The Churchill Scholarship is awarded by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States to graduates of the more than one hundred colleges and universities invited to participate in the Churchill Scholarship Program, for the pursuit of research and study in the physical and natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, for one year at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge.
The scholarship is often considered one of the most prestigious and competitive international fellowships available to American graduate students, alongside the Marshall, Rhodes, Gates Cambridge and Fulbright scholarships. Each year, up to two students may be endorsed by each of the 138 U.S. institutions invited to participate in the program.
History In 1958, Churchill College at Cambridge was founded in honor of Sir Winston Churchill with a primary focus on science, engineering and mathematics. Anticipating the final establishment of the college, Churchill met with American friends Lewis W. Douglas, John Loeb Sr., and Carl Gilbert to ask them to create a scholarship for young Americans to study at the college. In 1959, the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States was established as a nonprofit charitable organization. The Foundation initially made travel grants to Churchill Overseas Fellows, distinguished senior faculty from American colleges and universities who would spend a sabbatical year at the college. Eight of the Churchill Fellows won the Nobel Prize.
In 1963 the Foundation funded the first three Churchill Scholarships for one year of study. Subsequently, the Scholarships funded either one-year programs or three-year doctoral degrees. In order to increase the number of Churchill Scholars, the foundation decided in the early 1980s to support only one-year programs. To this day however, it is not uncommon for Churchill Scholars to obtain alternate funding to support continued doctoral study at the University of Cambridge following the completion of their Scholarship year.
Since 1963, around 602 Churchill Scholarships have been awarded. As of 2016 the Foundation has increased the number of scholarships awarded each year from fourteen to fifteen. The scholarship is worth between $50,000 and $60,000 depending on the exchange rate, covering all university and college fees (i.e., tuition, currently about $25,000) at the University of Cambridge, a living allowance, visa fees, up to $1,500 for travel between the United States and the United Kingdom, and the possibility of an additional $2,000 Special Research Grant.
Eligibility and selection With an acceptance rate of approximately 6.3%, the Churchill Scholarship is less selective than the Marshall, Rhodes, Gates Cambridge and Mitchell scholarships (acceptance rates 3.3%, 3.7%, 1.6%, and 4% respectively), however, significantly fewer institutions are allowed to nominate candidates for the Churchill Scholarship (presently 138 institutionshttps://www.churchillscholarship.org/the-scholarship#participating-institutions as compared to at least 240 institutions for the Marshall, over 320 institutions for the Rhodes, and at least 415 institutions for the Mitchell). Furthermore, each institution may nominate only two candidates to the Churchill Scholarship, so the endorsed candidate pool is initially very selective. By comparison, the Marshall scholarship typically receives 915-980 endorsed applicants and the Rhodes scholarship typically receives 850-880 endorsed applicants, and the Mitchell scholarship typically receives 300 endorsed applicants. In contrast to the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, applying to the Churchill, Marshall, Rhodes, or Mitchell scholarships all require the endorsement of an approved U.S. undergraduate institution. As such, the actual acceptance rates for these scholarships are significantly lower than the official acceptance rate of endorsed applicants (e.g., approximately 1.2% for the Rhodes in 2016). Instead of looking for the canonical "well rounded" applicant, the Churchill Scholarship seeks those with "interesting jagged-edges" and is considered one of the most academically challenging scholarships; the average GPA of the applicant pool is 3.8, and the average GPA of the winners is 3.98 (in 2016 all winners had a GPA above 3.95). From 2014 to 2017, 69% of the winning Churchill Scholars had previously received a Goldwater Scholarship.
Eligibility Applicants for the Churchill Scholarship must be: A U.S. citizen A senior enrolled at one of the institutions participating in the scholarship program or have graduated within the past year Hold a bachelor's degree or an equivalent, and may not have attained a doctorate
Selection criteria Applicants are chosen on the basis of: Outstanding academic achievement, especially in the chosen major Proven capacity for original, creative research as demonstrated by awards and letters of reference Outstanding personal qualities outside of academic pursuits Each participating institution may nominate only two candidates for the Churchill Scholarship, and each sets its own criteria for nomination.
Recipients A complete list of current and past Churchill Scholars is available here.
As of 2021–2022, 82 institutions have had successful nominations, and the number of Churchill Scholars from each school are: SchoolNumber of ScholarsPrinceton University 43Harvard University 39California Institute of Technology 21Cornell University 21Yale University 21Duke University 20University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 18Harvey Mudd College 17University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 17Michigan State University 16Stanford University 16University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 15Johns Hopkins University 14Massachusetts Institute of Technology 14Purdue University 14University of Chicago 14Brown University 12University of Pennsylvania 12Carnegie Mellon University 11University of Rochester 11Amherst College 10Northwestern University 10University of Minnesota 10Vanderbilt University 10Dartmouth College 9Case Western Reserve University 8Ohio State University 7University of California, Berkeley 7Swarthmore College6Carleton College6Indiana University6Pomona College6Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute6Rice University6University of Maryland, College Park6University of Utah6Oberlin College5University of Arizona5University of California, San Diego5University of Iowa5University of Virginia5Georgia Institute of Technology4North Carolina State University4Stony Brook University4United States Naval Academy4University of Pittsburgh4University of Washington4University of Wisconsin-Madison4Columbia University3Georgetown University3Haverford College3Reed College3Rutgers University3United States Military Academy3University of California, Santa Barbara3University of Colorado Boulder3University of Texas at Austin3Williams College3Boston College2Brandeis University2Colgate University2Emory University2Pennsylvania State University2University of California, Los Angeles2University of Georgia2University of Massachusetts Amherst2University of New Mexico2University of Notre Dame2Washington University in St. Louis2Arizona State University1Baylor University1Boston University1Bowdoin College1Bryn Mawr College1Colorado School of Mines1Luther College1Mount Holyoke College1Oklahoma State University1University of Florida1University of Kansas1University of Southern California1Wake Forest University1
See also Fulbright Scholarship Gates Cambridge Scholarship Truman Scholarship Marshall Scholarship Mitchell Scholarship Rhodes Scholarship Schwarzman Scholarship Yenching Scholarship Jardine Scholarship Goldwater Scholarship
References
External links Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States Churchill College at the University of Cambridge