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.
UC Berkeley Free Online Courses 2027 - BerkeleyX on edX
UC Berkeley free online courses run through BerkeleyX on the edX platform, where every course can be audited at no cost and a verified certificate is available for a fee. Berkeley joined the edX consortium in 2012 and has since put more than 100 classes in front of 4 million learners across 150 countries and regions, from The Science of Happiness and Introduction to Python to Fundamentals of Economics, Academic and Business Writing and Psychedelics and the Mind. Nothing here works like a scholarship: there is no application, no deadline, no selection and no GPA, and enrolment is open all year. The closest thing to funding is edX financial assistance, which discounts the verified certificate fee for learners who would find it a hardship, applied for one course at a time. Auditing needs nothing but a free account.
Nathan Cummings Foundation Grant 2026 - $50k to $250k
The Nathan Cummings Foundation grant programme funds organisations working on racial, economic and environmental justice in the United States, with most grants between $50,000 and $250,000. The Letter of Inquiry portal is open year-round with rolling review, and staff aim to come back to applicants within 12 weeks. Three grant types run alongside each other: Venture Grants up to $100,000 for one year, Advancement Grants up to $250,000 a year for up to two years, and invitation-only Enterprise Grants above $250,000 a year for longer. Program Related Investments run separately at $250,000 to $750,000, usually repaid over three to seven years. Read the exclusion list before anything else, because NCF does not fund individuals, 501(c)(4) organisations, direct service work outside an advocacy strategy, campus or prison-based programmes, or conservation projects.
Coca-Cola Scholars Program 2027 - $20,000 Award
The Coca-Cola Scholars Program is a $20,000 achievement-based scholarship for US high school seniors, and the open cycle is the 2027 application for students graduating during the 2026-2027 academic year. It closes at 5pm Eastern on Wednesday 30 September 2026. One hundred and fifty Coke Scholars are chosen each year, and the first phase asks for no essays, no transcript and no recommendations, which makes it one of the lowest-effort major scholarship applications in the country to start. Selection then narrows hard: about 1 per cent of applicants become Semifinalists in October, roughly 1,200 people, of whom 250 become Regional Finalists interviewed in late January or early February, and 150 are invited to Coke Scholars Weekend in Atlanta in April. You need a minimum B or 3.0 GPA and you must attend school in one of the 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico or a select Department of Defense school.
America's Future Development Fellowship 2026
The America's Future Development Fellowship 2026 is a six-week virtual seminar on nonprofit fundraising for the Fall 2026 cohort, run over Zoom on Monday evenings from 28 September to 9 November 2026. Applications close 7 September 2026 at 11:59 PM ET, with participants selected between 14 and 21 September. The curriculum covers the philosophy of private philanthropy alongside practical work on donor cultivation and stewardship, organisational development, major gifts, foundation relations and planned giving, led by a facilitator who runs a fundraising operation raising around $12 million a year. Two eligibility points decide most applications: you must reside in the United States, and America's Future selects for liberty-minded professionals committed to strengthening organisations in the liberty movement. No prior fundraising experience is needed, and attendance at all six sessions is mandatory.
AERC World Bank Visiting Scholars 2026 - Washington DC
The AERC World Bank Visiting Scholars Program 2026 places African economists at World Bank headquarters in Washington DC for a research residency of four to six months. Run jointly by the African Economic Research Consortium and the World Bank Africa Region Chief Economist's Office, it takes up to two scholars for the 2026/2027 cohort. Visiting scholars join the Office of the Chief Economist for Africa Region, revise a draft paper for the World Bank Working Paper Series and a ranking journal, present at least one seminar, and contribute to the Bank's Africa research programme. Eligibility is narrow: you must already be an AERC researcher, including from the AERC Collaborative PhD Programme, with an active AERC project at interim, post-field or final paper stage on a topic relevant to the World Bank Africa Region agenda. Expressions of interest close 6 September 2026 and late applications are not considered.
Yale Peace Fellowship 2027 - Fully Funded at Yale
The Yale Peace Fellowship 2027 is a fully funded programme from the International Leadership Center at Yale University for rising leaders in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconciliation. Applications for the 2027 cohort are open now and close 9 September 2026 at 14:00 EDT. Fellows take a week-long seminar at Yale in New Haven from 12 to 16 April 2027, bi-weekly virtual sessions from March through June, and a closing convening at Rose Castle in the UK from 14 to 18 June 2027. Travel, lodging and meals for both in-person weeks are covered and there are no direct programme costs, though a $20 application fee applies. One catch decides most applications: applicants should be citizens of a country other than the United States, and Yale typically looks for at least five years of significant professional experience.
