Scholarship Programs
Wake Forest’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions offers merit scholarships to fewer than 3% of first-year applicants.
Most scholarships (including the full-cost of attendance Signature Scholarships) do not require a scholarship application, but only a completed admission application by November 15. Finalists for scholarships that require comprehensive interviews or auditions are notified by April.
Merit scholarship programs recognize extraordinary achievement, leadership, and talent. Recipients since 1986 have subsequently earned international and national honors including thirteen Rhodes Scholarships, three Marshall Scholarships, twelve Truman Scholarships, over ninety Fulbright Scholars, and other honors including Gates, Goldwater, Beinecke, and Luce. The Wake Forest Scholars Office provides profiles of selected previous merit scholarship recipients.
Most merit-based scholarships require recipients to maintain full-time enrollment status and on-campus housing.
Some merit-based scholarships also require financial need. A family can estimate financial need by using the Net Price Calculator.
Applicants who believe they might qualify for need-based aid should apply by January 1. Most scholarships at Wake Forest consider financial need as a recipient selection criterion. Separate applications are not required, as recipients are selected based on data from the admission applications and the FAFSA® and CSS Profile® applications.
Wake Forest offers many need-based scholarships from its own funds and from gifts provided by generous individual and corporate donors. Careful internal procedures identify and select recipients so that separate applications are not required.
Please email scholarships@wfu.edu with questions.
Merit Scholarship Program Descriptions
Merit Scholarships for first-year applicants include the Signature Scholarships (full-cost of attendance), other scholarships that require an additional application or materials, and additional scholarships that do not require any additional application or materials. First-year applicants are also automatically considered for scholarships that are available to all students.
- Signature scholarships
- Scholarships requiring an additional application or materials
- Additional renewable scholarships offered to first-year applicants
Signature scholarships
Begun in 1968, Guy T. Carswell Scholarships are awarded to students with outstanding qualities of academic promise, leadership, and talent. Successful applicants have pursued the most challenging curriculum available to them and have achieved grade point averages and standardized test scores (if submitted) that place them in the top percentage in comparison to their peers. Further, Carswell Scholars have typically been leaders in a variety of extracurricular pursuits and won recognition for their interests at the regional, state, or national level.
Carswell Scholarships provide up to five scholarships to cover the annual cost of tuition, room and board, plus $3,400 for personal expenses. Carswell Scholars are encouraged to apply for up to $5,000 for a research, study, or travel project during each of the three summers between the first and senior years.
Finalists are invited to campus for interviews and are notified by the end of March.
Wake Forest awards Joseph G. Gordon scholarships to students who show exceptional promise and achievement and who are members of constituencies traditionally underrepresented at Wake Forest.
Gordon Scholarships have been awarded since 1986, and up to five Gordon Scholars are chosen annually. Each Gordon Scholarship covers the annual cost of tuition, room, and board, plus $3,400 for personal expenses. Gordon Scholars are encouraged to apply for up to $5,000 for a research, study, or travel project during each of the three summers between the first and senior years.
Finalists are invited to campus for interviews and are notified by the end of March.
Begun in 1990, the Graylyn Scholarship is offered to one student each year and recognizes leadership and academic excellence, with funding provided by and in recognition of the Graylyn International Conference Center of Wake Forest University.
Successful applicants have pursued the most challenging curriculum available to them and have achieved grade point averages and standardized test scores (if submitted) that place them in the top percentage in comparison to their peers. Further, Graylyn Scholars have typically been leaders in a variety of extracurricular pursuits and won recognition for their interests at the regional, state, or national level.
The Graylyn Scholarship covers the annual cost of tuition, room and board, plus $3,400 for personal expenses. Graylyn Scholars are encouraged to apply for up to $5,000 for a research, study, or travel project during each of the three summers between the first and senior years.
Finalists are invited to campus for interviews and are notified by the end of March.
We are looking for the best and brightest students who have demonstrated exceptional moral leadership, commitment and purpose. We want students who have overcome great odds, worked hard to accomplish important goals and demonstrated the ability to work on behalf of others. We seek to attract students who have shown virtues such as honesty, diligence, curiosity, generosity, humility and gratitude. In short, we want exceptional students whose lives manifest great character and who seek out a collegiate experience in which leadership and character development will be central.
Many colleges and universities offer full scholarships based on academic achievement, perfect test scores, math and science awards, or accolades in music, art and theatre. Wake Forest proposes to honor another form of excellence: character.
Each incoming class will include a small, selective cohort of top students who will be awarded a full scholarship, based on merit, toward their educational costs. These scholars will participate in leadership and character programming designed specifically for them, and they will be offered experiential learning opportunities to practice leadership and character in service to our campus and within the greater community.
To be eligible for the Leadership and Character Scholarship, students must apply for, and qualify for, need-based financial aid in their first year.
Submit your undergraduate admissions application by December 1 to be considered for this scholarship.
Nancy Susan Reynolds Scholars must be not only excellent students and promising scholars, but also creative leaders who are able to influence others in directions likely to benefit society. They will have achieved unusual distinction in the classroom and beyond. Successful applicants have pursued the most challenging curriculum available to them and have achieved grade point averages and standardized test scores (if submitted) that place them in the top percentage in comparison to their peers. Further, Reynolds Scholars have typically been leaders in a variety of extracurricular pursuits and won recognition for their interests at the regional, state, or national level.
Reynolds Scholarships have been awarded since 1982, and up to five Reynolds Scholars are chosen annually. Each Reynolds Scholarship covers the annual cost of tuition, room, and board, plus $3,400 for personal expenses. Reynolds Scholars are encouraged to apply for up to $5,000 for a research, study, or travel project during each of the three summers between the first and senior years.
