We list 5 fully Funded Masters 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. 7 min read.
This page collects 5 fully funded masters 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 a masters-level opportunity. Four of the five also carry a PhD route, and two extend down to bachelors level, so a Nigerian applicant who is still weighing up whether to stop at a masters or continue to a doctorate will find the same award usable for both.
The providers are a mix. One award comes from Stanford University, one from Yale University, one from the ACI Foundation, one from Penn State Great Valley, and one is listed under USA universities and academic institutions generally. That spread matters: some of these are named university scholarships tied to a single campus, while others are national or foundation awards that can be used at a range of institutions.
Use the list below to see the full set, then work through the sections that follow to judge whether you qualify and what each application will demand of you.
Two of the five do not publish a fixed closing date on the listing itself; you will need to open the award page and read the detail before you plan around them. The other three give you a date you can work backwards from.
Because all five are fully funded, the question is not whether money is attached but what the money is attached to. The awards state their benefits in their own text, and the pattern across this set is as follows.
Read those numbers as what the awards say in writing, not as a promise of what lands in your account. A tuition-only award still leaves you to cover rent, food, books and the flight. Where an award names living costs and travel as well, the gap you have to fill yourself is smaller. Where it names health insurance, that removes a cost that catches many Nigerian students off guard in the United States, because cover is often compulsory and bought separately.
None of the five publishes a monetary value or a number of awards on the listing. Do not assume a figure. Open each award page and check what the provider itself states.
All 5 awards on this page are open to Nigerian students. None of the five names Nigeria or the African region as a restricted eligible country, and none of the five states a nationality restriction that would shut you out. In other words, the route into every award here is your academic record and your application, not your passport.
That is worth stating plainly, because it is not always the case with United States funding. Here, the barrier is paperwork and timing rather than eligibility by country.
On qualifications, the pathway into this study level is a first degree or an HND. The degrees that typically feed into a United States masters are a B.Sc, B.A, B.Eng, LLB or MBBS, and an HND is also named as a route. Note the caveat: whether a particular university accepts an HND for a given programme is decided by that university, not by the scholarship body. If you hold an HND, confirm this with the admissions office before you spend money on transcripts and courier fees.
Where an award states a minimum degree class, the wording to watch for is "upper second". On a Nigerian transcript that corresponds to Second Class Upper, the 2:1. Two of the five awards state a minimum degree class in their own text, so read each one before assuming your class is sufficient.
The requirements stated by the awards themselves fall into four groups.
The English test is the single most common requirement in this set, and it is the one that costs Nigerian applicants both money and time. Book early. Test centres in Lagos and Abuja fill up, results take time to reach you, and you need the score in hand before the award deadline, not after it. If you studied your first degree in English, check whether the specific award offers a waiver; some do and some do not, and the award page is where that is settled.
Letters of recommendation are the second requirement to plan for. Two of the five ask for them. Approach your referees weeks in advance, give them your CV and your statement of purpose, and be prepared to follow up. A referee who is travelling or has changed institutions can hold up an entire application.
Where work experience is named, it is named by one award only. Do not assume it applies across the board.
Three of the five awards publish a closing date. Three are recurring, meaning the cycle returns and a missed date is not necessarily the end of the road. Two are undated on the listing.
The busiest months across this set are October, November and June, with one award closing in each.
Closing soonest:
The two remaining awards, Fulbright and Yale, do not carry a fixed date on this page. Their deadlines sit in the award details, and both are recurring, so the date you find will be the date for the current cycle. Open them and record the date yourself.
Durations vary across the set. One award runs for 1 year. One states that the programme period depends on the chosen programme, running from 2 to 5 academic years. The Knight-Hennessy scholars programme is noted as funding up to the first year, and one fellowship notes that student fellowship recipients are eligible to apply. Treat duration as something you confirm per award, not something you assume.
The five awards spread across seven subject areas, one award each: Arts and Humanities, Business and Management, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Social Sciences. That is a broad spread rather than a concentration, which means most Nigerian applicants will find at least one award in their discipline, but few will find several competing for them in the same field. Choose carefully and put your effort into the one or two that match your background.
Start with the two undated awards. Fulbright and Yale are recurring, and because their deadlines are not fixed on this page, they are the ones most likely to be missed by applicants who only scan the list. Open both, find the date, and put it in your calendar.
Then work the three dated ones in order of urgency. Stanford closes 8 October, the ACI Foundation closes 1 November, and the Musser Fellowship closes 1 June. If you are reading this close to October, Stanford is the immediate task and everything else can wait a week.
Before you spend money, settle three things. First, whether the award requires an English test score and whether you can be waived. Second, whether your degree class meets the stated minimum, remembering that "upper second" means Second Class Upper on your transcript. Third, whether your qualification, particularly an HND, is accepted by the university you are targeting.
Then begin the documents. Transcripts from Nigerian universities take time to produce and longer to courier, and referees need notice. The applicants who lose fully funded awards in the United States rarely lose them on merit. They lose them on a transcript that arrived late or a test score that came back after the deadline.
Finally, note the scale of the field you are entering. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 16,632 Nigerian students were studying in the United States in 2023, the second-largest group from any country. You are not applying as a rarity. You are applying as one of a large and well-prepared cohort, and the awards on this page are the ones that will fund you if your paperwork is in order.
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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