The Earnest scholarship funds, every year, supports students with a $5,000 one-time scholarship. They teamed up with Going Merry to manage the scholarship program. In the 2021 application, the Earnest scholarship fund was $300,000, with 60 winners (announced in March 2022), now equipped with the aid to pursue higher education.

What Is An Earnest Scholarship?

An Earnest scholarship is an annual award for students in the United States that doesn’t consider your GPA a criterion for winning. It is open to the public, eligible for students pursuing a Bachelor or Graduate degree in any of the accredited schools (Check the list). 

About ten winners are selected annually, and no Earnest loan or purchases are necessary to enter or win this scholarship. However, international students cannot apply.

Eligibility for the Earnest Scholarship

Applicants for the Earnest scholarship must:

1. Be citizens of the United States or have legal permanent residency (inclusive of DACA students)
2. Have be enrolled or soon be enrolled into a Title IV accredited 4-year college or university as full-time students
3. Be 17 years old and above
4. Not be affiliated with Earnest LLC, so they cannot be employees, contractors, etc., or through immediate family members.

If you are unsure whether your school is on the Title IV accredited list, you can reach out to them to confirm. Alternatively, on the page of the past winners, their school names are displayed, so check and see if your school is found there.

Applicable Academic Degrees

• Bachelors (4-year college)
• Master of Education (MEd)
• Master of Public Administration (MPA)
• Master of Arts / Science (MA / MS)
• Doctor of Medicine (MD)
• Juris Doctor (JD)
• Master of Public Policy (MPP)
• Master of Public Health (MPH)
• Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
• Master of Architecture (MArch)
• Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD)
• Master of Divinity (MDiv)
• Master of Engineering (MEng)
• Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
• Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Earnest Scholarship Application

How to apply for the Earnest Scholarship program is pretty straightforward, and you should be done in about 10 minutes. You need a Going Merry account, though. Here are the steps:

• Visit the scholarship application page
• Login to your Going Merry account or sign up if you are new
• You need to answer a couple of quick questions
• Lastly, click “Submit Application.”

How to Confirm that Your Application was Received

After clicking the Submit application button, the next page will be a confirmation screen, affirming that your application was successful. If for any reason you didn’t see this screen, or you are unsure if you did, you could send an email to scholarships@earnest.com to verify, and feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

Earnest Scholarship Deadline

Scholarship applications are made before the academic session, and the winners’ schools will be sent a check on their behalf.

Current high school (seniors), College, Graduate school, and Doctorate students can apply.

Here’s how it went for the 2021 application:

• On November 15, 2021, the application portal was officially open.
• On January 31, 2022, applications end. There is no exception to this.
• The 2021 winners are notified through email on March 30, 2022, and from April to May 2022, their respective schools will receive funds.

Applications for the 2022-23 session hasn’t been announced yet. You can, however, apply for a reminder, so you don’t miss out.

Is Earnest a Legit Company?

Since its founding in 2013 by Louis Beryl, Earnest has been offering student loans through a merit-based lending approach where applicants are created a financial profile to estimate their eligibility, taking in factors like education, credit score, employment, and finances.

In 2014 alone, Earnest distributed about $8M in loans and saw a company growth of 70%, and in 2016, it was among the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list by Fast Company.

Earnest is a legit company that caters to student financial needs – loans and scholarships.

You might find interest in The Coolidge Scholarship 2022, The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and other scholarships.