Scholarship Award Winners

Our University of Illinois students continue to shine!

In 2023-24, the University of Illinois had a Rhodes and Schwarzman finalist and over $1 million received among our two Voyager Scholars, Boren Scholar, four Critical Language Scholars, 32 Gilman Scholars, eight students offered Fulbright Grants, a Beinecke Scholar, Soros Scholar, Knight-Hennessy Scholar, and five Goldwater recipients (the most in the country).

Illinois students continue to shine. In 2022-23, two Illinois students received Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowships, one was named a Schwarzman Scholar, two awarded Voyager Scholars, one a Rhodes finalist, three Goldwater recipients, three Boren Scholarships, three Critical Language Scholarships, 22 Gilman Scholarships, and 15 students offered Fulbright Grants (a record 38% of our pool).

Illinois students continue to shine. A record tying 16 Illini earned Fulbright grants (30% of our pool) and another 6 students were named Fulbright alternates. All 3 of our Boren applicants won Boren Scholarships, and in the Udall Scholarship competition, we had both a recipient and an honorable mention. This years award recipients also included a Goldwater, Schwarzman, and Truman Scholar. An Illinois applicant was named a Rhodes finalist, and 4 students were awarded Critical Language Scholarships. Further, a robust 24 students (80% of our applicants) received Gilman Scholarships.

2021 saw a record number of University of Illinois students applying for various awards, and the recipient numbers mirrored that: a Knight-Hennessy Scholar (76 of 8,000), Rhodes Scholar, Beinecke Scholar (16 from 135 nominating institutions), five Critical Language Scholars, and a Boren Scholar. Ten of our eleven Gilman applicants earned a scholarship, and we also had a student named a Udall Honorable Mention. Moreover, for the first time since 2005, all four of our nominated students received Goldwater Scholarships. In the Fulbright competition, 37 of our record 69 applicants were named finalists; among them three were named alternates and nine offered grants in a year that nationally saw a drastic decrease in the number of Fulbright awards available.