Davidson Fellows Scholarships

We award $100,000, $50,000 and $25,000 scholarships to gifted and high-achieving students, 18 years old or under, who have completed a significant piece of work.

Application Submission & Deadline

The 2026 application is now available until February 11, 2026.

• The application process has two parts! The initial portion asks for a brief description of the project/portfolio to ensure eligibility. The second part of the application is where you input your nominators’ information and send them their forms, as well as submit all the category requirements.
• Please submit the initial portion of the application as soon as possible. (The sooner you submit the initial portion, the sooner your application can be approved, giving you and your nominators more time to complete nominating forms and application requirements.)
• Once the initial portion of your application has been submitted, it will be held for review (1-2 business days).
• When the initial portion of your application is approved, you will receive an email notification alerting you that you can continue with your application.
  • In part two of the application, you will input your nominator’s information and send them their nominating forms.
    • Carefully read the SAMPLE Nominating Form (PDF) so you can choose the best nominators to support your submission.
  • Additionally, in part two, you will input a parent’s information and send them their parent approval form(s). NOTE: only one parent approval form is required. If it is a team submission, one parent form is required per team member.
• Students can apply with one project only. If you are applying as a 2-person TEAM, you must email DavidsonFellows@DavidsonGifted.org BEFORE you start the application!
• All intellectual property contained within the application remains that of the applicant. Application contents are only shared with Davidson Fellows staff and judges. Davidson Fellows judges sign confidentiality agreements. No application material is ever published on the Davidson Fellows website. Biographical and project information posted to the Davidson Fellows website has been written and provided by the winners themselves.
• The deadline for receipt of all application materials is February 11, 2026, 11:59pm Pacific Time.
• There is an online video for tips you can check out.
• IMPORTANT: The Davidson Fellows Scholarship does NOT accept community service projects. Additionally, describing a future major or occupation is NOT an eligible submission. Accepted file types GOOGLE PRODUCTS ARE NOT ACCEPTED, THIS INCLUDES GOOGLE DOCS AND VIDEOS.
• Now that you have carefully reviewed the How to Apply page and your category requirements, apply online.

Review Process and Notification

Each submission is examined for completeness and accuracy. Qualified entries are then sorted by category and evaluated by an independent team of judges comprised of professionals with expertise in related domain areas. The team of judges may, at their sole discretion, consult with additional experts to assist in evaluating the merits of each submission.

Any work submitted by an applicant will be the applicant’s own work. Applicants are not to submit their work without acknowledging any word-for-word use and/or paraphrasing of writing, ideas or other work that is not their own. All submissions are run through plagiarism detection and AI-generated text detection software.

The independent team of judges will identify which applicants will be named Davidson Fellows and decide whether they will receive a $100,000, $50,000 or $25,000 scholarship. )