Financial Aid and scholarships for international students studying in the US are limited. However, there are some resources that can help you find information on scholarships and loans available to international students.
Resources
UCSB's Basic Needs Resources provide assistance with housing, financial concerns, food security, and more.
One of the most comprehensive sources for locating funding sources is Edupass which began as the international student section of The SmartStudent Guide to Financial Aid.
International Education Financial Aid is a database that identifies scholarship opportunities and banks that have loan programs for which international students qualify.
Financial Aid for Undergraduate International Students is a resource provided by the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA) on various funding sources for international students studying in the U.S.
The International Education Finance Corporation offers loans to international students with a co-signer who is a U.S. citizen.
The UCSB Graduate Division provides information on fellowships, scholarships, and other campus-based sources of financial support that are available to all graduate students including international graduate students.
Scholarships
The Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund gives a very limited number of scholarships to women from developing countries that are pursuing graduate study in fields that benefit women and children in their respective regions.
The International Student Award assists students who are experiencing economic hardship during the course of their studies at UCSB. The award is open to UCSB students in the F-1 or J-1 non-immigrant student status. Candidates must be a full-time graduate or undergraduate student pursuing a UCSB degree (EAP reciprocity students are ineligible). Awards will be dispersed based on need and amount of qualified candidates. Application timelines will be distributed annually via email from OISS and announced in the OISS newsletter. All applications must be submitted via UCSB Global.
Students have access to ScholarshipUniverse, an easy-to-use, personalized hub that makes applying for external scholarships and UCSB-specific scholarships quicker and easier.
To activate your account, simply login using your UCSB Net ID and password. You will then be prompted to answer some questions about yourself, which ScholarshipUniverse will use to match you with scholarships tailored to your unique profile. All scholarships on the site are vetted for legitimacy, so you can rest assured that your information is safe while applying to a wealth of funding opportunities within the ScholarshipUniverse database.
For more information about ScholarshipUniverse, feel free to visit the OFAS website, where you’ll find step-by-step instructions for how to use the tool, FAQs, and more.
International students (undergraduate and graduate students) may be eligible for the following financial opportunities. Please review specific eligibility guidelines on the College of Letters and Science webpage. Notable scholarships & fellowships include:
- Strauss Scholarship For students committed to public service.
- Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Graduate funding for multidisciplinary leadership at Stanford.
- Yenching Scholarship: Fully funded Master’s in China Studies at Peking University.
- Gaither Junior Fellows: Research fellowships at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- Gates Cambridge: Full-cost scholarships for graduate study at the University of Cambridge.