Engineering Student Grants
Need Financial Help Acquiring Your Engineering Degree?
Engineering, like math, chemistry and the sciences, is enjoying an academic heyday. Recently the federal government expressed concern that American students on the whole, had fallen significantly behind their international peers in academic competitiveness, especially in regards to the sciences.
Engineering students will choose from careers in computer technology, manufacturing, building and construction, science, medicine and teaching.
Federal and State Grants
In response to the issue of academic competitiveness, the federal government added two new grant programs that are offered in conjunction with the Pell Grant. Part of the goal of the move was to impel state education programs to ramp up their own autonomous "Scholars" programs in secondary schools so that high school students could be competitive when it came to applying for the new merit-based grants.
- The Pell Grant awards very economically needy students with grants up to $4,000.
- The Academic Competitiveness Grant is offered to academically talented undergraduate freshman and sophomores who are among the top tier of academic talent in the country. Students must also show they were prepared as part of a "rigorous" high school curriculum.
- National SMART Grant is only available for students studying in math, chemistry, engineering, technology and the sciences. Students must maintain a high GPA and exhibit economic need.
- Washington State's Northwest Engineering Talent Expansion Partnership with the National Science Foundation is intended to vigorously boost the number of students in engineering degree programs.
- Computer Science Engineering Mathematics Scholarship, in association with the National Science Foundation, is valuable for those undergraduate students interested in a major in engineering, math or the sciences. This is both a merit and need-based award.
Professional Organizations
To support their own is a core mission of all professional organizations and associations. Engineering associations are no different and spend quite a bit on grooming students for positions within their chosen field that enable them to be successful:
- The American Society for Engineering Education maintains a regularly updated list of fellowships and grants for engineering students that include the Helen T. Carr Fellowship for historically black colleges, National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship, Naval Research grants and faculty-based fellowships.
The field of engineering, along with math, technology and the sciences has been lagging behind other professions in diversity. Termed "under-represented," the field has traditionally been dominated by white males. Now, more and more organizations are increasing grants focused on the unique challenges facing minorities and women in relation to the engineering field:
- Scholarships with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society are available to Native American students at an undergraduate or graduate level who are pursuing an engineering degree. Students must be able to prove economic need.
- Anita Borg Scholarship through Google supports the education of women in the field of computer engineering. Awards are available for undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. female students.
- IBM Research sponsors internship grants tailored to Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanics. By offering paid internships to engineering students of minority groups, IBM hopes to increase the percentage of those undergraduate students going onto graduate studies.
