Beinecke Scholarship

Basic Eligibility

To be eligible for a Beinecke Scholarship, a student must:

• Demonstrate superior standards of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement, and personal promise during their undergraduate career.
• Be a college junior pursuing a bachelor’s degree during the 2024-2025 academic year. “Junior” means a student who plans to continue full-time undergraduate study and who expects to receive a baccalaureate degree between December 2025 and August 2026.
• Plan to enter a research- or creative-focused master’s or doctoral program in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. NOTE: Students in the social sciences who plan to pursue graduate study in neuroscience or clinical psychology should not apply for a Beinecke Scholarship.
• Be a U.S. citizen or U.S. national from American Samoa or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
• Have a documented history of being eligible to receive need-based financial aid during their undergraduate years, with a slight preference for Pell Grant recipients. Other evidence of meeting this criterion is a student’s history of receiving need-based institutional, state, or federal grants-in-aid. The nominated student will be required to complete and submit a Financial Aid Data Sheet outlining how the student meets this criterion. During the selection process, the amount of financial need will be one of the factors considered, with preference given to candidates for whom the awarding of a Beinecke Scholarship would significantly increase the likelihood of the student’s being able to attend graduate school.

Selection Criteria

There are four primary criteria by which applicants will be
evaluated:

• Evidence of academic success and relevant academic background: Does the transcript show evidence of high academic achievement? Does the coursework prepare the candidate for the planned field of study? Is there other evidence of high-level performance (e.g., merit scholarships, academic prizes, artistic creations, research publications)?
• Clarity of research/creative focus: Are the research questions/creative impact and career path well-defined, coherent, and well thought through? Does the candidate’s writing give evidence of higher-order thinking skills and the ability to express thoughts clearly and without jargon?
• Knowledge and fit of proposed graduate programs: Has the candidate proposed graduate programs that are appropriately ambitious and a good fit for their scholarly and career plans?
• Quality and breadth of recommendations: Are the recommendations excellent and from people who know the candidate and can make informed comparisons with other students? Can any of the recommendations speak to the relevance of the proposed research/creative work, the suitability of the proposed courses, and the ability of the candidate to undertake and excel at scholarly research/creative work?