Finalists are invited to campus for interviews and are notified by the end of March.
Stamps Scholars must exemplify leadership, perseverance, scholarship, service, and innovation. They will have achieved unusual distinction in the classroom and beyond. Successful applicants have pursued the most challenging curriculum available to them and have achieved grade point averages and standardized test scores (if submitted) that place them in the top percentage in comparison to their peers. Further, Stamps Scholars have typically been leaders in a variety of extracurricular pursuits and won recognition for their interests at the regional, state, or national level.
The Stamps Scholarship is awarded to about fifteen entering first-year students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement, a high degree of intellectual curiosity and scholarship, exceptional promise in leadership, service and social responsibility, perseverance, character, integrity, and innovation. Made possible through benefactor E. Roe Stamps IV and his late wife Penny, and through matching funds from Wake Forest University benefactor Mr. Porter B. Byrum, this scholarship annually covers the cost of tuition, fees, room, and board, and includes a $3,400 allowance for books and personal expenses. Scholars may receive up to $15,000 total over their four undergraduate years for approved travel or study projects. Wake Forest Stamps Scholars join a larger Stamps network of approximately 1,000 current undergraduate scholars around the world.
Finalists are invited to campus for interviews and are notified by the end of March.
Scholarships requiring an additional application or materials
The Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC) Scholarships are awarded through an education services agreement with NCA&T State University. Interested students should contact the Air Force ROTC Detachment at NCA&T State University.
These scholarships are based on academic and extracurricular achievement as well as leadership potential. The four-year scholarships are awarded after national high school competition. The three- and two-year scholarships are awarded after national college and university competition.
How to apply
Interested students should write to:
Department of Military Science
Box 7599, Reynolda Station
Winston-Salem, NC, 27109-7599
Wake Forest University offers students who know that they have an interest in entrepreneurship the opportunity to participate in the Program in Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship early in their college experience. The Lelia and David Farr Scholarship is awarded every four years to a student who shows outstanding potential in entrepreneurship. This scholarship carries a value of $5,000 per year and will next be available to a first-year student entering in the fall of 2026.
This scholarship is funded through the generosity of the Lelia and David Farr Family through the endowment for a Faculty Chair in Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship.
For more information about this scholarship, contact Dr. Michael D. Gross at grossmd@wfu.edu.
How to apply
Complete the Wake Forest University application for admission on paper or online.
At least one recommendation should come from someone who can comment on your potential in entrepreneurship.
Include a brief letter asking to be considered for the Farr Scholarship, describing how you became interested in entrepreneurship and how you plan to continue these interests at Wake Forest.
Please send your brief letter to:
Michael D. Gross, Ph. D.
Founding Faculty and Associate Professor, Engineering
David and Leila Farr Faculty Director, Entrepreneurship
Program in Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship
230 Reynolda Hall
Winston-Salem, NC 27106
grossmd@wfu.edu
Your letter of application is due by January 15.
Twenty renewable scholarships of $16,000 each are awarded annually to students admitted to Wake Forest who possess exceptional talents in art, dance, debate, music, and theatre. Though Presidential Scholars need not plan to pursue a major in the area of their talent, they are expected to participate actively in that activity on campus. Interested students must be prepared to present evidence of outstanding talent and are asked by the Presidential Scholarship Committee for documentation of that talent (such as art portfolios, debate records, taped performances, etc.) and recommendations.
The program, begun in 1987, further diversifies the interests and abilities of a campus and student body already rich in both. Presidential Scholars with interest in dance, music, and/or theatre are given preference for an internship with the Secrest Artists Series.
Preference will be given to applicants who apply by November 15. The application will cease to be available on January 5. Applications received between November 16 to January 5 will be considered as talent areas allow. Finalists will be contacted by the beginning of March. Winners are notified in late March.
How to apply
Students must apply using the Presidential Scholarship Application that is available through the student portal.
Wake Forest also offers scholarships outside the Presidential Scholarship program to students with special talents in community service, entrepreneurship, leadership, and writing for publication, though no form beyond the Admission application is required for consideration in these areas. Some of these scholarships include the following awards:
- The Hunter Family Scholarship for Community Service and the Louis Patton Hearn Scholarship for Human Service may be awarded to students with strong commitments to community service.
- The Russell Brantley Scholarship for Writing will be awarded to a student with exceptional talent in writing.
More information on the Randall D. Ledford Scholarship (in Physics) can be found on the WFU Physics website.
Begun in 1982, the William Louis Poteat Scholarship program honors one of the university’s most prominent historical figures. William Louis Poteat, a devout Baptist, was a professor of biology, president of the college from 1905-1927, and a widely recognized champion of the freedom of inquiry. These scholarships strengthen Wake Forest’s traditional relationship with its Baptist heritage and the state of North Carolina.
The William Louis Poteat Scholarship is awarded to up to twenty entering needy and worthy first-year students who are active members of a North Carolina Baptist church. The award is based upon excellent academic achievement, promise of leadership, and involvement in one’s church, and recipients must show promise of making a significant contribution to church and society.
The Poteat Scholarship is a competitive need-based scholarship. Applicants should complete both the CSS Profile® and the FAFSA® by January 1, so that need may be determined before the selection process is complete.
Applicants for the Poteat Scholarship must submit a letter of recommendation form completed by a church member by January 1 to:
William Louis Poteat Scholarship Officer
Wake Forest University
P.O. Box 7309
Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7309
Finalists are notified by the end of March.
Scholarships for Continuing Students
If you are a continuing student, available scholarships can be found on the Scholarships for Continuing Students page.