Tech Journalism Fund 2026 - $5,000 to $25,000 Grants
The Tech Journalism Fund 2026 is Omidyar Network's project grant for US-based journalists reporting on technology and society, paying $5,000 to $25,000 towards the cost of a single resource-intensive story. Freelancers, staff reporters, editors and whole teams are eligible across any medium. The money covers reporting costs rather than salary: travel, research and fact-checking support, multimedia work, data access such as LexisNexis searches and government record requests, and a stipend for the reporting time itself. Priority goes to pitches on AI regulation and tech policy, investigations into the companies and people shaping the AI industry, the effect of AI on children and families, and how workers and unions are dealing with AI at work. Applications run on a rolling basis with no deadline and are usually reviewed within 30 days. Every funded project stays editorially independent and discloses the support.
Mental Health America Young Leaders Council 2027
The Mental Health America Young Leaders Council 2027 is a paid nine-month youth advocacy cohort running September 2026 to May 2027, and MHA is selecting just five young adults aged 18 to 25 for it. Members receive a $2,000 stipend, attend monthly 90-minute virtual sessions with experts, co-create a capstone project, and speak at the Mental Health America Conference in Washington DC on 8 and 9 October 2026 with travel and lodging paid. The 2026-2027 council focuses on financial well-being and access to meaningful work, set against the fact that almost 12 per cent of US youth are not in education, employment or training and 41 per cent of recent college graduates are underemployed. No degree, GPA or enrolment is required, only direct experience with programmes at that intersection. Applications close Friday 28 August 2026 with decisions by Friday 4 September.
Northwestern University Scholarship 2027 - 100% Need Met
The Northwestern University Scholarship 2027 is the need-based grant Northwestern awards undergraduates entering in Fall 2027, and it is gift aid you never repay. Northwestern says plainly that it does not award scholarships based on academic merit, so every dollar turns on demonstrated need. The university meets 100 per cent of that need and packages no loans at all. Most families earning under $150,000 attend tuition-free, and most earning under $70,000 attend at no cost. Around half of all undergraduates hold a Northwestern University Scholarship, and more than $250 million went into undergraduate aid last year against a 2026-27 on-campus budget of $99,375. Apply for admission by 1 November 2026 for Early Decision or 4 January 2027 for Regular Decision, with aid forms due 1 December 2026 and 1 February 2027.
GWI Scholars Program 2027 - Free Training, Paid Internship
The GWI Scholars Program 2027 from Girls Who Invest is open now, and it costs nothing to apply or to take part. Every admitted Scholar gets tuition-free training in Excel, accounting, financial statement analysis and financial modelling, running from December 2026 to late March 2027 as a unified curriculum. Sophomores can opt into the Internship Track, and the portion matched with a partner firm spend four weeks in residence at the Wharton School from late May 2027 before a seven-week paid frontline investing internship that runs to mid-August. GWI partner firms have hosted between 175 and 200 interns each summer in recent years. Despite the name, the programme is open to all gender identities including male-identifying students, to every major, and with no minimum GPA. Priority applications close 15 September 2026 and the final deadline is 15 October 2026.
Oregon State University Scholarships 2027 - Up to $16,000
Oregon State University Scholarships 2027 are the merit awards OSU hands to new undergraduates entering the Corvallis or Bend campuses in Fall 2027, and almost all of them are decided off your admission application with no separate form. Non-resident first-years can be offered the Provost Scholarship at up to $16,000 a year, renewable across four years. Oregon residents compete for the Presidential Scholarship at up to $10,000 a year and the Finley Academic Excellence Scholarship at up to $5,000. International first-years get guaranteed regional awards worth $2,000 to $16,000 a year depending on their country of residence, reaching $64,000 across a four-year degree. OSU awards more than $20 million in merit scholarships to new undergraduates every year. The priority deadline for Fall 2027 is 1 February 2027, with Early Action closing 2 November 2026.
HP Social Media Marketing Free Online Course 2026
The HP Social Media Marketing free online course 2026 is a short, self-paced training module from HP LIFE, the free learning platform run by the HP Foundation, and it ends with a certificate of completion that costs nothing. The course covers a range of social media marketing platforms and walks you through building a social media advertisement that actually reaches your target customers. Most learners finish in under an hour. There is no fee, no application, no deadline and no entry requirement: you create a free HP LIFE account, pick one of eight languages, work through the lessons, and download the certificate the moment you finish. More than 179,000 people have taken this one course, and it also works offline through the HP LIFE mobile app.