A Scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.

Scholarship criteria usually reflect the values and goals of the donor of the award, and while scholarship recipients are not required to repay scholarships, the awards may require that the recipient continue to meet certain requirements during their period of support, such maintaining a minimum grade point average or engaging in a certain activity.

Scholarships also range in generosity; some range from covering partial tuition ranging all the way to a ‘full-ride’, covering all tuition, accommodation, housing and others.

Some prestigious, highly competitive scholarships are well-known even outside the academic community, such as Fulbright Scholarship and the Rhodes Scholarships at the graduate level, and the Robertson, Morehead-Cain and Jefferson Scholarships at the undergraduate level.

SCHOLARSHIPS VS GRANTS

While the terms scholarship and grant are frequently used interchangeably, they are distinctly different. Where grants are offered based exclusively on financial need, scholarships may have a financial need component but rely on other criteria as well.

Academic scholarships typically use a minimum grade-point average or standardized test score such as the ACT or SAT to narrow down awardees.

Athletic scholarships are generally based on athletic performance of a student and used as a tool to recruit high-performing athletes for their school’s athletic teams.

Merit scholarships can be based on a number of criteria, including performance in a particular school subject or club participation or community service.

A federal Pell Grant can be awarded to someone planning to receive their undergraduate degree and is solely based on their financial needs.

TYPES

The most common scholarships may be classified as:

Merit-based: These awards are based on a student’s academic, artistic, athletic, or other abilities, and often a factor in an applicant’s extracurricular activities and community service record. Most such merit-based scholarships are paid directly by the institution the student attends, rather than issued directly to the student.

Need-based: Some private need-based awards are confusingly called scholarships, and require the results of a FAFSA However, scholarships are often merit-based, while grants tend to be need-based.

Student-specific: These are scholarships for which applicants must initially qualify based upon gender, race, religion, family, and medical history, or many other student-specific factors. Minority scholarships are the most common awards in this category. For example, students in Canada may qualify for a number of Indigenous scholarships, whether they study at home or abroad. The Gates Millennium Scholars Program is another minority scholarship funded by Bill and Melinda Gates for excellent African American, American Indian, Asian Pacific Islander American, and Latino students who enroll in college.

Career-specific: These are scholarships a college or university awards to students who plan to pursue a specific field of study. Often, the most generous awards go to students who pursue careers in high-need areas, such as education or nursing. Many schools in the United States give future nurses full scholarships to enter the field, especially if the student intends to work in a high-need community.

College-specific: College-specific scholarships are offered by individual colleges and universities to highly qualified applicants. These scholarships are given on the basis of academic and personal achievement. Some scholarships have a “bond” requirement. Recipients may be required to work for a particular employer for a specified period of time or to work in rural or remote areas; otherwise, they may be required to repay the value of the support they received from the scholarship. This is particularly the case with education and nursing scholarships for people prepared to work in rural and remote areas.

The programs offered by the uniformed services of the United States  sometimes resemble such scholarships.

Athletic: Awarded to students with exceptional skill in a sport. Often this is so that the student will be available to attend the school or college and play the sport on their team, although in some countries government funded sports scholarships are available, allowing scholarship holders to train for international representation. School-based athletics scholarships can be controversial, as some believe that awarding scholarship money for athletic rather than academic or intellectual purposes is not in the institution’s best interest.

Brand: These scholarships are sponsored by a corporation that is trying to gain attention to their brand, or a cause. Sometimes these scholarships are referred to as branded scholarships. The Miss America beauty pageant is a famous example of a brand scholarship.

Creative contest: These scholarships are awarded to students based on a creative submission. Contest scholarships are also called mini project-based scholarships, where students can submit entries based on unique and innovative ideas.

“Last dollar”: can be provided by private and government-based institutions, and are intended to cover the remaining fees charged to a student after the various grants are taken into account. To prohibit institutions from taking last dollar scholarships into account, and thereby removing other sources of funding, these scholarships are not offered until after financial aid has been offered in the form of a letter. Furthermore, last dollar scholarships may require families to have filed taxes for the most recent year, received their other sources of financial aid, and not yet received loans.

NOTABLE  SCHOLARSHIPS

CHAVENING SCHOLARSHIP

The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom.

CHINA  SCHOLARSHIP COUNCIL SCHOLARSHIP

The China Scholarship Council is the Chinese Ministry of Education’s non-profit organization that provides support for international academic exchange with China and is the primary vehicle through which the Chinese government awards scholarships. CSC provides both funding for Chinese citizens and residents to study abroad, and for foreign students and scholars to study in China. The agency predominantly provides scholarships to individuals, including in batches allocated to specific foreign universities.

COMMONWEALTH SCHOLARSHIP

The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.

COCA-COLA SCHOLARSHIP

The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, or CCSF is a non-profit organization that works on behalf and at the direction of the Coca-Cola system to provide scholarships to some 1,400 students annually in amounts totaling over $3.4 million each year. The organization is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

ENDEVAUR AWARDS

The Endeavour Leadership Program, formerly Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, formerly Endeavour Awards, was an internationally competitive, merit-based scholarship programme that formed part of the Australian Government’s $1.4 billion Australian initiative. The programme brought leading researchers, executives and students to Australia to undertake short or long term study, research and professional development in a broad range of disciplines, and enabled Australians to do the same abroad. It aimed at developing linkages between involved nations.

ERASMUS  MUNDUS

The European Union‘s Erasmus Mundus Aims to enhance quality in higher education through scholarships and academic co-operation between the EU and the rest of the world. The three main objectives of the programme are linked to the internationalisation of students, staff, curricula and research; ensure an influence on the development of practice in Special Education Needs and inclusive education; and to develop international collaborative networks, projects and research.

FULBRIGHT PROGRAM

The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills.

Via the program, competitively-selected American citizens including students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists may receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States. The program was founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 and is considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world. The program provides approximately 8,000 grants annually – roughly 1,600 to U.S. students, 1,200 to U.S. scholars, 4,000 to foreign students, 900 to foreign visiting scholars, and several hundred to teachers and professionals.

GATES CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARSHIPS

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established the Gates Cambridge Scholarships in 2000 with a $210 million donation to support outstanding graduate students’ study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is one of the most competitive and prestigious in the world, with around 13% of applicants receiving an award in recent years.

JARDINE SCHOLARSHIP

The Jardine Scholarship is a full scholarship, primarily for undergraduates, offered by Jardines for study at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It was established in 1982 to commemorate the company’s 150th anniversary and was founded with the objective of developing future leaders, who would give back to the societies in which Jardine Matheson operates. By 2018, 293 Jardine Scholarships had been awarded.

MARSHALL SCHOLARSHIP

The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for “intellectually distinguished young Americans and their country’s future leaders” to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious scholarships for U.S. citizens, and along with the Fulbright Scholarship, it is the only broadly available scholarship available to Americans to study at any university in the United Kingdom.

MITCHELL SCHOLARSHIP

The George J. Mitchell Scholarship is a fellowship awarded annually by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance funding graduate study in Ireland. The first class of scholars began their studies in 2000. The scholarship is sometimes compared to or grouped with other international fellowships for American students such as the Rhodes Scholarship and Marshall Scholarship. Each year, approximately 300 young Americans apply for the 12 scholarships. In 2020, the US-Ireland Alliance announced that applications for the George J. Mitchell Scholar Class of 2022 increased by 22%, resulting in a record 453 individual applicants for the program.

MOREHEAD-CAIN SCHOLARSHIP

The Morehead-Cain Scholarship was the first merit scholarship program established in the United States. It was founded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1951 and was named for its benefactors, John Motley Morehead III and the Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation.

In addition to covering all expenses for four years of undergraduate education at UNC, the scholarship also includes fully funded summer enrichment activities and funding for independent research, internships, and international study. Mary Cain, who donated $100 million to the program in 2007, called it “the gold standard in undergraduate educational opportunities

FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP

This is a list of notable individuals elected as Scholars of Trinity College Dublin. Described by Trinity College as “the most prestigious undergraduate award in the country”, Foundation Scholarship examinations have been held annually at Trinity since its establishment in 1592.

Schols is awarded to those who achieve a first class honours average in a set of challenging voluntary examinations, held in January the week before Hilary term begins, which test a student’s ability to “consistently demonstrate exceptional knowledge and understanding of their subjects”. Benefits include waived fees, rooms in college, dining rights at Commons and a post-nominal title, “Sch.”. Typically, less than 1% of the undergraduate population is awarded the scholarship.

RHODES SCHOLARSHIP

The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world’s most prestigious international scholarship programs. Its founder, Cecil John Rhodes, wanted to promote unity among English-speaking nations and instill a sense of civic-minded leadership and moral fortitude in future leaders, irrespective of their chosen career paths. Initially restricted to male applicants from countries that are today within the Commonwealth, Germany and the United States, the scholarship is now open to applicants from all backgrounds and both genders around the world. Since its creation, controversy has surrounded its initial exclusion of women, its historical failure to select black Africans, and Cecil Rhodes’s own standing as a British imperialist.

SCHWARZMAN SCHOLARSHIP

Schwarzman Scholars founded by American financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, is an international postgraduate award program for students to study at Tsinghua University.Awards are made to 100–200 applicants per year, worldwide. The program selects scholars based on their leadership ability, academic achievement, and demonstrated potential to become the next generation of global leaders who will build bridges between China and the rest of the world. Selected scholars study for a fully-funded one-year master’s degree in Global Affairs at Tsinghua University.