USA Scholarships
Partial Funding Scholarship Guides
Partial Funding Scholarships
Not every scholarship covers 100% of your costs, but partial funding can still make a huge difference. The scholarships listed here cover a significant share of tuition or living expenses, reducing what you need to pay out of pocket.
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.
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.
Horowitz Foundation Grant 2026 - $10,000 for PhDs
The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy gives $10,000 to PhD candidates at the dissertation stage whose research speaks to contemporary social policy. The money arrives in two parts: $7,500 when you are selected, and $2,500 once the project is finished. Applications close on 1 December 2026 at 11:59pm EST, which is also the deadline for your recommender to file, and winners are announced the following June. Eligibility is tight in one direction and unusually open in another. You must be a current PhD or DrPH candidate who has defended a proposal or had a topic approved, and anyone who already holds a PhD is out. But there is no citizenship rule and no institutional one: applicants can come from any country and any university in the world. The application itself is short, built around a 750-word project description.
FSU Admissions Scholarships 2026 - Up to $115,808
Florida State University runs about ten first-year admissions scholarships, and most of them arrive without you filling in anything beyond the admissions application. The largest is the Presidential Scholars award at roughly $115,808 over four years including an out-of-state tuition waiver. National Merit Finalists get the full in-state cost of attendance if they are Florida residents, worth $16,000 to $25,000 a year, or a package around $91,808 over four years if they are not. Below those sit merit and talent out-of-state tuition waivers at 100% and 50%, a $16,000 Vires award for Florida residents, $8,000 for an IB diploma, a $4,000 Sunshine Award, and $6,000 plus experiential funding on the invitation-only QUEST and Illuminate programmes. Apply by 1 December for the best shot. National Merit Finalists have a separate job: list FSU as first choice by 1 May.
Public Service Scholarships 2026 - 100% Tuition at SAIS
Johns Hopkins SAIS runs two Public Service awards on its Washington DC campus, and they are aimed at very different people. Public Service Fellows are students entering the Master of Arts in International Relations who want a career in public service; they receive a 100% tuition scholarship in year one, renewable for a second year on full-time enrolment and a 3.4 GPA. Public Service Scholars are mid-career professionals entering the Master of International Public Policy who have already worked in public service and intend to go back to it; they receive 50% of tuition. Citizens of any country can apply, both tracks are Fall entry only, and preference goes to candidates who can demonstrate financial need. There is no separate scholarship form. You tick two boxes on the degree application, one for institutional aid and one for the Public Service Award, by the 1 November early round or the January regular round.
Columbia University Free Online Courses 2026 - ColumbiaX
Columbia University free online courses are published under ColumbiaX, the university's online learning initiative on edX, where every listed course can be audited at no cost and a verified certificate is available for a fee. The school page currently lists 28 courses drawn from Columbia Business School, Columbia Engineering, the Mailman School of Public Health, the history department and Teachers College, covering corporate finance, the maths behind AI, Python and data structures, pediatric HIV, child protection, climate science, US history and inclusive teaching. Nothing here behaves like a scholarship: no application form, no deadline, no committee, no GPA and no citizenship rule. Money only enters at the certificate, and edX financial assistance is the route to a discount on that fee.
Rising Explorer Grant 2027 - $2,000 Field Research
The Rising Explorer Grant is The Explorers Club programme that funds field research by high school students and college undergraduates, with awards averaging $2,000. The 2027 cycle is open now and closes on 31 August 2026 at 6:00 PM ET. Anyone can apply from anywhere: the Club states the programme is open to high school students and college undergraduates worldwide, plus independent researchers working at an equivalent level. Funded work spans the field sciences, including biology and ecology, wildlife conservation, environmental science, archaeology and anthropology, and marine and freshwater studies. One rule decides most applications: the project has to be true science designed to generate new knowledge, not an adventure, a travel experience or a school field trip. Grantees are also considered automatically for Explorers Club membership.
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.