Scholarship Search

Office for Nationally Competitive Scholarships

Many nationally competitive scholarships can help fund your education and bring added distinction to you, your résumés, and UNT. Advanced search engines online help you find scholarships, but discovering opportunities is only the first step in the application process.

The UNT Office for Nationally Competitive Scholarships assists you and faculty mentors by offering feedback on essay style, tone, and organization. We offer feedback on scholarship essays, ensuring clarity and effectiveness. We will collaborate with you to strengthen your submission and improve your chances. You will enhance your writing skills and arrive at a better sense of your future plans and commitments. Undergraduates can adapt national scholarship essays for graduate school applications, increasing their chances of receiving internal fellowship funding and support. Graduate students, in turn, end up transforming their scholarship proposals into theoretical introductions to their master's theses or doctoral dissertations. Applying for national scholarships is a “no lose” scenario— since you will refine writing skills valuable for future academic and professional opportunities. 

Here’s how to explore available opportunities and understand how my office can guide and support you throughout the scholarship application process. You can start by visiting the home page of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors to see some of the higher-profile opportunities. Many more external scholarships exist, and here’s a quick way to access those using multiple trusted scholarship databases and Internet sites. Feel free to visit these sites, including other universities', but direct any scholarship questions to me at James.Duban@unt.edu.

1. Graduate students should start here

   National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA)

   Below is a list of opportunities curated by NAFA, with links to each opportunity and a description of the target field or community:

   Site	Target Community or  Professional Field
   AccessLex Law School Scholarship Database	Law school scholarships
   Arizona State University Database	Undergraduate and graduate fellowship opportunities
   Career One Stop Scholarship Finder	Undergraduate, graduate, and professional development opportunities
   Immigrants Rising Scholarship List	Undocumented students and those looking for scholarships that don’t require proof of citizenship or legal permanent residency
   Intelligence Community Internships	Limitied to US citizens
   Nationally Coveted College Scholarships, Graduate Fellowships, and Postdoctoral Research Awards Programs	Undergraduate and graduate fellowship opportunities
   Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education	Federal STEM internships and fellowships for graduate and undergraduate students
   Pathways To Science | Increasing Diversity in STEM	STEM opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students
   Profellow	Undergraduate and graduate fellowship opportunities
   Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Database	Graduate Student Fellowship Opportunities (includes a handout for International Students)
   UCLA GRAPES database	Prospective graduate students and graduate fellowship opportunities
   UCLA Outside databases	Undergraduate and graduate scholarships
   UChicago Fellowsips Database	Graduate Student Fellowship Opportunities
   University of Illinois Database	Graduate Student Fellowship Opportunities
   Univeristy of South Carolina Database	Undergraduate and graduate fellowship opportunities
   UTRGV Center of Excellence in STEM Education	STEM opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students
   Zintellect	STEM opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students

   University of Maryland - Scholarships

   The following website (U. Maryland) allows you to search by multiple categories, with links to the scholarship sponsors: UNiversity of Maryland - Scholarships. Click on the category, and then click on the optimal sub-category. Study those opportunities, scholarship-by-scholarship, before moving on to any of the sites below. If you try to do too much at once, the search will appear overwhelming.

   Additional Opportunities

   1. Search by field of study, etc., clicking on the hypertext of each fellowship
   2. Click on each hypertext to view a description of the award, the amount of award, and deadlines.
   3. Copy the title of the award
   4. Paste the title into a Google that title to obtain application forms or upload instructions.

   Site	Specific to certain fields or communities
   Kansas State University	Scholarship applications may require a résumé, statement of goals, essay, demographic information or other application materials. Attention to detail and professional appearance when completing scholarship applications could enhance the chances of winning a scholarship.
   University of Arkansas	We seek to inform students as early as their freshman and sophomore years about specific opportunities. We also collaborate with campus faculty and staff to identify potential student scholars, and provide information and recognition to students through workshops and events.
   Yale University	Yale and outside funding options can help support research, study abroad, public service, unpaid internships, and self-designed projects, in New Haven and around the globe. Postgraduate fellowships support independent projects, graduate study, and much more. The Office of Fellowships and Funding helps students identify funding opportunities and navigate the application process.
   Vanderbilt University	Many fellowships require applicants to obtain institutional nominations or endorsement from Vanderbilt. For these awards, the Fellowships Team establishes a Priority Campus Deadline weeks or months before the funding organization’s (inter)national submission deadline.
   University of Illinois, Chicago	The Office of External Fellowships (OEF) provides extensive advisement and assistance to current UIC undergraduate and professional school students, and to recent alumni, in finding and applying for nationally- and internationally-competitive fellowships, scholarships, and grants. From Fulbright Grants to Goldwater Scholarships and many others, UIC students have received competitive fellowships that have helped them pursue academic and career interests here in Chicago and around the globe. OEF can help you pursue these opportunities too.
   Williamette University	In these pages we will introduce you to a myriad of opportunities, and provide a range of resources to help you decide where you are going and how to get there. Here you'll find information on a variety of competitive grants and scholarships, links to scholarship foundation home pages, and plenty of practical advice from programs and past applicants to help you put together an outstanding application.
   University of Notre Dame	All students accepted for admission who have completed the financial aid process are automatically considered for all University need-based scholarship programs.
   Smith College	The Fellowships & Postgraduate Scholarships Program supports Smith students and recent alums who want to apply for national and international fellowships and scholarships. Our approach revolves around informing, advising, encouraging, and working closely with you and your faculty advisers.
   Michigan State University	Provides access to detailed profiles on over 228,000 private and corporate foundations, corporate giving programs, grantmaking public charities, and federal agency funders; 900,000+ grant recipients; 18.5+ million grants; and over a million recently filed IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF. Updated daily. Available across all MSU IP Ranges and to anyone with a current MSU NetID and password.  Non-affiliated visitors can request access at the Main Library Reference Desk or utilize Foundation Directory Quick Start, a limited version of the database (free registration required). Consult the following tutorials for guidance in using the database:

2. Check out the Nationally Competitive Scholarships Homepage.
3. Also visit the UNT Scholarships Homepage. It will lead you to numerous hard-copy and many more Internet library resources that will prove helpful in searching for scholarships.