Officially checked on July 23, 2026. The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship 2027 application is open and closes on October 29, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The program plans to select 77 finalists and 30 Fellows for funding beginning in fall 2027.
Official source: Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans •Last updated:
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship 2027 is now open for immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing eligible graduate or professional degrees in the United States. Thirty Fellows will receive up to $90,000 each through a combination of tuition and stipend support over two academic years. This guide explains who qualifies as a New American, which degrees and universities are eligible, how the $90,000 funding works, what documents and essays are required, and what happens during the virtual finalist interview.
Officially checked on July 23, 2026. The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship 2027 application is open and closes on October 29, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The program plans to select 77 finalists and 30 Fellows for funding beginning in fall 2027.
Immigrants and children of immigrants can receive up to $90,000 for graduate or professional study in the United States. But age, immigration background, degree timing and program type determine whether you qualify. The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship 2027 is not tied to one university or one field, which makes it unusually flexible for New Americans preparing for master's, PhD, JD, MD, MBA, MFA and other professional programs.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship is a national merit-based fellowship for New Americans: immigrants and children of immigrants who are expected to make significant contributions to American society, culture or their professional fields. The program is not a need-only grant and not a normal university scholarship. It is a competitive fellowship that looks for achievement, promise, creativity, initiative, and a strong connection between the applicant's New American background and future contribution.
Readers should understand this early: the fellowship is not only asking whether you are eligible. It is asking whether your story, work, academic direction and future contribution belong together. A strong applicant does more than list an immigration background. They show how that background shaped their perspective, resilience, ambition, discipline, community commitments or professional goals.
Recipients can use the fellowship for eligible full-time graduate or professional degree programs at accredited institutions in the United States. The fellowship does not restrict applicants to one university list. That is one reason this award is valuable: applicants can pursue medicine, law, science, public policy, business, engineering, education, humanities, arts, public health, social sciences and many other fields at eligible U.S. institutions.
The headline amount is up to $90,000 over two academic years. That maximum is made of two parts: tuition support and stipend support. Applicants should notice the phrase 'up to.' It does not mean every Fellow automatically receives exactly $90,000. The final amount can depend on tuition, eligible fees, degree structure and overlapping support from the university or other sources. Still, the maximum award is large enough to make a serious difference for graduate and professional students in the United States.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship supports full-time graduate and professional degree programs across fields. The award is especially attractive because it does not force applicants into a narrow subject category. A future physician, lawyer, filmmaker, engineer, scientist, writer, public-health leader, educator, computer scientist or historian may all be possible applicants if the program and personal eligibility rules are satisfied.
The fellowship considers applicants from all academic and professional fields. That does not mean every application should sound generic. The best applications usually make a clear case for why the applicant's chosen graduate path is necessary for the impact they hope to make. A medical applicant should not sound like a law applicant. A filmmaker should not sound like a biomedical researcher. The field is open, but the argument must be specific.
This is the most important eligibility question. An applicant must generally be either an immigrant to the United States or the child of immigrants. For applicants born in the United States, both birth parents generally must have been born abroad as non-U.S. citizens and must not have been eligible for U.S. citizenship when they were born. The official rules also include an additional pathway for some applicants raised by one immigrant birth parent where the second birth parent was not part of their upbringing.
Do not guess on this section. If your family situation is complex, read the official eligibility page carefully. The fellowship is designed for New Americans, but the definition is specific. A strong application can fail before review if the applicant does not actually meet the official immigration-background rule.
Immigrant applicants may qualify through several official categories. The key idea is that the applicant has an eligible immigration background and is pursuing graduate or professional study in the United States. Depending on the official pathway, eligible categories can include naturalized U.S. citizens, green-card holders, refugees, asylees, certain applicants who completed both high school and college in the United States, and eligible DACA recipients who satisfy the education pathway.
Applicants born in the United States can qualify as children of immigrants when the official parent-background rule is met. The program's wording matters because it does not simply ask whether a family has immigrant heritage somewhere in the past. It focuses on the applicant's birth parents and their citizenship status at the applicant's birth, with a specific additional pathway for some one-parent upbringing situations.
Applicants must be 30 years old or younger on October 29, 2026, the application deadline. Put more directly: you are age-eligible when you have not turned 31 by October 29, 2026. The program states that there is no minimum age and that it does not grant exceptions to the maximum-age condition. This is a hard rule, so applicants close to the limit should verify it before spending weeks on essays.
Yes, current graduate students can apply, but timing matters. Applicants may apply while applying to graduate school, before knowing which university they will attend, during the first year of the degree, or during the second year of the degree. Applicants generally cannot have started the third year of the specific degree program for which they are requesting fellowship funding by the application deadline.
The fellowship is for eligible full-time graduate and professional degree programs in the United States. Some study plans do not qualify even if they are academically useful. This is where applicants should slow down, because a wrong program type can make the rest of the application irrelevant.
The official general eligibility rules do not publish one universal minimum GPA. Do not invent one. The fellowship does not say that every applicant needs a 3.5, 3.7 or any other single number. That does not mean grades are irrelevant. Applicants submit transcripts, and reviewers consider accomplishment, initiative, creativity, academic preparation, professional promise and future contribution.
