open to all fields of study
Gilman grants enable students who have limited financial means to participate in travel-abroad opportunities worldwide. The foundation is especially interested in underrepresented groups, including students studying in nontraditional locations outside of Western Europe and Australia, students of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and students of nontraditional ages. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Study abroad programs must be between four weeks and one academic year in length. Summer terms are not eligible. Students must be undergraduates and be receiving a Pell grant at the time of the application.
British Marshall Scholarship
Areas of Study: Open to all fields of study, but students must study in the United Kingdom
The British Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom in a system of higher education known for its excellence. Qualifying applicants should be U.S. citizens with a bachelor's degree from a four-year U.S. college or university.
Carnegie Junior Fellows Program
Areas of Study: Open to all fields except science
Each year the endowment offers eight to 10 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors and individuals who have graduated during the past academic year.
Fannie & John Hertz Foundation Fellowship
Areas of Study: physical sciences, including chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics
The Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship empowers outstanding young people pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the applied biological, engineering, and physical sciences with the freedom to innovate and explore their genius in collaboration with leading professors in the field.
Ford Foundation Fellowship Program
Areas of Study: Open to all fields of study
Through its Fellowship Program, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation's college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
Fulbright Grants
Areas of Study: Open to all fields of study
The purpose of these grants is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. For graduate study or research abroad in academic fields and for professional training in the creative and performing arts. These grants are for seniors and graduates. For all grants, the applicant must be a U.S citizen and hold a bachelor's degree. Creative and performing arts are not required to have a bachelor's degree, but applicants must have four years of relevant training or study. Candidates in medicine must have an M.D. or equivalent (D.D.S., O.D.) at the time of application. All applicants are required to have sufficient proficiency in the language of the host country to carry out their proposed study or research. Proposals are very important.
Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Areas of Study: Open to all fields of study
An international scholarship program for outstanding students from outside the United Kingdom who gain admission to the University of Cambridge to pursue graduate study or a second bachelor's degree. Supports one to four years of post-baccalaureate study in any field at the University of Cambridge. Applicants must demonstrate exceptional academic achievement, potential for scholarly development and a commitment to use the benefits of their education for the common good. Open to students in every country outside the United Kingdom.
George Mitchell Scholarship
Areas of Study: Open to all fields of study
Scholars will be eligible to attend institutions of higher learning in Ireland for one academic year of post-graduate study. Available to students who have a record of intellectual distinction, leadership and extra-curricular activity as well as personal characteristics of honesty, integrity, fairness, and unselfish service to others that indicate a potential for future leadership and contribution to society. Applicants must be full-time students of their academic year.
Harry S. Truman Scholarship
Areas of Study: Students must major in a field that leads to a career in public service—education, government, or not-for-profit
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is offered to students with demonstrated academic and leadership skills who intend to enter the realm of public service after their schooling. It covers the recipient's senior year of college, as well as three years of graduate school, and offers leadership development programs and special opportunities for internships and employment with the federal government. Only open to U.S. citizens in their junior year. To be competitive, applicants must support their outstanding academic record with demonstrated leadership skills outside of the classroom (especially in the realm of government and public policy), intellectual depth, and communication skills.
James Madison Fellowship Program
Areas of Study: American history, politics, U.S. government
The James Madison Fellowship allows students to teach the U.S. Constitution at the secondary school level before receiving funds for graduate school. There are two types of fellowships. Junior Fellowships are for college seniors and college graduates without teaching experience who intend to become secondary school teachers of American history, American government and social studies in grades 7–12. Junior Fellows must complete graduate study within two academic years. Senior Fellowships are awarded to superior current teachers who must be able to complete graduate study within five years of part-time study. Available to graduating seniors without prior teaching experience. Applicants must intend to teach American history or political science as a career. In addition, candidates must plan on attending graduate school with the goal of attaining a master's degree.
Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship
Area of Study: liberal arts
The Watson Fellowship offers students paid internships for three consecutive summers. The internships are closely supervised and provide challenging work for participants. In the course of the program, interns are encouraged to sample work in at least two of three sectors: government, nonprofit, and private. Fellows meet regularly in seminars with peers. Brooklyn College may nominate up to four students. Second-semester freshmen and sophomores may apply. Students must be U.S. citizens or green card holders.
Morris K. Udall Scholarship Program
Areas of Study: environmental public policy, health care, Native American tribal policy
The Morris K. Udall Scholarship Program committee selects recipients from two separate applicant pools: those who intend to pursue careers in environmental public policy and those who are Native American and Native Alaskan students pursuing careers in health care or tribal public policy. Applicants must be undergraduate sophomores or juniors in the current academic year who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Areas of Study: behavioral, biological, mathematical, physical and social sciences; engineering; history of science; philosophy of science; research-based Ph.D. degrees in science education
The NSF offers three-year graduate research fellowships in engineering, mathematics, and science, including Women in Engineering and Computer and Information Science awards. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or nationals, or permanent resident aliens of the United States.
National Security Education Program—David L. Boren Graduate Fellowship
Areas of Study: applied sciences and engineering, business, economics, health and biomedical science, history, international affairs, law, political science, other social sciences
This fellowship enables U.S. graduate students to pursue specialization in area and language study or to add an important international dimension to their education. Applicants must be U.S citizens enrolled in or applying to a graduate degree program in an accredited U.S. college or university located within the United States. Applicants design their own programs and may combine domestic language and cultural study with overseas study; demonstrate academic excellence; create a comprehensive, clear and feasible proposal as well as a plan to develop, maintain or advance language competence; provide evidence to adapt to a different cultural environment; and integrate the applicant's field and career goals. All fellowships must include study of a modern language other than English and the study of an area and culture. (French or Spanish may not be used for study unless it is at an advanced level or combined with study of interests). NSEP Service Agreement: Recipients are required to seek employment with an agency or office of the federal government involved in national-security affairs.
National Security Education Program—David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarship for Study Abroad (NSEP)
Areas of Study: agricultural and food sciences; applied sciences and engineering, including biology, chemistry, environmental sciences, mathematics and physics; business; CIS; economics; health and biomedical science; history; international affairs; law; other social sciences
NSEP provides U.S. undergraduates with the resources and encouragement they need to acquire skills and experience in countries and areas of the world critical to the future of our nation. Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of application and applying to engage in a study abroad experience that meets home institution standards. The study abroad program must end before the applicant graduates. NSEP Service Agreement: Recipients are required to seek employment with an agency or office of the federal government involved in national-security affairs.
Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship
Areas of Study: engineering, fine and performing arts, humanities, law, medicine, sciences, social sciences, social work
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship is for "New Americans": college seniors who are holders of a green card, naturalized citizens, or children of two naturalized citizens. Applicant must either have a bachelor's degree or be in his or her final year of study.
Rhodes Scholarship
Areas of Study: Open to all fields, but recipients must study at Oxford University
The Rhodes Scholarship is one of the oldest and most prestigious fellowships available to U.S. students for two years of graduate study at Oxford University. The committee aims to reward applicants who have demonstrated leadership, intellect, originality and the potential to better society in whatever field they choose to pursue after graduate school. Applicants must be U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 24 who will have graduated with a bachelor's degree before accepting the scholarship. Citizens of Commonwealth countries are also eligible, but they must apply through their home country.
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Since 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has supported outstanding individuals and institutions to help reshape American education.
