This is the most common question we get, and most of the answers online are either reassuring and vague or alarming and wrong. Here is what actually happened and what it means for your applications.
What the ruling actually covered
In June 2023 the Supreme Court decided *Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard* and *SFFA v. University of North Carolina*, holding that the admissions programmes at both institutions violated the Equal Protection Clause. The decision was about who a university admits. It was not about who a private foundation gives money to.
Privately funded scholarships restricted by race continue to exist and continue to pay out. The Ron Brown Scholar Program, to take the clearest example in our catalogue, still lists "Black/African American" as an eligibility requirement on its own application page, and still awards twenty four-year scholarships of $40,000 each.
What did change
The ruling did not change the law on private scholarships, but it changed the risk calculation for the organisations running them. Several advocacy groups began sending demand letters to companies and foundations operating race-restricted programmes, and a number of sponsors responded by broadening eligibility rather than litigating.
So the landscape shifted, but not in the way most students assume. Awards did not disappear. Some of them opened up.
The three categories that actually exist
We label every listing in our catalogue with one of three states, based on the sponsor's current published criteria rather than its mission statement or its history.
| Label | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Black students only | The sponsor's own eligibility criteria specifically name Black or African American students. | Ron Brown Scholar Program, CBC Spouses Education Scholarship |
| Minority-focused | Aimed at underrepresented or minority students, but with no formal race requirement in the published criteria. | UNCF, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, NSBE, GEM |
| Open to all | No race or ethnicity criterion at all. Listed because the award reaches many Black, HBCU, and first-generation students through its other criteria. | The Gates Scholarship, Coca-Cola Scholars, Dell Scholars, QuestBridge |
That middle category is where most of the confusion lives. An organisation can exist explicitly to serve Black students, describe that mission prominently, and still not impose a race requirement on individual applicants. Both things are true at once and neither is misleading.
The awards that surprise people
These four are among the largest and most prestigious awards commonly recommended to Black students. None of them carries a race requirement in its current published eligibility criteria.
| Scholarship | Sponsor | Award | Deadline | Min GPA | Who can apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gates Scholarship | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Full cost of attendance not covered by other aid | September 15, 2026 | 3.3 | Open to all · National |
| QuestBridge National College Match | QuestBridge | Full four-year scholarship (valued over $360,000) | October 1, 2026 | None stated | Open to all · National |
| Cooke College Scholarship Program | Jack Kent Cooke Foundation | Up to $55,000 per year (last-dollar) | November 11, 2026 | 3.8 | Open to all · National |
| Dell Scholars Program | Michael & Susan Dell Foundation | $20,000 | Annually, February 15 (applications open December 15) | 2.4 | Open to all · National |
The Gates Scholarship is the sharpest illustration. It was widely understood for years as an award for students from specific minority backgrounds. Its published eligibility today lists four requirements: high school senior, Pell-eligible, US citizen or permanent resident, and a minimum 3.3 weighted GPA. There is no ethnicity criterion in that list.
This is not a reason to skip it. It is a reason to apply with accurate expectations about the pool.
How to check any scholarship yourself
- Open the sponsor's own page, not an aggregator. Aggregators copy criteria from each other and rarely re-check.
- Find the eligibility list specifically. Ignore the mission statement, the history, and the photographs, all of which lag the criteria by years.
- Read what is actually required. If race is a requirement it will be stated as one, usually in the same list as citizenship and GPA.
- Check the date. Criteria change between cycles, and a page describing "the 2024 award" may not describe this year's.
- If it is genuinely ambiguous, email the sponsor and ask. They answer, and you get it in writing.
What this means for your strategy
Two things follow, and they pull in opposite directions.
Apply more broadly than you think. If several major awards no longer restrict by race, your eligible pool is larger than it looked. Students who filter only for "scholarships for Black students" miss awards they qualify for on financial need or first-generation status.
Prioritise the restricted ones where they exist. An award genuinely limited to Black applicants has a structurally smaller pool. Where you qualify, that is the best return on an application you will find, and those awards are exactly the ones worth spending your strongest essay on.
The five awards in our catalogue currently restricted to Black or African American students by their sponsor's own criteria are worth finding first. Browse everything we have verified or check what closes next.