Scholarships and Fellowships
Scholarships vary in amount and duration and are awarded on the basis of academic excellence, perceived talent or, in some cases, ethnic background, field of study, or financial need. They may be awarded as a one-time payment or as an annual stipend. As with grants, scholarships need not be paid back.
Fellowships are similar to scholarships in that they do not require repayment. They are awarded by private organizations, institutions or government agencies. (See our Research webpage for lists of such organizations.) They vary in amount and are typically designed to offset research or education costs. It’s not uncommon for a fellowship to take the form of a multiyear stipend with or without a tuition waiver. Fellowships are typically awarded based on merit or need.
David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships
Boren Awards provide a unique funding opportunity for U.S. students to study world regions critical to U.S. interests (including Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East). The countries of Western Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are excluded. The Boren Fellowship allows graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate studies. Boren Fellows can be awarded up to $30,000. For additional information on preferred geographic regions, languages, fields of study and application procedures click learn more below.
Army ROTC
Two-year scholarships to finish your master's or undergraduate degree.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.
As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching.
Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs
Through its Fellowship Programs, 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.
Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded in a national competition administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on behalf of the Ford Foundation.
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship
The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship is a highly competitive, portable fellowship that is awarded to U.S. citizens and nationals who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in one of fifteen supported disciplines. NDSEG confers high honors upon its recipients, and allows them to attend whichever U.S. institution they choose. NDSEG Fellowships last for three years and pay for full tuition and all mandatory fees, a monthly stipend, and up to $1,000 a year in medical insurance (this excludes dental and vision insurance).
The Department of Defense (DoD) is committed to increasing the number and quality of our nation's scientists and engineers, and towards this end, has awarded nearly 3,400 NDSEG fellowships since the program's inception 23 years ago. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), under the direction of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E).