USA Scholarships
Scholarships in the USA - Study & Research Guides
Scholarships in the USA
The United States is home to many of the world's top-ranked universities and attracts students from every corner of the globe. Scholarship opportunities range from fully funded research positions to partial tuition awards at elite business schools. Below you'll find our guides for US scholarships, each covering eligibility, documents, benefits, and how to apply.
Cornell Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellowship 2027 - $65,000/yr
The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability funds up to four postdoctoral fellows a year on three-year appointments paying $65,000 annually, with full Cornell employee benefits and a further $12,000 a year for research and travel. Applications for the 2027 cohort close on 20 October 2026 at 5pm Eastern, notifications go out in January 2027, and fellowships start between 1 June and 1 September 2027. The structure is what makes this one unusual. Every application needs two mentors lined up before you apply: a PI-eligible Cornell faculty member who is a current Cornell Atkinson Faculty Fellow, and an advisor at an external governmental, non-governmental or private sector partner, which explicitly cannot be another university. Your doctorate must be recent, no earlier than 1 May 2025 for this cycle, and the programme is no longer open to Cornell PhD graduates or Cornell postdocs.
51 Pegasi b Fellowship 2026 - $492,000 Postdoc
The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship gives an early-career planetary astronomer up to $492,000 over three years to do theoretical, observational or experimental research at a US host institution of their choosing. The Heising-Simons Foundation runs it, applications for the current cycle close on 1 October 2026 at 2pm Pacific Time, and decisions go out by mid-February. Named after the first exoplanet found orbiting a sun-like star, the fellowship covers salary and benefits and adds flexible discretionary research funding on top, which is the part fellows tend to talk about. You pick one host institution from the 28 taking part across the US. American citizenship is not required, though visa and work permit paperwork falls to you and your host rather than to the Foundation. Fellows can apply for a fourth year, or for a one-year grant if they land a faculty or permanent staff post.
Mastercard Internship 2027 - Paid US Summer Roles
Mastercard runs paid internships across eleven categories, from software engineering and cybersecurity to consulting, finance, product management and marketing, in more than 40 countries and with placements running anywhere from a few weeks to a full year. The US summer programme is the one most students want. Eligibility is stated plainly: you must be currently enrolled in a bachelor's or master's degree and set to complete your studies the year after you intern. Postings for a given summer start appearing the previous autumn, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis rather than against a closing date, so the practical deadline is whenever the seats fill. One rule ends a lot of applications early: many Mastercard intern postings state they are not eligible for work authorization sponsorship, so you must already be able to work in the US without it.
UoPeople Scholarships 2027 - Tuition-Free US Degrees
University of the People is an accredited American online university that charges no tuition and no money for textbooks or course materials. What it does charge is a one-time $60 application fee and an assessment fee at the end of every course: $180 for undergraduate courses, $430 for M.Ed. courses and $490 for MBA and MS-IT courses. A full bachelor's degree comes to $7,260 and an MBA to $5,940. UoPeople scholarships exist to cover those fees, funded by partners including SAP, Intel, the Algorand Foundation and the Simone Biles Legacy Scholarship Fund, alongside country and refugee funds. There is no scholarship deadline. You apply for admission first, and once accepted you request a scholarship from the funding page in the Student Portal, where money is granted first-come, first-served and applied to your assessment fees until it runs out.
SHE-CAN Scholarship 2026 - Full Ride to US Colleges
SHE-CAN, short for Supporting Her Education Changes a Nation, coaches young women from Cambodia, Guatemala and Liberia into full-ride scholarships at top US colleges, then supports them through the degree and back home again. The 2026-27 cycle opened in July 2026. Cambodia and Guatemala close on 1 October 2026 and Liberia on 1 November 2026, with no application fee at any stage. Applicants must be female, aged 17 to 20, from a low-income household, with under a year of post-secondary education and strong national exam or WAEC results. What follows is long: interviews in the capital, test preparation and a community project from January to June 2027, college applications through late 2027, decisions in December 2027 and arrival in the US in August 2028. Every scholar pledges to return home within a year of graduating and work there for at least three years.
Fulbright Scholar Award 2027 - UK Scholars to the USA
The Fulbright Scholar Awards send UK academics and professionals to the United States to lecture, research or both, usually for three to six months, on a monthly stipend with travel and visa support attached. Applications for the 2027-28 cycle opened on 20 July 2026 and close on 2 November 2026 at 5pm GMT, with interviews in February 2027, results in March 2027 and departures from August 2027 onwards. Six awards run under the Scholar banner, from the open All Disciplines Award to partner awards with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Elon University, Rutgers University-Newark and the National Archives. You need to be a UK citizen or British Overseas Territory resident, hold a PhD or equivalent professional standing, and arrange your own letter of invitation from a US host institution before you apply.
