Scholarships & Financial Aid

The UC Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office is a valuable resource when looking for ways to help cover the costs of attending UC Berkeley.  See below for more information on scholarships and financial aid.

Annual Scholarsips |Scholarship Lists & Financial Aid Resources

Annual Scholarships

BATTELLE/NOGLSTP Out to Innovate Scholarships

BATTELLE/NOGLSTP Out to Innovate Scholarships is to award scholarships to LGBT or LGBT-supportive students currently enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) or STEM-related teaching fields.

  • Deadline: early June
  • Award: $5000
  • Website

Cal Alumni Pride

Cal Alumni Pride offers scholarships of $1,500 to students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, OR actively supporting gay issues. Awards are based on academic achievement and leadership in campus, community, or job activities. Offered to UCB students only. UCB Students Only

  • Deadline: Mid September
  • Award: $1,500

Chemistry Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Chem-SURF)

The Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Chem-SURF) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), provides a unique 10-week summer research opportunity for undergraduates to become fully immersed in a wide range of exciting, cutting-edge specialized and interdisciplinary research projects.

  • Deadline: TBA
  • Award: $3,500 stipend, on campus housing, and travel allowance
  • Website

Fund for Lesbian and Gay Scholarships (FLAGS)

The purpose of this fund is to provide financial assistance to gay, lesbian and bisexual students who are involved in the community. For more information or an application, send a self addressed and stamped envelope to the address below.

  • Deadline: Mid September
  • Award: Varies
  • Website

Horizons Foundation

Horizons Foundation is home to several scholarship opportunities, each with their own set of criteria, requirements, and guidelines.

  • Deadline: Varies
  • Award: Varies
  • Website

League Foundation

The program is open to self-identified Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender students graduating from high school who are United States Citizens attending an accredited college, university, or vocational school within the United States or Canada. A minimum GPA of 3.0, two personal essays, and two letters of recommendation from non-family members are required. Community involvement, activities, and leadership roles relating directly to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender communities are given priority.

  • Deadline: Late April
  • Award: Varies

Lee Dublin Scholarship Fund

The Lee Dubin Scholarship is sponsored by COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and the Family Pride Coalition (FPC). Three to five $1,000 scholarships are awarded to children of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered parents and guardians who have worked to affect change in the LGBT community and the community at large.

  • Deadline: Mid April
  • Award: $1000

Markowski-Leach Scholarship Fund

This award provides financial assistance to gay and lesbian persons attending San Francisco State University, Stanford University or UC Berkeley students as upper division undergraduate or graduate students. Award recipients will have been determined by the Scholarship Committee to be likely to make a substantial contribution to society, thereby enhancing both society's perception of gay and lesbian people as well as the gay and lesbian community's self-esteem." Successful candidates will demonstrate leadership and a commitment to excellence in their service, employment, or scholastic endeavors as well as dedicated to a goal that will allow them to contribute to the betterment of society. Applications available online in February.

  • Deadline: Mid April
  • Award: $1250

Messenger-Anderson Journalism Scholarship and Internship Program (NGLTF)

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force presents a $240,000 scholarship program for undergraduate students pursuing a degree in journalism or communications at an accredited four-year college or university.  Fair coverage of LGBT issues insists upon the basic premise that all of us are created equally. But media coverage today often begins with the discriminatory notion that equality for LGBT people is somehow a matter for debate. By encouraging LGBT students to pursue journalism and by assisting them with their studies, the Task Force hopes to improve the way the LGBT communities and movement are covered.

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGA)

NLGJA provides several scholarships and awards for LGBT students interested in journalism. These include the $5,000 Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship, the $1,000 Bob Ross Student Scholarship from the NLGJA Northern California Chapter, and the $500 and $1,000 Excellence in Journalism Awards.

  • Deadline: Varies
  • Award: Varies

NWSA Graduate Scholarships in Lesbian Studies

This award provides financial assistance to graduate students doing Master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation research in lesbian studies. Students do not need to be enrolled in a women's studies program. Preference is given to candidates who are National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) members.

