Marshall Scholarships for academic session 2024-2025 are currently open for US national students in partner Universities.
Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for a degree in the United Kingdom. Up to fifty Scholars are selected each year to study at the graduate level at a UK institution in any field of study.
As future leaders, with a lasting understanding of British society, Marshall Scholars strengthen the enduring relationship between the British and American peoples, their governments, and their institutions. Marshall Scholars are talented, independent, and wide-ranging, and their time as Scholars enhances their intellectual and personal growth. Their direct engagement with Britain through its best academic programs contributes to their ultimate personal success.
Objectives of the Marshall Scholarship
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- To enable intellectually distinguished young Americans, their country’s future leaders, to study in the UK.
- To promote the personal and academic fulfillment of each Scholar.
- To help Scholars gain an understanding and appreciation of contemporary Britain.
- To motivate Scholars to act as ambassadors from the USA to the UK and vice versa throughout their lives thus strengthening British American understanding.
- To contribute to the advancement of knowledge in science, technology, the humanities, and social sciences and the creative arts at Britain’s centers of academic excellence.
Subject: Unrestricted.
Eligibility: Open only to United States citizens who (at the time they take up their Scholarship) hold a first degree from an accredited four-year college or university in the United States with a minimum GPA of 3.7. To qualify for awards tenable from October 2024, candidates must have graduated from their undergraduate college or university after April 2018.
NB: Persons already studying for or holding a British degree or degree-equivalent qualification are not eligible to apply for a Marshall Scholarship.
Value: University fees, cost of living expenses, annual book grant, thesis grant, research and daily travel grants, fares to and from the United States and, where applicable, a contribution towards the support of a dependent spouse.
Number of Awards: Up to 50 Scholarships awarded annually.
Tenure:
The Two Year Marshall Scholarship is tenable for two academic years (ie 22 months), but maybe extended by the Commission, though not beyond the end of a third academic year. Third-year extensions are granted by the Commission on a limited basis, for strong academic reasons, subject to the availability of funds.
In addition to the third year funding offered by the Commission:
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- up to three third-year extensions may be granted by the University of Oxford to those pursuing a doctorate at Oxford.
- up to third-year extensions may be granted by the Cambridge Trust to those pursuing a doctorate at the University of Cambridge.
The One Year Marshall Scholarship is tenable for one academic year (ie 12 months) and cannot be extended.
Applications: Applications are made in one of eight regions in the United States. Candidates may apply in one region only – either that in which they have their permanent home address or ordinary place of residence/employment, or that in which they are studying.
Closing date: (For the receipt of applications in the appropriate regional center in the US) late September/early-October of the year preceding tenure.
How to apply for the Marshall Scholarship?
Candidates fill out the form and submit it through the system to their undergraduate institution, the institution ensures that the application is complete and decides whether or not to endorse it. If the Institution decides to endorse the application they will add the letter of endorsement and will then submit it through the system to the appropriate regional committee. Candidates should contact the appropriate contact at their institution if they are considering applying for a Marshall Scholarship.
Candidates may apply in one region only – either that in which they have their permanent home address or ordinary place of residence/employment, or that in which they are studying. Any candidate applying in more than one region will automatically be disqualified.
Candidates may apply for either the one-year or two-year Scholarship, not both. Any candidate found applying for both will automatically be disqualified.
Candidates must submit their application on the online form provided. Applications must be endorsed by the President, Provost, or Academic Dean of the applicant’s US educational undergraduate institution. The online application must be submitted and authorized by a designated member of staff at the applicant’s educational institution. Please note permission must be sought to be endorsed by your graduate institution.
No endorsing institution may submit more than 24 applications overall. There is no cap on the number of applications that can be sent to an individual Region, but the overall number of applications that an institution can endorse will be a maximum of 24.
NB Your institution may have earlier deadlines for submission of your application. Whether this is the case or not you must submit your application in a timely manner in order for your institution.
All applicants must complete and submit their applications no later than 5 pm in the time zone where your endorsing institution is located on 25 September 2024. The application will then be processed by your endorsing institution for submission. No changes will be able to be made to the application after this date.
Final submission of the application including the three letters of recommendation and letter of endorsement must be submitted online by the endorsing institution and received at the regional center no later than 5 pm in the time zone where your endorsing institution is located on 30 September 2024.
Marshall Scholarship Eligibility Check
Before completing the application candidates are advised to consider the objectives of the Marshall Scholarship Programme (see the opening paragraph of the Rules for Candidates) and to be aware that the selection committees are seeking candidates who have the potential to excel as scholars, leaders and as contributors to improved UK-US understanding.
To be eligible for a 2024 Marshall Scholarship, candidates must:
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- Be citizens of the United States of America (at the time they apply for a scholarship);
- (By the time they take up their scholarship ie September 2024) hold their first undergraduate degree from an accredited four-year college or university in the United States;
- Have obtained a grade point average of not less than 3.7 on their undergraduate degree at the time of application (if the last grades the applicant received were Fall 2019 this GPA will be used). We do not accept rounded GPA’s.
- Have graduated from their first undergraduate college or university after April 2018.
- Not have studied for, or hold a degree or degree-equivalent qualification from a British University or GCSE or A Levels taken at school in the UK.
Marshall Scholarship Deadline:
The deadlines for the 2024 Marshall Competition were: 30 September 2024 for applicants and recommenders. 5 pm in the time zone your university is located. 30 September 2024 for endorsement and submission by US Institution. 5 pm in the time zone your university is located.
