What’s the lowest common scholarship award amount?

General Forum
1

Hey everyone, I started a scholarship earlier this year offering a one-time award of $500 to a different applicant each year. The amount was based on what I thought my endowment could return in the stock market each year. Now, I’m curious about what the lowest common scholarship award amount usually is.

If we look at all educational scholarships that award $250, $500, or $1000, what do you think the percentages would be for each of these amounts?

Thanks for your help!

2

For the 2023-2024 award year, my university handled 580 scholarship checks (it might not be perfect, but it’s probably a big enough sample to get an idea of what’s typical). Here are the amounts with the highest frequency:

$1,000: 64

$2,000: 62

$500: 48

$2,500: 37

$5,000: 37

$1,500: 27

$1,250: 20

$3,000: 20

$4,000: 19

$750: 15

$10,000: 11

So it looks like $500 is the most common amount under $1,000, which could be a good option for you. We only had 5 checks of $250, so that might be a bit too low, but if your goal is to help more students, it’s still an option.

3

@Wei
You didn’t mention $250 in the list. Would that have been the last amount, just after $10,000, like $250: 5?

Thanks again for the detailed answer, it’s been super helpful to me.

4

Davi said:
@Wei
You didn’t mention $250 in the list. Would that have been the last amount, just after $10,000, like $250: 5?

Thanks again for the detailed answer, it’s been super helpful to me.

I only listed amounts with more than 10 checks. There were about 200 other scholarships that didn’t make that cut, and $250 was included in that group. Our lowest amount was actually $1, though that was a mistake (the donor accidentally shorted the amount by a dollar).

5

@Wei
Thanks again, I really appreciate it!

6

I’ve looked at probably around 650 scholarships, and I’d say $250 is the least common. $500 seems to be the standard low amount.