Presidential Scholarships

Awarded by the Office of Academic Scholarships, these funds are used to attract the best and brightest from a University–wide perspective, including students that qualify for the University Honors program, the Singletary Scholars, the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars, National Merit Scholars, Valedictorians, competitive scholarships for outstanding incoming freshmen and transfer students, Legacy scholars and others. To ensure proper stewardship and to meet strategic enrollment goals, flexibility of funding is important!

University–wide General Scholarships and Financial Aid

The President’s Scholarship Initiative offers exciting opportunities for donors to have a far–reaching impact on many of UK’s students. These scholarships will provide financial aid to students who would be unable to attend the University without such assistance. These funds are critical to our ability to provide a student–oriented approach in the administration of financial aid programs by being responsive to the needs of students, their families, and other constituents. These scholarships are dedicated to helping prospective and currently enrolled University of Kentucky students secure financial assistance to help meet the cost of attending UK.

Opportunity and Access Scholarships

The University of Kentucky has a mission and commitment to aggressively recruit and retain students from all segments of society, including African American, American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and Alaskan Native students. Factors which are considered in the holistic evaluation of these scholarship applications include test scores, grades, an essay, leadership experience, extracurricular activities, awards and recognition, community service and contribution to diversity.

Graduate Fellowships and Professional School Scholarships

Providing support to graduate level students is not only important, but it provides crucial funding for their graduate tuition and their research–focused activities. Graduate fellowship endowments of $100,000 will generate approximately $4000 (under the University spending policy of 4%) in revenue each year to support graduate students.

Students attending professional graduate schools such as Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Law often incur overwhelming student debt as they attain their advanced degrees. Scholarships often are the deciding factor in their decision to undertake the rigors of these careers that will shape Kentucky's future in healthcare, politics and other important arenas.

Departmental Scholarships

An excellent way to invest in the future is to support scholarships in a specific college, school, unit or department. For example, if a donor is a graduate of the College of Education, College of Engineering, College of Medicine, Department of Music, he/she could provide funds for the general scholarships account for those students, who would be selected for the funds based on the priorities of the college/school and /or the University.