Accurate wording is better for readers: the fellowship does not state a universal minimum GPA, but selection is highly competitive and applicants must demonstrate strong academic, professional or creative achievement.
No. Applicants can apply for the fellowship at the same time they apply to graduate or professional programs. They do not need to know their final university when submitting the fellowship application, but they must plan to enroll full-time in an eligible U.S. graduate or professional program during the 2027-2028 academic year. The fellowship application and university admission applications remain separate processes.
The 2027 application is online and includes personal, educational, eligibility and graduate-program information. Finalists may be asked to provide official documentation to verify eligibility. Applicants should not wait until the last week to gather transcripts or register recommenders, because the application is not released for review until the required recommendation letters are received.
The application requires two essays, each with an official limit of 1,000 words. Applicants should verify the exact 2027 prompt wording in the live application before final submission. The essays should not repeat the resume. They should explain identity, purpose, contribution, and why the proposed graduate or professional path is the right next step.
Applicants must register at least three recommenders and may register up to five. All required letters must arrive by October 29, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The application is not released for review until it contains the three required recommendations, so recommendation management is not a side task. It is part of the application strategy.
The fellowship itself does not impose one universal standardized test. Applicants submit only the test results required for admission to the graduate or professional program they want the fellowship to support. Examples could include GRE, GMAT, LSAT or MCAT scores. When the graduate program does not require a standardized test, the applicant does not need to create a test requirement solely for the fellowship.
Treat the application like a sequence, not a pile of tasks. First confirm that you are eligible. Then confirm the degree timing. Then build the story and documents. The strongest applications usually give recommenders enough time, revise essays more than once, and make the connection between New American background and future contribution feel clear without becoming forced.
The program plans to select 77 finalists, conduct virtual interviews and choose 30 Fellows. Because finalist interviews happen early in 2027, applicants should keep January and February flexible after submission. Finalists may also need to provide documentation to verify eligibility before interviews.
There is no separate universal written entrance examination listed for the fellowship. The main stages are online application review, selection of finalists, verification of eligibility documents, virtual finalist interviews, and final selection of Fellows. The interview stage matters because it tests whether the application is not only impressive on paper, but coherent in conversation.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship is exceptionally competitive. The program reports more than 3,000 applications for a recent cycle while the annual cohort contains 30 Fellows. That comparison suggests an award rate near 1%, but it should be treated as an estimate rather than an official 2027 acceptance rate. The exact 2027 acceptance rate will not be known until the cycle closes.
Do not let the low rate scare you away if you are a real fit. A strong applicant has a clear New American story, a strong record of achievement, a serious graduate or professional direction, excellent recommendations, and essays that explain contribution rather than simply listing hardships. The fellowship is difficult, but it is designed for exactly the kind of ambitious New American applicant who may otherwise underestimate their story.
Most weak applications fail in predictable ways. They either misunderstand eligibility, treat the essays like autobiography without future direction, or treat future plans like ambition without personal grounding. The fellowship asks for both: a New American story and a serious contribution path.
This fellowship is worth serious attention if you are a New American with a clear graduate or professional path in the United States. It is especially strong for applicants whose identity, family history, education and future contribution connect in a real way. You do not need to have the neatest story. You need a truthful, specific and convincing one.
Eligible applicants must qualify as New Americans under the official immigrant or child-of-immigrants rules, be 30 or younger on October 29, 2026, and pursue eligible full-time graduate or professional study in the United States.
The fellowship provides up to $90,000 over two academic years, including up to $40,000 in tuition support and up to $50,000 in stipend support.
No. Applicants can apply before knowing their final graduate school, but they must plan to enroll full-time in an eligible U.S. graduate or professional program during the fellowship year.
DACA recipients may qualify when they satisfy the program's official U.S. high-school and college education pathway. Applicants should verify the exact eligibility language on the official site.
The application deadline is October 29, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Required recommendations must also be submitted by the deadline.
The program plans to select 30 Fellows from 77 finalists for the 2027 cycle.
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Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship eligibility depends on three big questions: whether you qualify as a New American, whether you are 30 or younger on the deadline date, and whether your graduate or professional program timing fits the official rules.
Official source: Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans •Updated:
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship can provide up to $90,000 over two academic years, split between up to $40,000 in tuition support and up to $50,000 in stipend support. The award is generous, but 'up to $90,000' does not mean every Fellow receives the same amount or that every graduate-school cost is covered.
Official source: Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans •Updated:
The Fulbright Foreign Student Program enables eligible graduate students, young professionals, and artists from participating countries to pursue graduate study or research in the United States. There is no universal 2027 deadline, eligibility rule, or funding package: each home-country Fulbright Commission, Foundation, or U.S. Embassy administers its competition.
Official source: U.S. Department of State •Updated:
Fulbright graduate degree funding is possible in some 2027-2028 Study/Research awards, but it is not universal. Applicants must verify whether the selected country and award permit degree enrollment, whether tuition is full or partial, and whether separate university admission is required.
Official source: Fulbright U.S. Student Program •Updated:
Applications are completed on the official provider website. Be cautious with third-party sites and always verify scholarship details at the source.
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