Scholarships for Muslim immigrant and refugee students in the United States

A scholarship list becomes useful when it explains which application belongs to which student. Muslim immigrants and refugees may qualify through several routes: an undergraduate award for undocumented students, a graduate fellowship for immigrants and their children, or a university partnership supporting displaced students. These routes have different rules for immigration history, academic stage, and participating institutions. Begin with those conditions before comparing award amounts. An eligible student can be Muslim without applying to a scholarship organized around religion. Start with the nationwide scholarship directory for provider records and source checks.

Undergraduate funding: check the college before the award

TheDream.US National Scholarship uses designated Partner Colleges. Its next application round opens November 1, 2026, while detailed criteria on the page still describe 2026–2027. That prior round required undocumented status with or without DACA or TPS, arrival before age 16 and before November 1, 2020, continuous U.S. residence, unmet financial need, and academic requirements. Treat those as preparation information until the new instructions appear. The provider also lists exceptions to its in-state-tuition condition for private, online, and Texas institutions; check the current Partner College list rather than assuming every college participates.

Start a planning row for each eligible college and record whether admission, scholarship selection, and tuition classification require separate steps. A promising award at a college you cannot attend is a weak application target. Compare the college's remaining cost after any award, the program you want to study, and the award's continuation conditions. If a rule is unclear, write the specific question beside the official link so that a counselor or provider can address it.

Graduate funding: distinguish immigrant history from citizenship

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships support eligible New Americans pursuing U.S. graduate or professional degrees. The 2027 competition is open until October 29, 2026, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, with up to $90,000 across one to two years. Applicants must be 30 or younger at the deadline and meet detailed immigrant or parental-background criteria. Qualifying routes include naturalized citizenship, permanent residence, refugee or asylee status, and, for some immigrants outside those categories, graduation from both U.S. high school and college. Current and past DACA recipients should read that education-based route carefully.

Academic stage matters as much as immigration history. Soros applicants need a bachelor's degree by fall 2027 and an eligible full-time graduate program; someone already studying cannot have begun the program's third year by the application deadline. Check the provider's exclusions and parental-background rules, then confirm the three required recommendations can arrive on time. A recommender's deadline belongs in the planner alongside the applicant's deadline.

Refugee pathways: identify the referral route

Some displaced-student funding comes through an institution or service organization. IIE's Odyssey Scholarship works with partner universities and refugee-serving organizations; its U.S. partnerships support students primarily from Afghanistan at four-year universities and community colleges. It does not publish a general nationwide direct-application route on the pages checked. USCRI's Beacon of Hope announcement described distributing the opportunity directly to its clients, with separate college and career/technical pathways. That announcement dates to 2024, so current availability requires confirmation rather than an assumption that applications are open.

Ask an existing caseworker or college student-services office which partner opportunity is available, who can nominate you, and what enrollment or documentation it requires. Keep sensitive immigration documents with the provider's designated process. Use the scholarship planner for links, questions, deadlines, and completion status; it is a planning aid, not an application portal. Compare a confirmed opportunity against your actual academic plans, and keep an uncertain referral in a separate follow-up list until the responsible organization verifies the next step.