The EASY Button: Scholarships for Math Majors and Math Teachers

Snagging scholarships for majoring in Math is a cinch. Why? Not nearly enough students pursue this complex field of study. Especially lacking are the faces of minorities and women in those Math classes. Problem is the world is hungry for Math whizzes—of all shapes and sizes: math academicians, applied mathematicians, statisticians, accountants, financial market gurus, “numbers” guys and gals, code breakers, fractal theorists, and other experts in mathematical science.

Math Scholarships for Undergraduate and Graduate Math Students

When it comes to undergraduate study the revolution is on to attract disadvantaged students, minorities and women to the field. Government, business and industry and academic research all scream for human resource enrichment in this particular field.

Plentiful are what are called the STEM scholarships—financial free money for students wanting to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math degrees. Guess what? Most of these so-called “STEM” scholarships are aimed squarely at these under-represented students, particularly at the undergrad level.

  • The Department of Homeland Security aggressively pursues top tech talent at the nation’s schools. To those ends the DHS offers a battery of scholarships, some for undergrads (scholarships) and many for grads (fellowships), whose majors are closely related to agency needs. Many of the specialties are interdisciplinary mash-ups of various math, science and technology knowledge bases. Graduate fellowships offer full-tuition scholarships plus $2,300 monthly stipends. Undergraduate scholarships are also full-tuition with the addition of $1,000 monthly stipends.

Math Scholarships for Teachers

Along with those shortages of minorities and women in the math sciences are shortages of teachers to teach these subjects. Scholarship for service and loan cancellation and loan repayment programs are a popular staple of school systems and state governments.

  • Thanks to massive funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, Western Governors University is able to offer current teachers, and students seeking a teaching career, valuable scholarships as incentive to pursue mathematics teaching degrees. Awards are $7,500. Recipients must be able and willing to teach in rural communities.
  • The New York State Math and Science Teaching Incentive Scholarships are designed for undergraduate and graduate level student teachers. Qualified applicants must be willing to receive scholarship money in return for 5 years of math and/or science teaching in a NY State school. Annual awards are between $4,500 and $5,000 depending upon current funding levels.

There are many more programs like these distributed throughout the country, mainly administered through colleges and universities and state governments.