ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Accredited 2- and 4-year U.S. academic institutions that have a Foundation identified Goldwater Campus Representative may nominate up to four currently or previously matriculated students annually. A student may not be nominated by more than one institution in a competition cycle. A four-year school may nominate a 5th student if one or more of the nominated students is a transfer student or U.S. Veteran. They may nominate up to six students if they have both a transfer student and a U.S. Veteran. No direct student applications or nominations by campuses without a Goldwater Campus Representative will be considered.

To be eligible for nomination for a Goldwater Scholarship, a student must:

1. Be a currently or previously matriculated sophomore or junior pursuing a degree at an accredited 2- or 4-year institution of higher education and be a full-time matriculated student during the academic terms when receiving scholarship support from the Foundation.
2. Intend to pursue a research career in a natural science, mathematics or engineering,1
3. Have a college grade point average of at least a 3.00 on a 4.00 scale 2, and
4. Be a U.S. citizen or national from the 50 States, District of Columbia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, and any other territory or possession of the United States; or a permanent resident. A permanent resident must submit a photocopy of their Permanent Resident Card, also known as a Green Card.

1The natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics fields and sub-fields used by the Goldwater Foundation to determine eligibility are those used by the National Science Foundation for its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. These include: Chemistry, Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, Engineering, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Materials Research, Mathematical Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Psychology. To view a field’s sub-fields, click on the field in the table below.

While research in medicine is not supported by the National Science Foundation, students interested in pursuing careers in medicine or veterinary medicine are eligible for a Goldwater Scholarship IF RESEARCH IS A CENTRAL PART OF THE STUDENT’S CAREER GOALS.

2In recent Goldwater competitions, GPAs have ranged from 3.3 to 4.95 on a 4.0 scale.

Fields of Study-Printable PDF

Fields of Study

Chemistry 1
Chemical Catalysis
Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry

Chemistry 2
Chemical Measurement and Imaging
Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanism
Chemical Theory, Models, and Computational Methods
Environmental Chemical Systems
Sustainable Chemistry

Chemistry 3
Chemistry of Life Processes

Chemistry 4
Chemical Synthesis

Chemistry 5
Other
Computer Science 1
Bioinformatics and other Informatics
Data Mining and Information Retrieval
Databases
Graphics and Visualization
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
Natural Language Processing
Robotics and Computer Vision

Computer Science 2
Algorithms and Theoretical Foundations
Communication and Information Theory
Computational Science and Engineering
Computer Architecture
Computer Networks
Computer Security and Privacy
Computer Systems and Embedded Systems
Formal Methods, Verification, and Programming Languages
Software Engineering

Computer Science 3
Other
Aerospace & Other Engineering Fields
Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering
Energy Engineering
Nuclear Engineering
Optical Engineering
Systems Engineering

Bioengineering
Bioengineering

Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering

Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Polymer Engineering

Civil & Environmental Engineering
Civil Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Ocean Engineering

Computer & Electrical Engineering
Computer Engineering
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Materials Engineering
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Materials Engineering

Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering

Engineering
Other
Geosciences 1
Aeronomy
Atmospheric Chemistry
Climate and Large-Scale Atmospheric Dynamics
Magnetospheric Physics
Paleoclimate
Physical and Dynamic Meteorology
Solar Physics

Geosciences 2
Geobiology
Geochemistry
Geodynamics
Geomorphology
Geophysics
Glaciology
Hydrology
Paleontology and Paleobiology
Petrology
Sedimentary Geology
Tectonics

Geosciences 3
Biogeochemistry
Biological Oceanography
Chemical Oceanography
Marine Biology
Marine Geology and Geophysics
Physical Oceanography

Geosciences 4
Other
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology
Biochemistry
Biophysics
Structural Biology

Cell Biology
Cell Biology

Ecology
Ecology
Environmental Biology

Evolutionary Biology and Systematics
Biodiversity
Evolutionary Biology
Systematics

Genetics, Genomics, and Proteomics
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Genetics
Genomics
Proteomics

Microbial Biology
Microbial Biology

Molecular and Systems Biology
Molecular Biology
Systems Biology

Neurosciences
Neurosciences

Physiology, Organismal and Developmental Biology
Developmental Biology
Organismal Biology
Physiology

Life Sciences
Other
Materials Research
Biomaterials
Ceramics
Chemistry of materials
Electronic materials
Materials theory
Metallic materials
Photonic materials
Physics of materials
Polymers
Other
Mathematical Sciences 1
Algebra, Number Theory, and Combinatorics
Analysis
Geometric Analysis
Logic or Foundations of Mathematics
Probability
Statistics
Topology

Mathematical Sciences 2
Applied Mathematics
Biostatistics
Computational and Data-enabled Science
Computational Mathematics
Computational Statistics
Mathematical Biology

Mathematical Sciences 3
Other
Medical Research
Other
Physics 1 & Astronomy
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Nuclear
Plasma

Physics 2
Condensed Matter Physics
Particle Physics
Physics of Living Systems
Solid State
Theoretical Physics

Physics 3
Other
Psychology 1
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Computational Psychology
Psycholinguistics

Psychology 2
Developmental
Experimental or Comparative
Neuropsychology
Perception and Psychophysics
Physiological
Quantitative

Psychology 3
Other