41 Study Abroad Scholarships & FREE Grants: Get Funded in 2025

The first on our list is from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Offered to students with limited or no financial means to study or intern abroad.

Intriguing, isn't it?

So, if you're an undergraduate and you're not able to afford to study abroad, you're good to apply for Gilman.

Go get it.

The Gilman Award covers up to $5,000 per semester alongwith two supplemental awards:

• $3,000 Critical Need Language Award.
• $1,000 STEM Supplemental Award.

Right, so if you choose Critical Need Language courses, you may apply for a $3,000 supplemental award.

And if your interestes tilt on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.).

You can apply for STEM Supplemental Award for a whooping sum of $1,000.

Amazing, right?

Oh! wait.

The Gilman scholarship Program also Award $5,000 under the Gilman-McCain Scholarship Award.

This is for the students who are the childern of active military personnel of US army to study or intern abroad.

Critical Language Scholarship Program is a fully funded extensive language immersion program.

Simply put, it's a summer abroad program.

Also referred to as a cultural immersion program or often as a total immersion program, etc.

If you are into learning a new language by becoming part of the natives, living among them. This is for you.

Like Gilman, CLS is also offered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

It is the 2nd of 3 major study abroad initiatives by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Curious about the 3rd?

Alright, you'll get to know about it next. There's yet another great study abroad scholarship program managed by the State Department.

As I hinted earlier, this is also US State Department's ECA-backed scholarship program.

Fulbright scholarships provide opportunities to students/professionals in more than 140 countries to:

• Study abroad in any academic discipline.
• Conduct research abroad in any field.
• Teach the English language abroad at any level.

In a nutshell, these grants allow you to live and study, research, or teach abroad.

Now let's talk about who is this study abroad scholarship for.

Basically, it covers college seniors, recent graduates, and young professionals.

If you fall into one of these categories, try your luck.

The National Security Education Program (NSEP) organizes the Boren Awards for International Study.

The program funds graduate and undergraduate students to study rarely taught languages abroad. You can choose to study during the summer or fall.

And especially, in those regions that are significant to U.S. national interests.

Now you must be thinking about those languages or regions.

OK. To give you a glimpse, those rarely taught languages include French, Swahili, and Thai.

The regions include most of the world, excluding the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

Exciting! Yeah?

Yes, these programs are credit-bearing courses. And if you wish, you can extend your study abroad experience into the spring.

Students (Graduates & Undergraduates) receive FLAS fellowship awards based on their high academic achievements.

What you do is apply to an institution that offers the FLAS fellowship program. The institution then holds competitions to choose eligible students.

And the winners get the Fellowship awards.

Each FLAS fellowship award contains an institutional payment and a subsistence grant.

The institutional payment for an academic year is $18,000 for graduates and $10,000 for undergrads.

Similarly, the subsistence grant for an academic year is $20,000 for grads and $5,000 for undergrads.

Amazing, right?

Moreover, the FLAS grants are for a project period of up to four years. But the institution can grant a fellowship to a student for either one academic year or a summer session.

CBYX is for young high school students and high school graduates.

It is a cultural immersion program where students undergo a complete immersion experience.

For example, a student experiences the local culture by living, eating, and studying as a local.

If selected for the program, you just need to select the city of your choice and start living like a local there.

Everything else, like tuition, training, lodging, dining, international transportation, etc.

All the cost will be coverd by the U.S. and the German Governments together. Yeah, its U.S.-Germany co-funded and co-managed scholarship program.

How thrilling, right?

So all the high schoolers who want to study abroad for free and fully funded, this is your gateway to that.

Go get it. It's limited, only 300 schoolers every year.