Society of Women Engineers FAQs

SWE Scholarships are merit based, with considerations for extracurricular activities, work history, volunteerism, and interest/involvement in STEM. SWE does consider financial need at the request of specific donors.

Applicants who have been out of school for at least two years prior to beginning their current course of study may be considered re-entry or nontraditional applicants. The full definitions of each classification are below. Applicants must satisfy all requirements in order to meet the below definitions.

Re-entry

Nontraditional

If you are a graduate student (e.g., Masters, PhD candidates), you must be If you are a graduate student (e.g., Masters, PhD candidates) you must be enrolled or accepted at a school with ABET-accredited undergraduate programs, and be pursuing a degree in engineering or technology.

a. If you will be a continuing undergraduate student (rising sophomore, junior, or senior) or a new or continuing graduate student in the upcoming academic year you should apply using the SWE Collegiate/Graduate Scholars application.*

b. If you will be entering your first year of undergraduate college/university study in the upcoming academic year (a current high school senior or have not previously attended college/university) you should apply using the SWE Emerging First Year Scholars application.*

c. If you will be an undergraduate or graduate student in India in the upcoming academic year you should apply using the SWE India Scholars application.*

*Please refer to swe.org/scholarships/ for the most up to date application opening dates and deadlines. Dates are subject to change.

No, you do not have to be a member of SWE to be eligible for SWE scholarships! It is completely free to apply. However, some specific scholarships within the Collegiate/Graduate Scholars application do require SWE membership. To be considered a member of SWE you must be a paid member of the society and have a membership number. Participation in your section’s activities alone does not make you a member of the society. To learn more about membership in SWE please visit https://swe.org/membership/benefits/. Please note current high school students are not eligible to become SWE members so none of the emerging first year scholarships require SWE membership.

Apply once to apply for all SWE society-selected scholarships! By completing one application applicants will automatically be considered for all SWE scholarships for which they are eligible. Students can only receive one SWE scholarship (society-selected) per academic year.

Students attending college/university in India should apply to the SWE India Scholars application. For the India scholarships see the program’s specific FAQ for more details.

For the Collegiate/Graduate Scholars application and the Emerging First Year Scholars application, students outside of the United States studying or planning to study at an ABET-accredited program are welcome to apply for SWE scholarships. We also accept ABET-accredited schools outside of the United States for some of our scholarships.

If you are a student from outside of the United States studying at a program within the United States, please select the respective state and school in your application. If you are a student outside of the United States or will be studying at a program outside of the United States please select the respective country and school in your application.

Please enter the class level that your degree program has identified you will be in the fall. For example if in the upcoming fall you will be working on the 3rd year of curriculum that your program requires then you will be a junior. Similarly students who will be attending their first semester of college this upcoming fall regardless of how many credit hours they are starting with should apply in the emerging first year application period.

You can get your member number by logging into SWE.org. Once you have logged in your ID will display under your member information in “My Information”. You may want to check your record to confirm your membership is current.

If you do not have your login information then choose “Forgot Your Password”. Enter your email address and you will receive an email to reset your password. If you are still unable to locate your ID please email [email protected].

If you will not receive all your admissions decisions or decide on a school prior to the application deadline you can still apply for a SWE scholarship! If there is a chance that you will choose a school prior to the application deadline then please wait until you make that decision to submit your application. Once you submit your application you will not be able to make changes.

If you do not decide on a school prior to the scholarship application deadline then please list your probable first choice school. If you are selected for a scholarship then we will request proof of acceptance from you and verify your intended school and major for the upcoming academic year.

If you decide on a different school and/or major than what you submitted this could also affect your eligibility for some scholarships. If you are selected for a scholarship, you will be asked to update your enrollment information at that time.

The scholarship reviewers focus on extracurricular activities, work history, volunteerism, and interest and involvement in STEM.

We are looking for involvement in engineering-related organizations beyond joining and attending events/meetings. Even if you can’t become an officer or chair of a committee we recommend participation to show you are committed and involved.

Scholarship decisions are released on a rolling basis. SWE will begin to notify Collegiate/Graduate scholarship recipients in May and Emerging First Year recipients in July. This process may not be completed until September and all applications will be updated once all recipients have been selected. Note that some of the SWE scholarships are not restricted by class level. Thus we must process first year applications before identifying recipients. All applicants will be notified by the end of September whether they are or are not selected for a scholarship.

The application statuses are:

Please note that recommenders can submit their recommendations while applications are in the draft or submitted status. However, recommenders will not receive their recommendation request until the applicant has saved the recommender's contact information in the application. It is encouraged to save your recommender’s contact information as soon as possible to maximize the amount of time they have to complete the recommendation prior to the deadline.

Applicants must be enrolled in an ABET-accredited program to be eligible for a SWE scholarship. Please go to abet.org (External) to review accredited programs in engineering and technology. (Note: Some schools may only have select engineering and/or computer science programs that are accredited.) If you have any questions regarding eligibility please email [email protected].

ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) defines programs as a combination of major and school. Please visit the ABET website (External) for more information. You can search by school and other methods on their Find Accredited Programs page (External). ABET accredits programs based on a specific process so the accredited programs may vary greatly depending on the school.

