January 16, 2018

More than $7.1 million has been awarded to 306 brilliant young people through the Davidson Fellows Scholarship.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship awards $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships to extraordinary young people, 18 and under, who have completed a significant piece of work.

Application categories are Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Literature, Music, Philosophy and Outside the Box. Davidson Fellows are honored every year in Washington, D.C. with Congressional meetings and a special reception.

Davidson Fellows named as one of “The 10 Biggest Scholarships in the World” by TheBestColleges.org and one of “7 Prestigious Undergrad Scholarships” in U.S. News & World Report.

Deadline & Eligibility

Visit the How to Apply page to review category requirements. If you have any questions, please email DavidsonFellows@DavidsonGifted.org.

Step 1: Eligibility

To be eligible for consideration as a Davidson Fellow, applicants must:

  • Be 18 or younger as of Oct. 1, 2018.
  • Be a U.S. citizen residing in the United States, or a Permanent Resident of the United States residing in the United States, or be stationed overseas due to active U. S. military duty.
  • There is no minimum age for eligibility.

The Davidson Institute is looking for students whose projects are at, or close to, the college graduate level with a depth of knowledge in their particular area of study. This scholarship is not geared toward students at the novice level. See specific Category Requirements below.

Davidson Fellows must be available to attend, with one parent or guardian, the awards reception and other recognition events to be held in September in Washington, D.C. (Travel expenses and lodging will be provided by the Institute.)

Step 2: Review Category Requirements and Project Criteria

Category Requirements

STEM Categories –  Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

Humanities Categories – Literature, Music, Philosophy

Outside the Box

Project Criteria

Scholarships are awarded on the basis of significant work. Significant work is an accomplishment that experts in the field recognize as meaningful and has the potential to make a positive contribution to society. Such work may be:

  • an exceptionally creative application of existing knowledge
  • a new idea with high impact
  • an innovative solution with broad-range implications
  • an important advancement that can be replicated and built upon
  • an interdisciplinary discovery
  • a prodigious performance
  • another demonstration of extraordinary accomplishment

Step 3: Complete Application

Access our Application System to complete the application. If you have applied for any other Davidson Institute programs using the Application System, you may use the same login information to apply for the Davidson Fellows Scholarship.

Please save your username, password and security answer. You will need your username and password to log back into the system. If you forget your password, you can click on “Forgot Your Password?” from the login screen, but you must know your username and security answer in order to recover your password. If you forget your user name, please email davidsonfellows@davidsongifted.org;do not create a new account.

Note: If you are logged into the Application System and there is no new information submitted within a 60 minute timeframe, your session will time out and you will receive a server error. Your information may not be saved. The system saves information when you click on the top arrow buttons. If you have not clicked on the top arrow button, it will not save the information you have input on that specific screen. If you receive a server error, you will need to close out of the system and log back in. Therefore, we recommend typing and saving your responses to open-ended questions in another program before pasting the text into the Application System.

In order to minimize the chance of email sent by the application system and the Applications Team being classified as spam by your email provider, please add @davidsongifted.org to your safe sender list and notify your Nominator and all parent/guardians to do the same. Please note the email address used by the application system is an unmonitored mailbox and emails sent to that address will not be read. For further details on adding an email domain to your safe sender list, please search online or see our FAQ: “Q. Will I be receiving any email notifications after I apply through the Online Application System?”.

Click here for FAQs about the Davidson Institute’s Application System.

Step 4: Application Submission & Deadline

Please submit the initial portion of the application as soon as possible. This initial portion will ask you for your project title and description, as well as your nominators’ names and email addresses, if you leave any of these items blank, your application will be sent back to you for completion.

Once the initial portion of the application has been submitted, your project will be held for review.  When your project is approved, you will receive an email notification, and automatic emails will be sent to your nominators with the Nominating Form link. When the Nominating Form is completed, an email will be sent to the nominator and applicant confirming receipt by the Davidson Fellows program.
When you have submitted all of your application materials, the Parent Form email will be automatically sent to your parent(s).

Please note that the deadline for receipt of all application materials including nominating and parent forms is February 14, 2018, 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

SAMPLE Nominating Form (PDF)

Step 5: Review Process and Notification

Each submission is examined for completeness and accuracy. Qualified entries are then sorted by category and evaluated by an independent team of judges comprised of professionals with expertise in related domain areas. The team of judges may, at their sole discretion, consult with additional experts to assist in evaluating the merits of each submission.

The independent team of judges will identify which applicants will be named Davidson Fellows and decide whether they will receive a $10,000, $25,000 or $50,000 scholarship. Judges’ Project Selection Scale (PDF)

All applicants are notified on or before July 15 each year.

Read the Scholarship Rules and Regulations. If you have any questions, please email DavidsonFellows@DavidsonGifted.org.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship Program does not discriminate based on race, gender, religion, ethnicity or disability.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Davidson Fellows Scholarship