The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans program honors the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States. Each year, the program invests in the graduate education of 30 new Americans — immigrants and children of immigrants — who are poised to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture, or their academic field. Each Fellow receives up to $90,000 in financial support over two years, and they join a lifelong community of New American Fellows.
The competition is merit-based. Selection criteria emphasize creativity, originality, initiative, and sustained accomplishment. The program values a commitment to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The program does not have any quotas for types of degrees, universities or programs, countries of origin, or gender, etc. Unsuccessful applicants are welcome to reapply in subsequent years if they are still eligible.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the 2022 Fellowship, you must meet the following requirements as of the October 28, 2021, application deadline. Read the complete eligibility requirements online.
- New American Status – Whether you were born in the United States or abroad, your birth parents must have both been born outside of the US as non-US citizens, and both parents must not have been eligible for US citizenship at the time of their respective births*. If you were born in the US then you must be the child of two immigrants. If you were born abroad then you must be a naturalized US citizen, possess a valid green card, have been granted refugee or asylee status in the US, or have graduated from both high school and college in the United States (this final category is inclusive of DACA recipients and applicants who will graduate from college by the Fall of 2022 are eligible).
*If you were raised by only one of your birth parents, the parent who raised you must have been born abroad as a non-US citizen, and your second birth parent must not have been part of your life growing up and is someone you have no contact with. - Academic Standing – You should be planning to be enrolled full time in an eligible, accredited, professional or graduate degree program at a US university for the full 2022-23 academic year. In addition, you must not have begun the third year of the program you are seeking funding for as of the October 28, 2021 deadline. Applicants who have a previous graduate degree or who are in a joint-degree program are eligible. Ineligible programs: Online programs, executive graduate programs, part-time programs, joint bachelors/master’s programs where the bachelor’s is not received by the spring of 2022, certificate programs, post-baccalaureate programs, graduate programs that are not in the United States, and graduate programs that are not fully accredited.
- Age – You must not have reached or passed your 31st birthday as of the application deadline. There is no minimum age requirement.
The deadline to apply is October 28, 2021, at 2 p.m. ET. Visit the Paul and Daisy Soros website for more information.
Paul and Daisy Soros, Hungarian immigrants and American philanthropists, established their fellowship program for New Americans in 1997. Their goal was to assist these individuals at critical points in their education, as well as to call the attention of all Americans to the extensive and diverse contributions of New Americans to the quality of life in the U.S.