Colleges

Top Scholarships for Graduate Students

Find a list of current scholarships for grad students. Discover the other methods students use to pay for graduate school and learn the difference between assistantships and fellowships.

Shawna Newman

March 04, 2025

Top Scholarships for Graduate Students
Even after securing a fellowship or assistantship, graduate students can still find a financial gap exists.

Top scholarships for graduate students with upcoming deadlines

Melanie Foundation Scholarship

The Melanie Foundation Scholarship is available to students who are pursuing a doctoral or master's degree in the mental health field. To be considered, you must demonstrate past involvement in extracurricular, volunteer, research, and / or career - related activities. Deadline: 3/5/25
Award Amount: $2,500

Thornton Tomasetti Foundation Scholarship

The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation Scholarship is available to master's degree students who are enrolled in programs that specialize in structural engineering or architectural engineering (with courses in structural engineering). You must be nominated by a department chair to be considered for this award. Deadline: 3/7/25
Award Amount: $5,000 - $10,000

Frame My Future Scholarship Contest

The Frame My Future Scholarship Contest is open to full - time undergraduate and graduate students. To enter, you must create and upload a 30 - second video from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube showing how you plan to "Frame Your Future" and why you will frame your degree. Deadline: 3/15/25
Award Amount: $2,000

Fastweb's $2,025 Scholarship Success Sweepstakes

What's your scholarship application goal? Let us know for a chance to win a $2,025 scholarship! How to Enter: Be a Fastweb member. Answer a multiple-choice question. There's no wrong answer. Submit your entry by March 18, 2025. You can, and should, enter daily! Deadline: 3/18/25
Award Amount: $2,025

Lasker Essay Contest

The Lasker Essay Contest is open to medical school students, interns, residents, and fellows; doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in biomedical sciences; and graduate students in public health or other health professions programs. To be considered, you must submit an 800 - word essay on the following topic: "Identify a specific innovation in education or training to help ensure a sustainable, inclusive, and successful future biomedical research workforce." Deadline: 3/31/25
Award Amount: $5,000

Winter 2025 Fastweb Invite a Friend Sweepstakes

The Fastweb Invite a Friend Sweepstakes is open to registered Fastweb members who are legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, and who are at least sixteen (16) years of age. You must log into your Fastweb account to obtain your personal referral link. For each person who registers for Fastweb via your personal referral link during the Promotion Period, you and your referral will be entered as a pair into the current drawing. Deadline: 3/31/25
Award Amount: $1,000

Lighthouse Graduate School Scholarship

The Lighthouse Graduate School Scholarship is available to students who are legally blind. You must be pursuing a Master's, PhD, or any other post - Baccalaureate degree to be considered for this award. Deadline: 3/31/25
Award Amount: Varies

WEF Canham Graduate Studies Scholarship

The WEF Canham Graduate Studies Scholarship is available to graduate students in the water environment field. You must be a member of the Water Environment Federation to be eligible for this award. A 750 - to 1000 - word essay is also required. Deadline: 3/31/25
Award Amount: $25,000

Goodwall #ScholarshipNow Challenge

Participate in the #ScholarshipNow challenge for a chance to win $2,500! To participate, download the Goodwall app and simply share a video telling us how winning this scholarship would help you achieve your educational goals, on the hashtag #ScholarshipNow. Deadline: 3/31/25
Award Amount: $2,500

Richard A. Freund International Scholarship

The Richard A. Freund International Scholarship is available to graduate students who are studying the theory and application of quality control, quality assurance, quality improvement, and total quality management within engineering, statistics, management, or behavioral foundations. You must have a minimum GPA of 3.25 to be considered for this award. Deadline: 4/1/25
Award Amount: $5,000

Samvid Scholarship

The Samvid Scholarship is available to full - time, first - year graduate students. You must have an undergraduate GPA of 3.5 to be eligible for this award. Deadline: 4/14/25
Award Amount: $50,000

