We list 13 fellowship Scholarships for Nigerian Students in the United States, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. 9 of them are fully funded. 8 state eligibility that includes Nigerian applicants. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 13 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This page collects 13 fellowship scholarships in the United States that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here sits at fellowship level, and all 13 are based in the United States. The list is a mix of degree-linked fellowships and non-degree fellowship years, so it is worth reading each entry rather than assuming they all work the same way.
Nine of the 13 are labelled fully funded. One is labelled partially funded. The remaining three do not state their funding position either way, so treat those as unknown until you read the award's own page.
Fellowship is the common thread, but the study levels underneath it differ. Six of the 13 also carry a postdoctoral level, four carry a master's level, four carry a PhD level, three carry a high school level, two carry a bachelor's level and two carry a short course level. Some awards span more than one level, which is why the numbers add up to more than 13.
That spread matters for a Nigerian applicant. If you have finished an M.Sc and are looking for research time in the United States, the postdoctoral entries are the ones to open first. If you are applying straight from a bachelor's degree, the master's and PhD entries are the realistic starting point. The short course entries are worth checking if you want a defined period of study rather than a full degree.
Eight of the 13 awards are open to Nigerian applicants. None of those eight names Nigeria or the West African region in its eligibility text; all eight simply carry no nationality restriction. The other five do not state their eligibility on the award listing at all, which means you have to check the award's own page before you spend money on a transcript or a courier.
That distinction is practical, not academic. An award that says nothing about nationality is not the same as an award that welcomes everyone. Where eligibility is not stated, email the provider before you commit to anything.
These figures come from what the awards themselves state in writing. They are not a promise of what you will receive.
The pattern is worth noting. Living costs and travel appear far more often than tuition, which tells you that many of these fellowships are built around a stipend and a research or training period rather than a taught programme with a fee bill. If tuition is your main worry, read the individual entry carefully before you build a budget around it.
Again, these are counts of what the awards state in their own text.
Letters of recommendation dominate. Seven of 13 means referees are the single most common requirement on this list, and referees are usually the slowest part of any Nigerian application. Professors move between institutions, departmental email addresses go dead, and a referee who agrees in October may not deliver in November. Ask early, ask in writing, and give your referee the award title, the deadline and a short summary of what you are applying for.
Only three awards state an English test requirement. That does not mean the rest waive it, only that the requirement is not written on the listing. Where an award does not mention a test, ask the provider directly whether a medium-of-instruction letter from your university will be accepted.
The commitment to return home appears once. If you are applying to that particular award, read the condition in full before you accept anything.
Nine of the 13 awards carry a date, and all nine of those are still open. Four are undated. Nine are recurring, meaning they run again in future cycles, so a missed deadline is not necessarily a closed door.
The busiest months are November, with three deadlines, then October and June with two each. The awards closing soonest are:
One further dated award sits outside that cluster: the Jefferson Scholars Foundation National Fellowship 2026-2027 USA, which closes 1 February.
The subject spread is narrow. Arts and humanities appears twice. Business and management, engineering, natural sciences and social sciences appear once each. The remaining awards do not name a field on the listing, so do not assume a fellowship is closed to your discipline just because it is not listed here.
Providers include The American Association of University Women, the Clark Art Institute, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the ACI Foundation, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation and the Future Leaders Foundation, among others. Some of these are university-based, some are professional bodies, and some are private foundations. That affects how they read an application. A professional body tends to weight technical or industry experience; a university fellowship tends to weight academic record and research fit.
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 16,632 Nigerian students were studying in the United States in 2023, the second-largest group in the country. You are not applying into an empty room. That also means competition for the awards that carry no nationality restriction is real, and your application has to read as more than a set of good grades.
Start with the five awards closing soonest if any of them fit your level and field. Read the full entry, then check the provider's own page for eligibility, since five of the 13 do not state it on the listing.
Work backwards from the deadline. Letters of recommendation take the longest, so line up your referees before anything else. Order transcripts and plan courier timelines around the November cluster in particular, since three deadlines fall in that month and Nigerian courier services slow down towards December.
If nothing on this page fits, the four undated awards and the nine recurring ones are worth returning to in the next cycle. Fellowship deadlines repeat, and a year spent strengthening your research proposal or your referee relationships is not wasted time.
Studying in the United States is a dream for many international students due to its world-class universities, cutting-edge research opportunities, and global recognition. However, the high cost of tuition, living expenses, and travel can be a significant hurdle. Fortunately, a wide range of fully funded and partially funded scholarships are available specifically for international students, offered by US universities, government initiatives, and private organizations. These programs can cover tuition fees, living stipends, health insurance, and even airfare, depending on the scholarship type. Below is a comprehensive list of the top 10 scholarships in the USA for international students for 2026–2027, including opportunities for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs. By applying to these scholarships, you can access world-class education while minimizing financial burdens and focusing on academic and professional growth.
*UNESCO Institute for Statistics, inbound internationally mobile students from Nigeria, 2023.
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