Engineering is a fast growing and extremely lucrative field. There are all kinds of jobs that you can pursue with an engineering degree, from environmental protection to robotics.
While more people picture engineers sitting in labs or behind computer desks, there are also opportunities for industrial and chemical engineering students, that may not be exactly what you would expect. Are you thinking of studying engineering? One helpful thing about pursuing an engineering degree is that most engineering students can find a great job after four years of college, and don’t necessarily need advanced engineering degrees to be successful in the long term.
Of course the cost of a four year education, especially at a top engineering school, continues to rise and finding a way to pay for college can be a challenge. Luckily, because the field of engineering continues to grow, the number of scholarships for engineers that are available is also on the rise. Engineering isn’t just for boys anymore, either. While this historically male-dominated industry currently sees a higher percentage of men studying engineering, there are more and more scholarships for women and engineers, that offer incentive for women engineers to pursue these professions. The National Society for Professional Engineers (NSPE) has two scholarships available to female engineering students, including the Virginia D. Henry Memorial Scholarship for female engineering students who are transferring from community colleges into four year programs. The Society of Women Engineers has scholarships for women in multiple disciplines, as well as programs at most of the major engineering schools across the country. In addition to gender diversity in engineering, a number of societies offer scholarships to minority engineering students.
This includes the National Society of Black Engineers and the National Action Council on Minorities in Engineering.
If you are interested in pursuing advanced degrees in engineering, you can find scholarships for Ph.D students in engineering as well. Most of these scholarships are available through professional societies for engineers, like the National Society for Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Naval Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers…the list goes on. If you are pursuing a graduate engineering degree in a particular field and are interested in a scholarship, you should first find the professional association that pertains to you, and seek out a membership. The Cornell University Library has a comprehensive list of all of the current engineering societies in the country.
One of the largest sponsors of engineering scholarships is the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). SAE offers scholarships to engineering students interested in automotive industry, particularly in areas with a strong automotive presence (either currently or historically), like Detroit.
There are so many ways to find funding for your engineering degree. The best place to start is by looking through the scholarship search section of this site, and don’t forget to check under computer science and mathematics as well, since many of those types of scholarships are also applicable to engineering students.
Barry Goldwater and Black Students in Science and Technology Scholarships >>>