Human Rights Advocates Program 2027 - HRAP at Columbia
The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights brings grassroots human rights advocates to New York for a six-month capacity-building programme built from academic coursework, skills workshops, mentoring, networking and an advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. Applications for the Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 programmes close on 15 October 2026. Read the funding line carefully before you apply, because the aggregator sites get it wrong: only a very limited number of full scholarships are awarded, and other admitted applicants are asked to cover expenses including living costs and stipend. ISHR does make every effort to secure funding for shortlisted Advocates. HRAP is for people doing the work, not for students: full-time students, academics and government officials are not considered, and applicants from high-income countries are ruled out unless they represent marginalized communities.
Harvard Academy Scholars Program 2027 - $80,000/yr
The Harvard Academy Scholars Program appoints five or six early-career social scientists a year to a two-year, in-residence postdoctoral fellowship at The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, on $80,000 a year plus $6,000 a year in research support. The 2027-2028 season is open and closes 18 September 2026 at 11:59 PM EDT, with finalists interviewed on 4 December 2026 and the appointment starting 1 August 2027. Over 500 people apply each year. The Academy wants scholars whose work pairs disciplinary strength in the social sciences with a command of the language and expertise of countries or regions outside the United States and Canada. Applications are open to all countries and citizenships, but anyone who already holds or has completed another postdoctoral fellowship is out.
Yale World Fellows Program 2027 - Fully Funded
The Yale World Fellows Program brings a small group of mid-career leaders from outside the United States to Yale for four months, mid-August to mid-December, on a package that covers a living stipend, a furnished one- or two-bedroom apartment, medical insurance and round-trip international travel, with no tuition or fees. The Class of 2026 held 16 Fellows, picked from several thousand applications, and the programme has taken over 400 Fellows from 102 countries since 2002. You need to be a citizen of a country other than the United States, between five and twenty-five years into your career, fluent in English, and free to live in New Haven for the whole term. Applications for the 2027 cohort are not open yet. Nominations are, and anyone can submit one without any Yale connection.
Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship 2027 - $60,000 at HLS
The Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship for Law Teaching gives a recent law graduate a $60,000 annual stipend and a year in residence at Harvard Law School to write. The 2027 term runs 1 July 2027 through 30 June 2028, and applications close on Thursday 1 October 2026, with both letters of reference due the same day. You need a JD, LLM or SJD at the time of applying, a serious interest in legal scholarship, and a plan to go into law teaching. The Fellow prepares at least one major article for publication on a schedule agreed with the Lewis Committee, and can audit courses and attend workshops across the school. The programme was endowed in 1993 by Reginald F. Lewis, HLS class of 1968 and the first African American to build a billion-dollar company, and it exists to enhance diversity in the profession of legal educators.
Gates Scholarship 2027 - Full Ride for 300 Students
The Gates Scholarship picks 300 high school seniors a year and covers the full cost of attendance that other financial aid does not reach: tuition, fees, books, housing, food and personal expenses. It is a last-dollar award, so it fills the gap left after your other aid and your Student Aid Index rather than paying the whole bill from the start. Applications for the 2027 cohort opened on 15 July 2026 and close on 15 September 2026, with semifinalist review and finalist interviews running December to January, selection in March 2027 and awards distributed from April. One thing has changed that most articles still get wrong. The Gates Scholarship dropped its ethnicity requirement in 2025 and is now open to every Pell-eligible applicant who meets the other criteria: high school senior, US citizen, national or permanent resident, and a minimum cumulative weighted GPA of 3.3.
UN Nippon Foundation Fellowship 2027 - Ocean Law
The United Nations-Nippon Foundation Fellowship on Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea gives mid-career government officials from developing states nine funded months split between two places. Phase one runs 24 March to 30 June 2027 at UN Headquarters in New York, working alongside the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. Phase two runs 1 July to 17 December 2027 as a research placement at an academic institution. The award covers a monthly stipend from the day you leave home until the day you finish, round-trip economy flights between home, New York and your host institution, Cigna health insurance, and a $600 book allowance for the second phase. Applications close on 13 September 2026 and results are announced in mid-December. You need to be between 25 and 45, hold at least a first degree, and be nominated by an authority who signs your form.