Scholarship Spotlight
Amount: $24,000
Scope: Partial scholarship
Target Country: United States
Target Audience: Students of Jewish descent
Deadline: November 1 early action
The Bentson Family Scholarship is a highly competitive scholarship available for outstanding Jewish students in the United States. The scholarship is offered by the University of Minnesota and sponsored by the Bentson Foundation. The scholarship is intended to promote Jewish culture in America and abroad and reverse lower rates of undergraduate admission, retention, and graduation among Jewish students.
The scholarship is a partial scholarship, available to incoming freshmen of U.S. origin and transfer students who are Pell-eligible and demonstrate academic merit. The award amount is $24,000, disbursed over a four-year period of undergraduate study. The funds help to defray college costs, including tuition, fees, textbooks, and other academic expenditure.
The scholarship considers a student’s grade point average (GPA), class rank (if available), coursework, test scores, and rigor of academic curriculum based on what is available in high school (including enrollment in honors, AP, IB, A-Level, or college-level courses when available). Students whose native language is not English or who have lived in the United States for fewer than eight years will require an English proficiency test.
This non-renewable financial aid is available to incoming freshmen of U.S. origin and transfer students who are Pell-eligible and demonstrate academic merit.
Eligibility criteria for Bentson Family Scholarship:
- Preferably of Jewish descent or share the Jewish faith.
- U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or eligible for the Minnesota Dream Act.
- Undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota.
- Pell-eligible.
- Display a combination of academic merit, leadership potential, and community involvement.
Scholarship amount
The Bentson Family scholarship offers an award amount of $24,000 over a four-year period of undergraduate study. This award helps to defray college costs including tuition, fees, textbooks, and other academic expenditure.
Eligibility for Bentson Family Scholarship
To stand a chance in clinching the Bentson Family Scholarship, it is pertinent you consider the following scholarship requirements to ascertain if you are qualified to apply:
- You must preferably be a Jew or share the Jewish faith.
- Recipients must be citizens of the U.S or permanent residents, or be eligible for the Minnesota Dream Act.
- Must be an undergraduate of the University of Minnesota
- Must be Pell-eligible.
- Must display a combination of academic merit, leadership potential, and community involvement
- The performance of a student in high school is used to determine the level of academic preparedness. The scholarship considers your grade point average (GPA), class rank (if available), coursework, test scores and Rigor of academic curriculum based on what is available in the high school (including enrollment in honors, AP, IB, A-Level, or college-level courses when available)
- Students whose native language is not English or who have lived in the United States for fewer than eight years will require an English proficiency test.
How to apply?
The Bentson Family scholarship considers all admitted Jewish freshmen and transfer students based on an overall assessment of their freshman application. It automatically considers all applications submitted by the corresponding application deadline date. Hence, it does not require any separate application.
So you can concentrate on getting your admission application in!
You can apply through any of the following platforms of preference: Golden Gopher or the Common Application. Submit only one application, a double submission will hinder your admission decision.
Documents required
To apply for admission to the University of Minnesota, you only require 3 items:
- An application
- Application fee of only $55
- Self-reported academic records like class rank, GPA, test scores etc as mentioned above
You do not need any letters of recommendation or essays! Application opens in August of every year, you can begin applying the August before your senior year of high school.
P.S: All scholarship decisions are made on the basis of an overall assessment of each student’s academic preparation and performance. It also considers additional information provided in the application. If you want to clench this scholarship, you must put up a strong front while applying.
Application deadline
| Deadline Category | Date | Admission decision on Application Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Early Action I Deadline | November 1 | January 31 |
| Early Action II Deadline | December 1 | February 15 |
| Regular Deadline | January 1 | March 15 |
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