Beinecke Scholarship Program

Beinecke Scholarships are awarded to undergraduates to support graduate study at a university in the United States or abroad. The program "seeks to encourage and enable highly motivated students to pursue opportunities available to them and to be courageous in the selection of graduate course of study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences." The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 through the Sperry and Hutchinson Company's Sperry Fund to honor former company leaders Edwin, Frederick, and Walter Beinecke. Twenty Beinecke Scholarships are normally awarded each year to American college Juniors who have demonstrated unusual ability in fields of study they intend to pursue at the graduate level in an eligible research-focused master’s or doctoral program. Each scholar receives a $4,000 grant immediately prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school.

Yale College is invited to nominate one candidate to the national competition each year. The campus nomination process is coordinated by the Fellowships office at the Yale Center for International & Professional Experience.

Application Information: Interested Yale applicants, after doing some research of their own, may refer questions to Fellowship Programs at the Yale College Center for International & Professional Experience (meetings by appointment). The Fellowships office is glad to advise applicants on essays, the choice of recommenders, and other application strategies.

Applicants must review the official information and application forms and instructions on the Beinecke website, as well as the campus application information here.

To apply for Yale's nomination for the Beinecke Scholarship, the following must be submitted prior to the campus application deadline:

• A completed application form (available on the Beinecke website).
• A statement of no more than 1,000 words describing the applicant's background, interests, plans for graduate study, and career aspirations. The statement should include a discussion of some of the experiences and ideas that have shaped those interests, plans, and aspirations.
• An official Financial Data Sheet (available on the Beinecke website), completed by a Yale financial aid officer.
• Transcripts: For the initial campus competition, unofficial Yale College transcripts will suffice; however, for the ensuing national competition, the nominee must request an official transcript from the Yale College Registrar (to be ordered through the Fellowships office). An official transcript must also be requested from any other institution attended for post-secondary studies. Only one official copy of each transcript is required, and may either be sent directly to the Fellowships office, or hand-delivered by the applicant.
• A current cv or résumé (2 pages max).

Also, applicants must request three letters, at least three weeks ahead of the deadline (and ideally before you leave campus at the end of the fall semester):

• These should be requested from faculty members who know the applicant--and their relevant work--well and who can speak to the applicant's intellectual curiosity, character, and potential for advanced graduate study in their chosen field. Electronic copies of letters may be submitted via the Yale Database.

*Applicants proposing an MFA or similar degree in the creative or performing arts may wish to submit a portfolio of their work, something not unlike like what would be required for application for the proposed graduate program. Applicants considering this option should please seek advice from the Fellowships office, well in advance of the deadline.

Following the campus application deadline, the Yale committee normally interviews short-listed applicants before making its decision. Yale's nominee will have an opportunity to finalize his/her application, with advice from the Yale committee, in advance of the national deadline in mid-February. Following the national selection process, the new class of Beinecke Scholars is normally announced in April.

Eligible are US citizens and nationals who are current juniors at Yale and who plan to attend graduate school in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. There is a preference for candidates proposing PhDs, but MFAs and other research-focused master's degrees are also eligible programs of study.

Students who plan to pursue graduate study in neuroscience are not eligible. Law school, business school, or other professional school programs such as education, architecture, or journalism are unlikely to be competitive proposals for this award. United States citizenship is required by the time of nomination, although US nationals from American Samoa or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are also eligible.

Candidates are required to have a documented history of receiving need-based financial aid during their undergraduate years (see official eligibility requirements on the Beinecke Scholarship website). In the national selection process, preference is given to candidates for whom the scholarship would make a significant difference in their ability to attend graduate school.

All candidates must have demonstrated superior standards of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement and personal promise during their undergraduate careers. They must demonstrate creativity and leadership and are expected to have well-formulated, although not necessarily immutable, ideas about the direction of their future studies and subsequent careers.