Goldwater Scholarship

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awards scholarships to sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research-focused careers in engineering, mathematics, and the natural sciences.

These scholarships are up to $7,500 a year to help cover costs associated with tuition, fees, books, and room and board. Sophomores who are awarded the scholarship will receive up to $7,500 in both their junior and their senior years. Juniors who receive the scholarship will receive up to $7,500 in their senior year. (Read more about scholarship amount.)

As a general guide, it is helpful when applicants for nomination demonstrate that they:

Have been actively conducting research in an eligible STEM discipline in one or more research settings, including at Georgetown University and/or other institutions
Can clearly describe the centrality of research in their future educational and career plans
Are sharing their research through presentation and/or publication
Have three recommenders who can substantively discuss their approach to discovery in STEM coursework and research settings, as well as their future research goals

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This page has been updated with information about applying during academic year 2026-2027.

Requirements

Be a currently or previously matriculated sophomore or junior pursuing a degree at an accredited 2- or 4-year institution of higher education and be a full-time matriculated student during the academic terms when receiving scholarship support from the Foundation. Review carefully Goldwater’s definition of sophomore and junior.
Applicants must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or national, or a permanent resident.
Please review the Goldwater Scholarship eligibility webpage closely.
Please review closely the Goldwater Scholarship webpage: “Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Development of a Goldwater Scholarship Application.”

Application Process

University nomination is required to apply for the Goldwater Scholarship; applicants cannot apply without it. To apply for internal endorsement, candidates should submit the following to fellowships@georgetown.edu by the internal endorsement deadline: November 9, 2026 at 12 PM (noon, not midnight) ET:

A Parchment transcript
Fill out a brief pre-application in the Goldwater portal. NOTE: You will have access to the full application after your pre-application is approved. Please fill out the pre-application well before the November 9 deadline to give yourself time to fill out the full application, which is required by the November 9, 2026 due date.
Three letters of recommendation from professors/research mentors who may speak to your research experiences and strengths in your chosen discipline. NOTE: Recommenders, by this same due date, should email these letters directly to fellowships@georgetown.edu. Letters should be on letterhead and signed. (Recommenders should review guidance provided by the Goldwater Foundation.)
Research essay; the Research Essay must have a title.
CRF Advising Waiver and Agreement Form
Hyperlinks should not be included in the applicant’s essays or in the letters of recommendation. Reviewers will not use these links.
Full application in the Goldwater portal – visit an example of the online application.

The University may nominate up to four current sophomores or juniors to the Barry M. Goldwater Foundation. Additionally, Georgetown may nominate up to six students if one is a transfer student and one is a U.S. Veteran. Note: The fifth and sixth nominees cannot be two transfer students or two U.S. Veterans.

Dates: 2026-2027 Application Cycle

Application Opens: Submit a pre-application in the Goldwater Scholarship portal beginning Tuesday, September 1, 2026.

Internal Nomination Full Application Due (Required to Apply): Monday, November 9, 2026 at 12 PM (noon, not midnight) ET

National Deadline for GU Nominees: Friday, January 29, 2027, 6 PM ET. Applications to Goldwater require internal nomination from Georgetown. Georgetown will require that nominees have their ready-to-submit applications completed several days before Goldwater’s January 29 deadline.

Goldwater Scholars Announced: March 26, 2027, 12 PM ET.

Nomination Process and Application Tips

Each year, applications for nomination for the Goldwater Scholarship are reviewed by a committee to determine the university’s nominees. Participants in this confidential committee review process include Georgetown University professors from related academic departments on campus and may also include previous Georgetown University Goldwater Scholarship recipients.

According to previous Zoom presentations hosted by the Goldwater Foundation, including foundation representatives and application reviewers:

Applications should demonstrate the applicants’ “exceptional promise” in research.
The question, “What are your career goals and professional aspirations,” is one of the first things reviewers will read. It was suggested that applicants share in this answer a compelling, enthusiastic, and clear statement that makes the reviewer become energized to read the rest of the application. This would include applicants bringing together current research/academic work, clearly stated research focus, ideal career research settings, and how whatever graduate degree path they select will support their research goals.
If applicants’ future plans include a clinical-/practice-focused degree without an accompanying research-focused degree, the reviewers must be convinced that they are genuinely planning to make research prominent within their careers and will want to know how that will occur. A presenter suggested that they need to feel that, in this case (for example, an MD degree without an accompanying PhD degree), a career would still be about 60% research and 40% practice.
Presenters shared that a common mistake in the research essay involves applicants not using “I” to describe their individual contributions to the project, especially if it is a project done in a research group. The essay should show applicants “think like a scientist,” both demonstrating the skills they particularly brought to/developed in the project (or will if it is a project proposal) and illuminating their thought processes/thinking in developing the research question, collecting and analyzing data, and describing findings, study limitations, and next steps, etc.
The research essay should thoughtfully describe one project. If applicants have done related research projects, they should only very briefly address them.