  • Deadline: Early May
  • Award: $500-1000
  • Website

Point Foundation

The Point Foundation is a national, publicly supported scholarship fund that provides financial support, mentoring and hope to meritorious undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Awards amounts vary based on need, and are renewed annually until the completion of one's degree as long as key expectations are met in the "Contract of Excellence" signed by each Scholar, which includes a requirement to maintain a 3.5 GPA.

  • Deadline: Varies (usually early spring semester)
  • Award: Varies
  • Website

Queer Foundation Scholarships

The Queer Foundation sponsors an English essay contest to promote queer studies. Three winners will each receive $1,000 scholarships for study in queer theory or a related field. Applicants should be LGBTQA high school students.

  • Deadline: Late February
  • Award: Varies
  • Website

Ronald P. Wilmot Scholarship

The Ronald P. Wilmot Scholarship Fund of the Jewish Community Federation Endowment Fund provides up to three scholarships annually to children of gay and/or lesbian parent(s) toward undergraduate, postgraduate, or comparable degrees at accredited institutions of higher education. Eligibility is based on the applicants exceptional academic and/or artistic excellence and financial need.

  • Deadline: TBA
  • Award: $3,000 - $5,000

The Tang Scholarship

Mr. Edward C. Tang established this award in 2007 to provide financial assistance to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (l/g/b/t) Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) for post-secondary Education. This scholarship is to help LGBT youth proudly achieve educational pursuits and dreams without shame. This scholarship awards up to two outstanding students annually, a combined scholarships totaling up to $15,000. These scholarships are renewable for a maximum of three more years (a total of four years) provided each student annually meets the renewal requirements.

  • Deadline: 5pm on April 30, 2011
  • Award: up to $15000
  • Website

Transgender Scholarship and Education Legacy Fund (TSELF)

This award provides financial assistance to graduate students doing Master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation research in lesbian studies. Students do not need to be enrolled in a women's studies program. Preference is given to candidates who are National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) members.

  • Deadline: Early February
  • Award: Varies
  • Website

Scholarship Lists and Financial Aid Resources

College Scholarships

Features a large collection of scholarships ranging from general categories to more specific ones. No membership or registration is required.

FinAid

This site provides resources for financial aid and scholarships.  The site also has a section devoted specifically to LGBT scholarships.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Scholarship Resources

Contains a list of various scholarships and financial aid resources directed towards the LGBT community.

Graduate Fellowship Available in Diversity Services at Suffolk University

An LGBT fellowship offered by the Diversity Services office at Suffolk University.

National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education

The combined vision and mission on the Consortium is to achieve higher education environments in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni have equity in every respect. Their goals are to support colleagues and develop curriculum to professionally enhance this work; to seek climate improvement on campuses; and to advocate for policy change, program development, and establishment of LGBT Office/Centers.

PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

PFLAG Scholarships provide an important, positive statement to a group of young people that is coping amazingly well in an often-adverse school environment. They are marginalized and subjected to harassment and discrimination in many parts of the country, not only at school but also often in their own families. PFLAG is proud to support these articulate, accomplished scholars with great promise for future contribution to our society in general and to the cause of rights and recognition for GLBT people in particular.  Scholarships are available at the national level and are awarded by many of the local chapters. Applicants can receive both awards if eligible.

Safe Schools Coalition Scholarships and Grants

Safe Schools features a list of a growing number of organizations that want to provide financial support for college bound students, whether they have been thrown away by parents or they just need extra help to complete their education.

Scholarship Connection

The Scholarship Connection database includes over 300 scholarship opportunities. Unless otherwise noted, Scholarship Connection does not have further information on database awards. To obtain additional information, please use the contact information provided for each individual scholarship. If an application deadline has passed, you may contact the scholarship foundation directly to inquire about next year's deadline. For complete, up-to-date application requirements, review the application materials; do not rely solely on information in this database.

Skadden Fellowship Foundation

The Skadden Fellowship Foundation, described as "a legal Peace Corps" by The Los Angeles Times, was established in 1988 to commemorate the firm's 40th anniversary, in recognition of the dire need for greater funding for graduating law students who wish to devote their professional lives to providing legal services to the poor (including the working poor), the elderly, the homeless and the disabled, as well as those deprived of their civil or human rights.   The aim of the foundation is to give Fellows the freedom to pursue public interest work; thus, the Fellows create their own projects at public interest organizations with at least two lawyers on staff before they apply.