This snapshot pulls from CollegeWhale’s scholarship database and planning tools to show how many scholarships are available for Linguistics majors, the total dollars listed, and how early-career pay compares to typical college costs.
We currently list 17 active scholarships tied to Linguistics programs, sourced from professional groups, nonprofits, and private sponsors. New awards are added regularly.
The scholarships currently listed total approximately $160,500 in advertised award value. Many programs offer renewable or variable awards, so available funding may be higher over time.
Early-career median pay for Linguistics graduates is about $65,000 per year. We estimate a typical 4-year net college cost around $108,584.
That means first-year earnings are roughly 60% of total college cost, with an estimated payback period of 1.7 years (before taxes and living expenses).
The average cost of in-of-state college in the United States is $27,146 per student per year, including books, supplies, and daily living expenses. Out-of-state students pay $45,708 per year. Private, nonprofit university students pay $58,628.
According to data provided by educationdata.org as of 8/2025. Our ROI calculation is based on in-state average tuition. Median pay statistics are provided by bls.gov
The CollegeWhale Scholarship FastFind™ makes it easy to discover the best Linguistics scholarships — fast. Filter by award amount, deadline month, and estimated time to apply, then instantly download your personalized list. No sign-ups, no personal info, no spam — just real, verified scholarships.
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) is one of the most prestigious national programs supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds who aspire to become scholars, researchers, and college professors in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Established by The Andrew W.
Award: Varies Deadline: February Est. Application Time: High (103 min)The American Translators Association, through its affiliated foundation American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation (AFTI), offers several student-oriented awards and scholarships aimed at supporting emerging translators and interpreters. These awards are intended to help students or recent graduates in translation/interpreting-related
Award: $500 Deadline: July Est. Application Time: Low (28 min)The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Student Fellowship and Travel Awards provide financial support to undergraduate and graduate students who are actively involved in linguistic study and research. These awards are designed to help promising students attend conferences, present research,
Award: Varies Deadline: November Est. Application Time: Med (48 min)The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship – Linguistics and Language Track is designed for students who are committed to international service and who possess strong interests in global languages, linguistics, and cross-cultural communication. This prestigious fellowship helps prepare future
Award: $40,000 Deadline: September Est. Application Time: Med (78 min)The Boren Awards, offered through the National Security Education Program (NSEP), provide substantial funding for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who wish to study less commonly taught languages that are critical to U.S. national security. These awards support immersive language
Award: $8,000 Deadline: January Est. Application Time: Med (48 min)The Phi Sigma Iota Foreign Language and Linguistics Scholarship is offered by Phi Sigma Iota, the international honor society for students of foreign languages, linguistics and literature. This scholarship supports outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who demonstrate a strong commitment
Award: Varies Deadline: February Est. Application Time: Med (78 min)The American Translators Association (ATA) Student Translation and Linguistics Scholarship supports emerging translators, interpreters and linguistics students who are preparing for careers in language services. This scholarship is designed to encourage academic excellence and professional development in fields such as
Award: Varies Deadline: October Est. Application Time: Med (78 min)The Freeman-ASIA Scholarship, administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE), supports U.S. undergraduate students who plan to study abroad in East or Southeast Asia. This award is designed to increase opportunities for American students with financial need to gain
Award: Varies Deadline: March Est. Application Time: Med (43 min)The American Philosophical Society (APS) offers the Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research to support graduate students and early-career scholars conducting significant fieldwork in linguistics and related disciplines. This fund is designed to encourage exploratory research that
Award: Varies Deadline: February Est. Application Time: Med (33 min)The Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA), a section of the American Anthropological Association, offers a Graduate Student Award to support emerging scholars whose work contributes meaningfully to the study of language in its cultural, social and political contexts. This award
Award: Varies Deadline: October Est. Application Time: Low (13 min)The G. Richard Tucker Fellowship, offered by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), was established in 1992 in honor of Dr. Tucker and is awarded periodically to graduate students (master’s or Ph.D.) working in language-related fields. The fellowship allows recipients
Award: Varies Deadline: Rolling Est. Application Time: Low (28 min)The NSF GRFP supports outstanding graduate students who pursue full-time, research-based master’s or doctoral degrees in eligible STEM fields or the Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences—this includes the sub-field of Linguistics. The program helps ensure the vitality and strength of
Award: $37,000 Deadline: October Est. Application Time: Low (28 min)This comprehensive collection of Linguistics scholarships and grants for the 2026 - 2027 school years, curated from our regularly updated databases. To explore all available scholarship matches, visit our Scholarship Database and Grant Database, which both offer easy-to-use filters, current deadlines, and detailed eligibility information to help you discover the best Linguistics scholarship opportunities.
Linguistics majors study how language works — from phonetics and syntax to sociolinguistics, computational modeling, and language preservation. Because linguistics intersects with technology, education, anthropology, psychology, and artificial intelligence, scholarships exist across multiple disciplines.
Funding is available for undergraduate linguistics majors, TESOL and applied linguistics students, computational linguistics researchers, and graduate students focusing on fieldwork or endangered language documentation.
CollegeWhale Tip: Many linguistics scholarships are research-driven. Even as an undergraduate, having a defined research interest (e.g., bilingual education, NLP, phonology, endangered languages) makes you significantly more competitive.
Start here based on your concentration or career goal.
| Your Focus Area | Best-Fit Scholarships | What They Emphasize |
|---|---|---|
| General Linguistics (Undergrad or Grad) | Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Scholarships, university department awards | Academic performance, faculty recommendations, research promise |
| TESOL / Applied Linguistics | TESOL International Scholarships, Ruth Crymes Fellowship | Language education impact, leadership, service |
| Computational Linguistics / NLP | Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Awards, tech-sponsored scholarships | Research proposals, programming skill, NLP coursework |
| Endangered Languages / Fieldwork | Endangered Language documentation grants, anthropology-based scholarships | Research proposal strength, cultural preservation focus |
| Women in Linguistics | AAUW Fellowships, TESOL women-focused awards | Academic excellence, leadership trajectory |
Linguistics degrees often include expenses beyond standard tuition. Planning for these costs can strengthen your scholarship strategy.
CollegeWhale Tip: If you are applying for research-based funding, clearly outline how scholarship funds will be used — conference attendance, corpus access, field travel, etc. Specificity increases approval odds.
Many linguistics departments offer internal awards that are not widely advertised. Examples include:
Always check your linguistics department page directly — these awards often have smaller applicant pools.
Yes. Scholarships exist for undergraduate and graduate linguistics students, especially those focused on research, language education, or computational linguistics.
No. Funding is available for students pursuing careers in natural language processing, forensic linguistics, speech pathology research, language preservation, academia, and AI development.
Data & content oversight by Lauren Nichols
Co-Founder of CollegeWhale, specializing in scholarship data systems and financial aid research.