Emerson Discrete Automation Scholarship

The Emerson Discrete Automation Scholarship is available to undergraduate and graduate students. You must be pursuing a career in STEM to be eligible for this award. Deadline: 4/18/25
Award Amount: $5,000

Herbert Roback Scholarship

The Herbert Roback Scholarship is available to full - time graduate students enrolled in a master's degree program in public administration, public and international affairs, or political science. To be eligible, you must be attending the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, Brandeis University, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, John Jay College at CUNY, Albany / SUNY - Albany, Binghamton, Brockport, New York University, or any university in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Deadline: 5/31/25
Award Amount: $7,500

My Life as a Lawyer Scholarship

The My Life as a Lawyer Scholarship is available to first - and second - year law students. To be considered, you must submit a 350 - word essay detailing how you plan to use your legal education to foster diversity in the legal profession. Deadline: 6/30/25
Award Amount: Varies

American Academy of Underwater Sciences Scholarship

The American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) Scholarship is available to graduate students engaged in, or planning to begin, a research project in which diving is or will be used as a principle research tool. You must be a current, student member of AAUS to be eligible for this award. One award is for a master's degree student and one award will be for a Ph.D candidate, and the remaining two awards will be for the next two proposals that have been ranked the highest. You must submit a research proposal and a letter of recommendation along with your application. Deadline: 6/30/25
Award Amount: Varies

Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholarship

The Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholarship is available to undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in a career as a foreign correspondent. You must submit a cover letter, a resume, and a 500 - word writing sample to be considered for this award. Deadline: 12/1/25
Award Amount: $3,000 - $4,000

Siebel Scholars Program

The Siebel Scholars Program is open to the most talented students at the world's leading graduate schools of business, computer science, bioengineering, and energy science. Deadline: Varies
Award Amount: $35,000
Find more scholarship matches specific to your field of study, grad-school year, and more by creating a free Fastweb profile. Many college graduate students secure fellowships or assistantships as a method of paying for their advanced degree. Grad students apply for an assistantship or fellowship at the program department level, or college level (for instance the College of Science and Technology at XYZ University). Both opportunities help students fund a graduate-level degree while providing practical field experience. Jump to Top Scholarships for Graduate Students

What is a graduate assistantship?

Like work-study programs, an assistantship provides money and/or tuition reimbursement to help grad students pay for college. However, a graduate assistantship program includes work tied directly to your graduate degree or area of interest. A graduate student working an assistantship will, in most cases, be working for the college or university they're attending. Assistantships are considered part-time paid work.

What is a graduate fellowship?

A graduate student fellowship earns a stipend, or payment, and/or a tuition waiver as they work on a grad-level research project related to their field of study. Many grad students select a faculty member to work alongside on the assigned research project; this is often called their faculty adviser. Fellowship funding could be provided by private organizations or through universities. Even after securing a fellowship or assistantship, graduate students still find a financial gap exists as they plan to pay for their master's degree.

I'm a Graduate Student. Is it too late to apply for scholarships?

There are many scholarship opportunities for graduate students. A first-, second-, third- and even, fourth-year grad student has access to scholarships to help them pay for an advanced degree. Some colleges offer graduate school scholarships specific to graduate programs, too.

What's the easiest scholarships grad students can apply for?

Between research, thesis proposals, lectures, and reading, students pursuing a master or doctorate degree are busy! Grad students are in survival mode. Yet these advanced-level college students are searching for ways to pay for graduate school so that funding their degree doesn't feel like a full-time job. Fastweb's Featured Scholarships are some of the easiest scholarships grad students can apply for. In addition to graduate fellowships and assistantships and/or student loans, there are other forms of financial aid available for grad students. Scholarships are a form of financial aid you're not required to pay back!

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Shawna Newman

Managing Editor, Contributing Writer

Shawna Newman is the Managing Editor and a writer at Fastweb. She has over 10 years of experience in higher education. Her direct work with college admissions teams, financial aid officers, college deans, ...

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