Beinecke Scholarship

$35,000 for graduate school in the arts, humanities, or social sciences.

The Beinecke Scholarship is a rare opportunity to fund your graduate work in fields with limited scholarships — and one of the most prestigious.

Qualifications

• Current junior
• Majoring in the arts, humanities, or social sciences
• Documented history of receiving need-based financial aid during your undergraduate years (you can have a full scholarship to Pitt if you can demonstrate that without the scholarship you would have financial need)
• Superior scholastic achievement (close to a 3.8 or 3.9 GPA)
• Scholarly research experience
• Intent to pursue a master’s degree or PhD in the arts, humanities, or social sciences
• Must be United States citizen or United States national from American Samoa or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 

Only up to 20 Beinecke Scholarships are awarded nationally each year, so you will also need to demonstrate exceptional academic promise to be competitive. If you're selected, you will be awarded $5,000 immediately prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school.  

Application Process

Because this award is highly competitive, you will need to start preparing early. Pitt can only nominate 1 candidate per year, so you will need to work with the National Scholarships Office (in the Frederick Honors College) to receive the official endorsement. 

The application includes:

• A personal statement, which you will need to do several rounds of revisions on.
• 3 letters of recommendation. Your Scholarship Mentor will help you prepare information packets to help guide your letter writers. 
• A financial data sheet to document your history of financial need. 
• And other documents. 

Internal Pitt deadlines for endorsement are in January (earlier than the national deadlines), so you should start as soon as possible. We recommend you begin your application in October or early November. Later applicants will be considered on a case-by-case basis.