External funding bodies
There are hundreds of funding bodies helping international students attend university in the USA. They include trusts, charities and private donors committed to a particular educational mission.
The Fulbright Award is the only scholarship that offers postgraduate funding for any subject at any accredited US university. The most well known external scholarships for UK citizens are:
- Fulbright Awards: any university
- Frank Knox Memorial Fellowships: Harvard University
- Kennedy Scholarships: Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Thouron Award: University of Pennsylvania
- BUNAC: any university (top-up funding)
- British Friends of Harvard Business School: Harvard Business School
Like niche scholarships, many external funding bodies often have specific qualities they are looking for in applicants, such as:
- Gender
- Country of origin
- Ethnicity
- Interests
- Talents
- Religious denomination
- Medical condition
There is bound to be a scholarship applicable to your situation. The following resources can help you search for scholarships based on your circumstances:
- EducationUSA
- Funding for US Study
- Fastweb (you can register using a US university’s mailing address)
- IEFA.org
- Peterson’s Graduate Scholarship Search
Make sure you indicate you are an international student if this is an option. Many of these searches will also bring up university-specific scholarships.
Applying for them
External scholarship applications are separate to university applications. They might require essays, competitions and/or interviews.
Some scholarship deadlines are much earlier than university deadlines, and some are much later. Schedule your applications sensibly, and remember you can often apply for as many as possible.
