Scholarships for High School Students You Can Apply to This Year

College is expensive, and scholarships are free money you never pay back. The good news: you don’t have to wait until senior year. Some of the biggest awards are open to freshmen and sophomores, and a few are for juniors only.

Here are scholarships for high school students you can apply to this school year, sorted by grade, plus how to find local ones and spot scams. We checked every deadline and amount on the official sites in October 2026.

Quick list

Open to any high school grade

VFW Voice of Democracy

Who: grades 9-12. What you do: record an audio essay on the year’s patriotic theme. Award: the national first-place winner gets a $35,000 scholarship, other national awards go up to $21,000, and each state’s first-place winner gets at least $1,000. Deadline: turn in your entry form and essay to a local VFW Post by midnight, Oct. 31, 2026. Close, but an audio essay is doable in a weekend.

JFK Profile in Courage Essay Contest

Who: grades 9-12 at public, private, parochial or home schools. What you do: write about an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official. Award: the first-place winner gets $10,000, second place $3,000 and three finalists $1,000 each. Deadline: Jan. 11, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Who: teens in grades 7-12, age 13 and up. What you do: submit art, photography or writing. Award: Best-in-Grade winners get $500, and seniors who submit a portfolio of six works can win up to $12,500. Deadline: by region, the first ones are Dec. 1, 2026 and some run to Jan. 4, 2027. There’s an entry fee ($15 per work, $40 per portfolio), and fee waivers are available if you can’t afford it.

Davidson Fellows

Who: students 18 or under who have finished a significant piece of work in science, technology, engineering, math, literature, music, philosophy or “outside the box.” Award: $100,000, $50,000 or $25,000. Deadline: the 2027 application opens in fall 2026. This one is for a big project you’ve already done, not a quick essay.

For juniors

Horatio Alger National Scholarship

Who: high school juniors with financial need who have pushed through hard circumstances. Award: 105 scholarships of $25,000 each nationwide, plus state programs. When: the junior application runs Dec. 1 to Mar. 1. One application puts you in the running for every Horatio Alger scholarship you qualify for.

For seniors

Regeneron Science Talent Search

Who: seniors with an original research project. Award: the 2026 finalists competed for more than $1.8 million, with a top prize of $250,000. Deadline: Nov. 5, 2026, 8 p.m. Eastern.

Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship

Who: high-achieving seniors with financial need. Award: up to $55,000 a year toward a bachelor’s degree, after your college’s own aid. Deadline: Nov. 11, 2026.

Elks Most Valuable Student

Who: seniors who are U.S. citizens and plan to go to a four-year college full time. Award: 500 national scholarships: the top 20 get $30,000 and 480 runners-up get $4,000. Deadline: Nov. 12, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

Coca-Cola Scholars (plan for next year)

The 2027 application is already closed, but put it on your calendar. The first round is open Aug. 3 to Sept. 30 every year for seniors, and it asks for no essays, transcript or recommendations. The 2026 class had 150 Coke Scholars, each with a $20,000 scholarship.

Don’t skip local scholarships

National awards get thousands of applicants. Local ones often get a handful, so your odds are way better, even if the checks are smaller. Places to look:

• Your school counseling office. Ask for the local scholarship list, and ask again in January.
• Your community foundation: search “[your city or county] community foundation scholarships.”
• Clubs and organizations in your town: Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, churches, credit unions.
• Your parents’ employers and unions. Many have scholarships for employees’ kids.
• Your own job. Some big employers offer scholarships to teen workers. Ask your manager.

For a bigger search, the Federal Student Aid site links to a free scholarship search, and your counselor will know which ones students from your school have won before.

How to make applying easier

• Keep one calendar with every deadline, and set a reminder a week before each.
• Write one strong “about me” essay and adapt it. Many prompts boil down to: who are you, what have you overcome, what do you want to do.
• Have a resume ready. Use our teen resume template to list activities, jobs and volunteering in one place.
• Ask for recommendation letters early, at least three weeks before. Here’s how to email a teacher so they say yes.
• Apply to the small ones too. Five $500 awards add up to $2,500.

How to spot a scholarship scam

Federal Student Aid says you don’t have to pay for help finding money for college. Some paid advice services charge well over $1,000 for information you can find yourself for free. Watch out for:

• “We guarantee you’ll get aid.” Nobody can promise that.
• “Buy now or miss this opportunity.” Pressure is a red flag.
• A “processing fee” to receive a scholarship you supposedly already won.
• Requests for a bank account or credit card number to “hold” an award.
• Contact out of the blue saying you’ve been “selected” for something you never applied to.

A small entry fee for a well-known contest with fee waivers, like Scholastic’s, is different from paying someone to “find” or “release” money. If you’re not sure, ask your counselor before you pay anything or share your details.

Questions people ask