Private scholarships based on academic achievements

[shockwave]

Hi everyone.

Perhaps this is the wrong place to post this, so do feel free to change the location. But I was wondering if there were private scholarships(or any scholarships in general) that are based strongly on academic achievements. It seems like it is easier for me to find scholarships based on the fact that my grandparents are Italian and Polish, than it is for me to find scholarships for the fact that I am a 3.9 GPA, with international conference presentations, a recognized and validated academic journal publication, and five year of dedicated hard work though undergrad and gradschool. My university does not offer much funding and I need to seek other sources to help out. I am already $40,000 in debt and I don't want to see that increase. I was wondering if there were any scholarships that actually recognize people for their academic excellence, or are they all based on silly criteria that are not much an indication of a person's work ethic or potential?

Thanks everyone.

[anthropologygeek]

There are a ton of fellowships for both academic accomplishments and your heritage and normally the heritage fellowships are completive and require the academic part to be on par

[Eigen]

If we're talking about graduate programs, these are generally fellowships rather than scholarships.

And I've not personally run across any fellowships that aren't based on academic effort, experience and potential.

[TakeruK]

In addition, these are usually "internal" -- that is, you might be automatically considered when you apply to the grad school. If your academic achievements are in the top tier of people they accept, then you may be offered a fellowship along with your admission. Sometimes, the Graduate School gives each department a pot of money to divide up as fellowships among their students as they see fit, and sometimes departments will nominate their best candidates for internal fellowships. In the latter case, sometimes you may be asked to provide additional information so they can do this.

In addition, what about national research council scholarships/fellowships? In Canada, we have the NSERC that funds the Natural Sciences and Engineering students, SSHRC for Social Sciences and Humanities, and CIHR for health research. They provide awards at the $22,000/year, $35,000/year and $50,000/year level based on academic achievement, research experience, and potential. In the US, I know that the NSF is the equivalent of NSERC and they have a similar program with similar funding. So, maybe there is a similar fellowship/scholarship program from the US counterpart to SSHRC? We also have a similar granting agency at the provincial level that funds all graduate students, regardless of discipline, from the same pool of money. So another thing to check would be your state's ministry of education (or whatever the equivalent is called).

[shockwave]

Thanks for the input everyone. Since my current university is rather lacking in internal sources, I would need some sort of external funding coming from somewhere outside of my university.

I know there are a lot of fellowships within most universities, especially ones which offer a great deal of funding to PhD students(of which I am gooing to be applying for). However, in regard to my situation, someone looking for funding externally at the MA level before matriculating into a PhD program, these fellowships would be my best bet for securing some sources of outside funding? Not particuarly scholarships correct?

[juilletmercredi]

The vast majority of scholarships are based on academic achievement, especially at the graduate level. I've actually never seen a scholarship that was based solely (or even primarily) on racial/ethnic identity.

Your profile thing says you are in the social sciences. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship funds some social science fields (most, actually). The Javits Fellowship does also. But only on the PhD level. There aren't actually a lot of fully-funded external scholarships for MA students.