Fully Funded Scholarships in the USA for International Students 2026

The United States is one of the most popular and most expensive study destinations in the world, which makes fully funded scholarships especially valuable. For international students, the best-known route is the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, which covers tuition, living costs and travel for graduate study and research.

Beyond Fulbright, funding in the US comes from three layers: government awards, university-based fellowships and private foundations. Many top universities fund doctoral students fully through teaching and research assistantships. Tuition is waived and students receive a stipend in exchange for their work, which is effectively a fully funded PhD.

For master's students, options include university merit scholarships, department awards and foundation grants. Some programmes, like the Rhodes Scholarship or the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program at Stanford, are highly competitive but fully fund everything.

When you search for US scholarships, filter by funding type and study level first. Always check the eligible nationalities on each listing. Some awards are open to all international students, while others target specific regions or fields.