Wake Forest's Signature Scholarships are its full-cost awards. Each one covers the annual cost of tuition, room and board, and adds $3,400 a year for personal expenses. Carswell, Gordon and Reynolds Scholars can also apply for up to $5,000 for a research, study or travel project in each of the three summers before senior year, and Stamps Scholars can draw up to $15,000 over four years for approved projects.
Four of these programmes take international applicants: Carswell, Gordon, Reynolds and Stamps. That matters because Wake Forest gives foreign nationals no need-based aid, so a merit award is the route to a funded place. An applicant who does not win one has to document the family's ability to pay before the admission decision is made.
There is no scholarship form. Finish the admission application by 15 November and the same file is read by the scholarship committees. Merit awards reach fewer than 3 percent of first-year applicants, and the named signature programmes make only a handful of offers each (up to five Carswell, five Gordon, five Reynolds, about fifteen Stamps).
Finalists hear by 1 March, then come to campus for interviews, with awards settled by the end of March. Recipients are expected to stay enrolled full time and live on campus.