You cannot change your application once it has been submitted. If you are selected for a scholarship, you will have an opportunity to update your enrollment information at that time.

Students who attend an ABET-accredited community college program full time are eligible to apply for SWE scholarships. Please visit the ABET website (External) for more information. You can search by school and other methods on their Find Accredited Programs page (External).

The minimum GPA for Collegiate/Graduate applicants is 3.0 unweighted on a 4.0 scale, and the minimum GPA for Emerging First Year applicants is a 3.5 unweighted on a 4.0 scale. Re-entry and nontraditional students are exempt from minimum GPA requirements.

You may need to scan an official version of your transcript in order to include all the required information. The most important piece of information is the unweighted, cumulative GPA.

Please obtain a hard copy of your transcript, scan it in, and attach the file to your application.

If you have not finished any classes for your current school yet, then we will use the GPA from your previous school. You will need to attach the transcript from your current school and most recent school.

Please attach your transcript showing that you have passed your classes and check the Pass/Fail box in the application.

Yes, all transcripts uploaded to your application will be considered unofficial. Scholarship recipients will have to submit official transcripts at a later date. Please make sure that your transcript includes your name, your school, dates, classes, and a cumulative GPA.

Please request if your school is able to calculate or convert your weighted GPA or any GPAs on a non-4.0 scale for you. If your school is not able to provide an unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale there are also a variety of online tools that can help you calculate your unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale.

Add a filter to your email account allowing emails from [email protected] and [email protected]. For recommenders, please encourage them to do this before you enter them as a recommender. Recommenders will receive an email with the subject line “You have received a recommendation request!” from [email protected].

Also confirm that you have submitted the recommender email address correctly. You may want to suggest that they copy and paste the password into the appropriate login box to minimize errors.

Your recommender should be someone who has known you for two or more years and who is not a relative or member of your family and/or someone in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) field who is familiar with your academic work.

Please enter your recommender contact information as early as possible to ensure your recommender is able to complete the recommendation by the deadline. Your recommender should be someone who has known you for two or more years and who is not a relative or member of your family and/or someone in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) field who is familiar with your academic work. Make sure that your recommender will be able to complete their recommendation by the deadline via the online system. We cannot accept letters via mail or email. We highly recommend emailing your recommender before submitting to ensure that you have a valid email address. You may want to copy and paste the email address from a successful email communication to minimize entry errors. Recommenders must complete their recommendations by the application deadline. Applicants are responsible for ensuring their recommendations are received prior to the deadline. Any applications that do not receive a completed recommendation by the deadline will not be evaluated for scholarship consideration.

Remember that your recommender must submit their recommendation by the deadline for your application to be considered complete. Here are some suggestions to help make that happen:

Get your recommender’s agreement and understanding before submitting their contact information. The recommendation process is:

Log into Kaleidoscope: https://apply.mykaleidoscope.com/login (External) from there they will be prompted to set up a password if they have not logged into Kaleidoscope before. Make sure you advise your recommender to log into their account with the email address you submitted in your application. Once logged in, their dashboard will show your recommendation request that needs to be completed.

If your recommender needs additional assistance, please have them email [email protected].

Applicants are responsible for monitoring the status of your recommender’s submittals by viewing your application in the Kaleidoscope portal. Your application card will reflect your contributor status and by clicking on that number you can view the individual status of your request. Please ensure that your recommendations are complete by the deadline. Your application will not be considered if the recommendation is not completed by the application deadline. Once your recommendation is complete the contributor status on your application card will display as “1/1 completed.”

No, your recommender must submit their recommendation via Kaleidoscope in the SWE Scholarship Recommender Portal. If your recommender has trouble accessing Kaleidoscope or completing their recommendation, please have them contact [email protected].

Yes, all recommendations must be received by the submission deadline. Please note that your recommender will not receive the link to complete their portion until their information has been added to your application. In order to give your recommender as much time as possible to complete their recommendation, please enter your recommender contact information as early as possible. Applications that do not have a completed recommendation by the deadline will be considered incomplete and will not be evaluated for scholarship consideration.

It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure recommendations are successfully submitted by the submission deadline. If you believe that your recommender will not be able to submit their recommendation by the deadline and you would like to change your recommender to another person, please contact us at [email protected] with the name, email address, and your relationship to the new recommender.

Scholarship funds are sent by SWE's scholarship system, Kaleidoscope. Funds will be sent via ACH and checks are mailed if ACH is unavailable. Scholarship funds are paid in full to the recipient directly beginning in September. Exact payment dates/timelines are subject to change year to year.

India applicants will begin to be notified in July. Funds will be distributed beginning in August and all applicants will be notified by the end of September whether or not they are selected for a scholarship. Please note, this timeline is subject to change.

Applicants must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the SWE India scholarships:

No, applicants do not need to be SWE members to be eligible to apply for the SWE India scholarship program! It is completely free to submit an application.

Register on SWE’s Scholarship application system, Kaleidoscope (External), and the application link will be available on swe.org/scholarships/ when the application is open.

To see the complete details of the information required to apply please register and start an application. In general you’ll be asked to provide the following information: