Is this scholarship for me? (undergraduate)

Who applies as an undergraduate

Review these guidelines to work out which form is yours. High school and secondary school mean the same thing here.

• You must hold a high school diploma, the equivalent in your country, or a GED.
• If you have taken courses for college credit toward an associate or bachelor degree since finishing high school, apply as an undergraduate.
• The coursework must be at an accredited degree-granting institution. Vocational, technical, performance, and professional programs are not counted here.
• If you are dual-enrolled in both high school and college courses, apply as a high school applicant instead.
• If you already hold a bachelor degree, you are not an undergraduate applicant. Apply as a graduate applicant.

You may apply from any country. There is no minimum GPA, no test score requirement, no required courses, and no citizenship or immigration status requirement. The deadline is April 1, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Requirements and deadlines has the full list of what to send.

What we read

• Your transcript, to answer one question: are you ready to finish? We are looking for a floor, not a ranking.
• One recommendation, from an adult outside your family who knows your circumstances. It is a short form, not a letter.
• What you told us about your household and your circumstances, and about your costs for one year.
• Your four short responses, above all the one about what $5,000 would change for you.

What we do not read

Test scores, honors lists, resumes, and portfolios. We do not accept them, and we do not read them if you send them. Your major, the name of your institution, and the polish of your writing do not count either.

How we read an application sets out the three questions in the order they carry weight.

Reading your file is not the last step. We select finalists from the applications we read, and each finalist is asked for one document confirming their costs. Finalists are interviewed, and the interview is part of deciding who receives the award.

Apply if this sounds like you

• Money is the main thing narrowing what you can do next.
• You can name something specific that $5,000 would change: a term you could enroll for, hours you could stop working, a gap you could close.
• You can describe one thing you built, learned, fixed, or kept going with the time and money you had.
• There is an adult outside your family, at your institution or at work, who knows your situation and would answer four questions about you.

Do not spend an evening on this if

• You already hold a bachelor degree. Apply as a graduate student instead, on the same form.
• You are looking for an award decided on test scores, a list of honors, or the standing of your institution. That is not what we read.

None of that is a judgment about you. It is a description of one scholarship, so you can spend your evening on the right one.

If you are unsure whether the money would change anything, your plan and costs walks through the arithmetic first.