Continuing Jeannette Rankin’s commitment to creating better futures for American women, our Jeannette Rankin National Scholar Grant provides unrestricted non-tuition funding and support to women and nonbinary students across the country. National Scholar Grant recipients are age 35 or older, demonstrate financial need, and are pursuing a technical or vocational education, an associate’s degree, or a first bachelor’s degree at an accredited U.S. institution. Scholar Grants are distributed directly to recipients and are renewable for up to five years.
STEP 1:
Take the survey to find out if you are eligible to apply:
STEP 2:
Have you confirmed your eligibility for the National Scholar Grant and reviewed the application process and timeline below?
Applying for a Jeannette Rankin National Scholar Grant?
What you need to know: 2024-2025 Grant Cycle
Application period status: The application cycle is CLOSED for the 2024-2025 Grant Cycle.
Application and recommendation letter deadline: February 16, 2024.
Applicants notified: July 2024 *Only a select number of applicants will be chosen as grant recipients. All applicants will be contacted in regards to your application status whether you have been chosen as a recipient or not.
Preparing your application
See full Application Checklist
Step 1
Once you’ve confirmed your eligibility by taking the survey above, read through the entire application and familiarize yourself with the application components. To help you prepare your application, you can use this Word document Rankin Foundation_Application_Essay_Questions.docx that includes the essay questions as they are listed on the application.
We recommend preparing and saving your essay responses within a Word or Google document, then copying and pasting your responses when they are finalized and you are ready to submit your application. The application takes at least 90 minutes to complete.
Step 2
Reach out to your references/recommenders early. Give your recommenders at least three to four weeks to prepare their letters of recommendation to ensure they have enough time to thoughtfully respond to your request. Note: Your recommenders will not receive the formal request to submit their letter of recommendation until you press SUBMIT on your completed application.
Step 3
Create a Submittable account using the Apply Here button below and submit your application before the deadline. To maximize your success, we advise creating your Submittable account and to begin loading your responses at least six weeks before the application deadline.
Application review process
The Jeannette Rankin Foundation invites a diverse group of volunteers from around the country to serve as application reviewers. Application reviewers are trained, must complete an assessment and sign a confidentiality agreement before they are allowed to begin. We use a three-tier review process where a different group of volunteers reviews each application at each level. Every application is reviewed at least five times by these three levels of volunteers. Finally, we take the reviews and aggregate scores from each level, and the new class of Scholars is selected.
Application review criteria
Your application will be reviewed and assessed based on the following criteria:
- Your academic and/or professional goals. Reviewers assess each application to see if the applicant provides concrete and realistic goals along with examples of how they plan to achieve their academic and professional goals stated in the application.
- Your plan for reaching your goals. Reviewers look to see that the applicant provides a clear plan for how they will reach their goals.
- How you will use your education to give back to your community.