When are most STEM scholarship deadlines?

The majority of major STEM scholarships and fellowships have fall deadlines (October–November). NSF GRFP closes in October. SWE scholarships open in December and close in February. Google and Microsoft corporate awards typically run September through December. Plan your application calendar around these two primary windows.

How far in advance should I start my scholarship application?

Start 8–12 weeks before the deadline for competitive fellowships (NSF GRFP, Hertz, AAUW) — these require faculty recommendations, research statements, and transcripts. For corporate scholarships (Google, SWE), 4–6 weeks is usually sufficient. Guidance counselors: build a recurring October 1 and January 15 reminder into your calendar — those two dates catch most of the major windows.

STEM Scholarship Deadlines by Month | WIGSAT

🍂 Fall Deadlines (September · October · November)

Fall is the busiest application window — most major scholarships and fellowships open in September and close in October or November. Plan to have your materials ready by late September.

November Funded Women-Only

NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award

Computer Science · Scholarship

A national award recognizing 9th–12th grade women, genderqueer, and non-binary students for their computing ac…

Programs by Deadline Window

🍂 Fall Deadlines (September · October · November)

NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award

AAUW Selected Professions Fellowships

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship

AAUW American Fellowships

Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship

P.E.O. Scholar Awards

CSIRO Young Indigenous Women's STEM Academy

L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Fellowships

Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship

Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future Fellowship

AAUW International Fellowships

Zonta International Women in STEM Award

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship

ATSE Elevate: Boosting Diversity in STEM

NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program

HHMI Gilliam Fellows Program

Rising Stars in EECS Workshop

AWM Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize

AWM Dissertation Prize

The Gates Scholarship

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation College Scholarship

National Merit Scholarship Program

Hertz Fellowship

Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans

National GEM Consortium Fellowship

DOE Community College Internships (CCI)

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

Microsoft Explore Program

Microsoft Research Internship

Amazon Software Development Engineer Internship

Palantir Path Fellowship

Jane Street Internship

ESA Young Graduate Trainee Programme

Regeneron Science Talent Search

ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest

Meta Hacker Cup

NASA International Space Apps Challenge

Science Olympiad

American Mathematics Competition (AMC/AIME)

Breakthrough Junior Challenge

NSA Stokes Educational Scholarship Program

Matthew Isakowitz Commercial Space Scholarship

Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Two Sigma PhD Fellowship

IEEE Computer Society Upsilon Pi Epsilon Award

Sloan Research Fellowship

Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

Congressional App Challenge

IET Future Talent Awards

Groundwater Foundation Farvolden Scholarships (NGWA)

❄️ Winter Deadlines (December · January · February)

MIT Women's Technology Program (WTP)

Ada Developers Academy

Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Scholarships

Generation Google Scholarship: Women in Computing

Google Women Techmakers Scholars Program

P.E.O. STAR Scholarship

CRA-WP Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU)

IEEE Women in Engineering International Scholarship

L'Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowships

AAUW Career Development Grants

AWIS Scholarships and Grants

NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarships — Master's Program

CERN Summer Student Programme

SPIE Women in Optics Scholarship

SEG Foundation Scholarships

AWIS Kirsten R. Lorentzen Award

ANS Delayed Education Scholarship for Women

P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship

Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Scholarships

Iota Sigma Pi Lois Jean Durham Scholarship

DREU — Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates

FIRST Robotics Canada Women in STEM Scholarship

Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship

Davidson Fellows Scholarship

NASA MUREP Women's Colleges & Universities Scholarship

SWE Lillian Moller Gilbreth Memorial Scholarship