We list 5 fully Funded Undergraduate Scholarships Open to Nigerian Students in the United States, with the deadline, study level and eligibility of each one taken from the award's own terms. Awards with a known closing date are listed soonest first.
Written from the 5 awards on this page — every figure below is counted from what the awards themselves state. 5 min read.
This page collects 5 fully funded undergraduate scholarships in the United States that are open to Nigerian students. Every award here is labelled fully funded by the body offering it, and every one of the five is at bachelors level. The providers named on the list are Clark University, Berea College, the ACI Foundation, the University of Miami and Yale University.
None of the five restricts nationality. That is worth stating plainly, because it is the single most common reason Nigerian applicants talk themselves out of applying. Of the five awards, none names Nigeria or a region as a condition of entry; all five carry no nationality restriction at all. What each one does require is a place on the degree programme, and that is where the real work sits.
The pathway into this list is straightforward. You finished secondary school. Your qualifications are WAEC, NECO, NABTEB or SSCE. The level is undergraduate, a first degree.
Most awards at this level ask for your senior secondary results and an admission offer, and each award page quotes its own entry requirement. Read that line carefully on every page you open. A scholarship described as open to international students is not the same as one that will accept your SSCE grades in place of a US high school diploma, and the award text is the only place that distinction is settled.
Nigerian students are a visible presence in the United States. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics puts the number at 16,632 Nigerian students in the United States in 2023, the second-largest group from any country. That figure describes the student body, not your chances. It does tell you that admissions offices in the US read Nigerian transcripts regularly and know what a WAEC result slip looks like.
All five awards on this page are labelled fully funded. Beyond that label, what each one commits to in writing varies.
Those two groups overlap, so do not read them as a combined total. The remaining awards do not spell out their components in the text we hold, and you should not assume a benefit that is not written down. Where an award names tuition, check whether it also covers accommodation, feeding, books, health insurance and the flight. In the US, a tuition-only award can still leave a bill that a Nigerian family cannot absorb, and living costs in a US college town are not small.
Durations on the list run from 4 years to 4 years or longer depending on the major, with one award stated as 4 years (8 semesters). Funding that stops before your final year is a planning problem, so confirm the renewal conditions before you accept anything.
The ACI Foundation award is the one entry on this page that is not a pure bachelors award; it also covers masters, PhD and postdoctoral study, and it sits on this list because undergraduates may apply. The Yale page likewise spans more than one level. If you are applying straight from secondary school, treat the Clark, Berea and Miami pages as your primary reading, and read the other two for the parts that apply to you.
The five awards spread across five subject areas, one award each: Arts & Humanities, Business & Management, Computer Science & IT, Medicine & Health Sciences, and Natural Sciences. That spread matters when you are choosing where to send your effort. If your intended major sits in one of those areas, at least one award on this page was written with a student like you in mind. If it does not, this particular list is not your list, and you should look at the wider set of US awards on the site.
Two requirements appear in the award text, and they are the ones that cost Nigerian applicants time and money.
An English test is the expensive item. Sitting IELTS or TOEFL in Nigeria means paying the test fee, travelling to a test centre, and waiting for the result to reach the university. Book early. If you are applying to more than one award on this list, one test score can serve several applications, provided it is still valid when each deadline falls.
Letters of recommendation need lead time too. Give your referee at least three weeks, and give them something to work with: your results, your intended course, and a short note on what you have done outside the classroom. A referee writing from memory produces a letter that reads like everyone else's.
Where an award does not state an English test requirement, do not assume a waiver exists. Check the award page and the university's international admissions page directly.
One award on this page carries a dated deadline, one is still open, four are undated in the text we hold, and one recurs. The busiest month is November, with one deadline falling in it.
The award closing soonest is the ACI Foundation Scholarship 2026-2027 (Fellowships), which closes 1 November, 24 days from now. If you intend to apply for it, that is your next piece of work.
Other deadlines on the list fall in November, January and March, and one page states its deadline as "see details". Treat an undated deadline as a reason to open the award page rather than a reason to relax. US undergraduate funding is usually tied to the admission round, so the scholarship deadline and the admission deadline are often the same date, and missing it means waiting a full year.
Start with the award that closes soonest. Open the ACI Foundation page, read the eligibility line, and decide within the next few days whether you are applying. Then work through the other four pages and note, for each one, the entry requirement, the deadline and whether an English test is named.
Sort the list by what you can actually produce. If you already have a valid IELTS or TOEFL score, the four awards that ask for one are open to you. If you do not, the test booking is your first task, not your last, because everything else waits on it.
Then gather documents. WAEC or NECO results, your school leaving certificate, a transcript where one applies, and your referee's letter. Nigerian applicants pay for transcripts and courier fees out of pocket, so build that cost into your plan from the start rather than discovering it a week before a deadline.
Finally, apply to more than one. Five awards, five different providers, and no nationality restriction on any of them. The work you do for the first application — the personal statement, the referee's letter, the test score — carries into the next one.
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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