There are many school grants for minorities, if you know where to look for them. The key is to understand that there are undergraduate school grants for minorities, graduate school grants for minorities and grants for minority students in law and medicine.
Undergraduate School Grants for Minorities
The U.S. Department of Education manages federal funds that are specifically for minorities and disadvantaged students. These include the federally funded Pell Grant, one of the largest of the undergraduate school grants for minorities and one of the easiest to get. Award amounts change often and the maximum a student can be granted also changes, but the defining criteria for Pell grants is need, length of study, expected contributions by parents or other family members and the cost of the school attended.
Other undergraduate school grants for minorities that are federally funded include the Academic Competitiveness Grant. Candidates for this grant must be eligible for the Pell Grant too; this grant is for freshmen and sophomore students with excellent academic records and who have demonstrated leadership and service.
Minorities who are interested in the sciences might want to consider the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant. This $4,000 grant is designed for juniors and seniors who are studying math, science, and engineering or computer science. Students must also be eligible for the Pell Grant.
The United Negro College Fund offers a myriad of financial aid programs to African Americans, many of them grants funded with monies donated by supporters of education for African Americans. In addition to grants that are given directly to students, the UNCF also provides funding to colleges that have a large proportion of African American students.
The Jackie Robinson Foundation issues school grants for minorities based on academic showing and need. These grants, worth up to $7,500 a year, are to be used for attendance at a four-year college or university. Along with the grant, students get a four-day “Scholar’s Networking Weekend” in New York City during the spring for each of the years the recipient is receiving the grant.
Some universities that have had a historically high percentage of minority students offer grants to students. Washington, D.C.’s Howard University, for example, offers a few grants to freshmen based on academic merit. The school also offers the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Program and the Frederick Douglass Scholars Program, both grants that are offered based on academic merit.
In Atlanta, Morehouse College offers a number of grants to African American students; these grants are based on academic merit but also on program majors and athletic excellence.
Other undergraduate school grants for minorities are specific to a major and industry. For example, the National Black Nurse Association offers about a dozen grants for African American students enrolled in nursing programs. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants also offers grants for minority students, specifically those enrolled in a four-year program in accounting or finance.
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Graduate School Grants for Minorities
There are many graduate school grants for minorities. Many programs, both independent of universities and those connected with universities, work to ensure that minorities continue their education into the post-graduate world and provide grants to ensure this.
The March of Dimes Nursing Scholarships are applied primarily to minority students who seek funds to continue their nursing education past the undergraduate level. These grants help students prepare for work in leadership roles, including administration and as faculty members.
There are also grants for minorities available from the American Psychological Association, which offers a fellowship program that is offered to minority students enrolled in psychology programs at the graduate level.
Many of the grants offered by the March of Dimes and the APA are school grants for minority women, in order to ensure that minority women are also served at the post-graduate level.
Minority students who are continuing their education at the same school where they received their undergraduate degree should look into grants offered by their school. Many universities have school grants for minorities that are designed to encourage students to continue their education at the school and that help to fund part of that education.
Law School Grants for Minorities
It used to be that few minorities were found in the legal field, but thanks to a number of grants and scholarships specifically for minorities, many minorities have found themselves in law school and successful in the legal world.
Over the past decade in particular there have been many more grants available for minorities to continue their education at law school. In an effort to level the playing field, the American Bar Association offers a number school grants for minorities. These include grants that are specifically for Puerto Rican students and African American students. Several law schools, including those at the University of Michigan and Cornell University, actively seek more minority students by offering grants and scholarships.
If minority students are interested in working with typically underserved populations, there’s a grant that is specific to that. The Equal Justice Works Fellowships offer two-year grant programs that include salaries and loan repayment assistance to students who are working on interesting and unusual legal projects that serve those underserved populations.
Medical School Grants for Minorities
Medical school grants for minorities are a little harder to find than school grants for minorities in general. This isn’t due to the “minority” component as much as the fact that grants for medical school are simply harder to find in general.
But minorities who want to attend medical school and get the help of a grant in the process can consider several possibilities. First, minorities should look into grant programs offered by the medical school they want to attend. Many times there are grants specifically for minority students designed to encourage minorities to attend medical school.
Second, medical school grants can be found at the university where the student attended undergraduate school. If that student wants to continue his or her education at the university’s medical school, grants might available to help facilitate that.
Some grants, like the grant offered by the American Educational Research Association, offer grants to students pursuing specific studies; this grant is offered to minority students who are writing a dissertation on medical research.
School grants for minorities attending medical school can also be found through the American Medical Association (especially the American Medical Student Association local projects grant program which offers grants to students focusing on community-based medicine) and the National Institutes of Health.
