Scholarships for College

Greater Worcester Community Foundation offers many college scholarships, ranging in size from $300 to $5,000. Students apply online from January through early March. Recipients are selected in April and May. Scholarships are awarded for the following academic year beginning in September.

• The deadline has passed for our 2018 scholarship season. If you applied for a scholarship, we will notify you of your outcome on or around June 1. Thank you for submitting a scholarship application.

• Renewing a 2017-18 Scholarship: If you received a renewable scholarship in June 2017, your request to renew it was due on January 22, 2018. (If you received a renewal invitation from us, but did not submit your renewal materials, please call 508-755-0980 and speak with our Scholarship Program Manager.) We will notify students as soon as possible of their renewal outcomes.

Eligibility

• To receive most of our scholarships, you MUST live in Worcester County, Massachusetts.
• If you do NOT live in central Massachusetts, please click here.
All of our scholarships are awarded for full-time enrollment in an undergraduate 2- or 4-year degree program at an accredited college or university. If you already have a Bachelor's degree, you are not eligible for our scholarships. Beyond these basic eligibility criteria, each of our scholarship funds have additional unique criteria established by our donors. Using information from the scholarship application, Foundation staff match all applicants with the scholarships for which they are eligible.

With few exceptions, our scholarships are available ONLY to graduating high school seniors in Worcester County. The current exceptions are:

• Worcester County students transferring from a 2-year college to a 4-year college or university
• Children of members of the Worcester Rugby Football Club
• Relatives of members of the Fitchburg Sportsmen's Club
• Members of Congregation B'nai Shalom (Westborough, MA)
• Members of St. Mary's Assumption Orthodox Albanian Church (Worcester, MA)
• Members of Emmanuel Baptist Church (Worcester, MA)
• Relatives of employees of:  Christie & Thomson, Cutler Associates, Cutler Design, Feingold Companies, Milford Water Company, Quinsigamond Automotive Warehouse, R. H. White Companies, Rotman's Furniture Company, Whitinsville Water Company
• Recent high school graduates from Worcester County who have had cancer, or have had a parent with cancer, and are enrolled in a 4-year college
• Adults pursuing their first bachelor's degree after a gap between high school (or GED) and college

How it Works

• The scholarship application is completed via an online form. A link is provided on the website beginning in January. A student only needs to complete one application in order to be considered for any of the Foundation's scholarships. Each applicant is required to upload a current transcript and letter of recommendation.
• Every complete application received by the deadline is given full consideration. Based on the materials submitted, a selection committee evaluates the student’s performance, financial need, and other criteria specified by individual scholarships. By submitting one application, a student is considered for all of the scholarships for which s/he is eligible. Applicants do not need to match themselves to potential scholarships.
• If an interview with a selection committee is required by a fund, finalists are notified in April of their interview time and location.
• All students are notified of their application results by June 1st. Awards are paid in one installment, in July, for the academic year beginning in September. All checks are made payable and sent directly to the student's college.
• Information about our scholarship program is summarized in our Fact Sheet [PDF].

Success Rate

Roughly 20% of our applicants receive scholarship awards. 97% of our successful applicants are high school seniors who will attend an accredited college or university in the upcoming academic year.

Scholarships Awarded in 2017

In June 2017, the Foundation awarded 417 scholarships totaling $636,550. Awards varied in size from $300 to $5,000. Roughly half of them were renewable for subsequent years of study. To learn more, view our complete list of awards: 2017 Scholarship Recipients [PDF].

The Foundation hosted a Scholarship Reception on June 14, 2017 for scholarship recipients, their families, scholarship donors, and community volunteers. Over three hundred people attended the event, which was held at Worcester State University. Pictured above is a student who received a scholarship through Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the donor who made her award possible. View photos from the 2017 Scholarship Reception