The Stamps President's Scholarship at Georgia Tech is a full ride. It pays all tuition and mandatory fees, meals, housing, books and an allotment for personal expenses, and adds $12,000 over four years for enrichment activities, an outdoor leadership trip in your first year and a $1,100 stipend towards a laptop. Around 50 incoming first-year students receive it each year.
Nationality is the gate. The programme states that only new first-year students who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or citizens of the United Kingdom are eligible, and that citizens of the Republic of Ireland may be considered as well. If you hold another passport, this award is closed to you, however strong your application is.
There is no separate form. Applying to Georgia Tech by the Early Action deadline puts you in the competition automatically, which for applicants outside Georgia means early November. Semifinalists record a virtual interview in early February, and finalists travel to campus in mid-March for Stamps Scholars Weekend. Attendance at every weekend activity is required, and the programme reschedules interviews only for a documented hospitalisation or a funeral in your household.
The selection criteria are scholarship, leadership, progress and service. There is no published GPA or test cutoff, though recipients typically score between 1470 and 1560 on the SAT. The award renews for up to eight semesters if you keep honours-level grades and stay active in leadership development.