Office of Financial Aid

What Scholarships Does Oberlin Offer?

Oberlin meets 100% of demonstrated financial need through a combination of need-based aid and generous merit scholarships. We review all admitted students for merit scholarships automatically; no separate application is required.

Merit-Based Awards

Merit Aid Policies 
  • All merit-based scholarships are renewable for a total of 8 semesters, or 10 semesters for students enrolled in the Double Degree program.
  • Students who are academically dismissed may lose their eligibility for merit-based scholarships for future semesters.
  • Merit-based scholarships do NOT transfer to non-affiliated study-abroad programs.
  • Students must be enrolled full time to receive merit-based scholarships. The only exception to this rule is that a senior in their final semester may receive a prorated amount of scholarship.
  • Merit-based scholarships do not transfer from one division to the other. For example, if a Conservatory student decides to switch to an Arts and Sciences major, his or her Conservatory Dean's Scholarship will not transfer to the College of Arts and Sciences.
  • Double Degree students who are offered merit-based scholarships from both the Conservatory and the College who attend their first year but then decide to drop one division will maintain their full merit amount. They will not lose any merit-based scholarship as a result of dropping one degree.

Oberlin Commitment Scholarship

Oberlin will award a renewable $10,000 Oberlin Commitment Scholarship to all students who enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences and/or Conservatory of Music. All students — domestic, international, transfer — will benefit from this scholarship, which is renewable each year at Oberlin.

Conservatory Dean's Award

These scholarships are offered by the Conservatory of Music Admissions Office to admitted Conservatory students based on audition ratings and ensemble needs.

John F. Oberlin Scholarship

These merit-based scholarships are awarded to students in the College of Arts and Sciences based on academic achievement.

Oberlin Midwest Merit Scholarship

The Midwest Merit Scholarship recognizes the academic and musical excellence of top students from our region by granting $100,000 to all admitted students from Oberlin’s home state of Ohio as well as 11 additional Midwestern states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Starting in fall 2025, all new enrolling students from these states will automatically qualify to receive $25,000 each year, for a total of $100,000 over four years or five years for our Double Degree students.

Oberlin Pioneer Scholarship

The partnership between Oberlin College and Pioneer Academics has created an unprecedented online education model. Through this collaboration, outstanding high school students are able to conduct accredited undergraduate-level research following concrete, holistic standards. 

This $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to any Pioneer Academics participant who enrolls at Oberlin.

Oberlin College National Merit Scholarships and National Achievement Scholarships

Oberlin College sponsors a National Merit Scholarship in the amount of $2,000. Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship program competition are eligible for consideration for an Oberlin-sponsored National Merit Scholarship if they declare Oberlin as their first-choice college, apply to Oberlin, and have not been selected as winners of other National Merit or Corporate National Merit Scholarships.

International Students

In addition to the standard merit awards, Oberlin College has three merit-based scholarships for which eligible international students may be considered. No separate application is required.

The Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane Scholarship continues the outreach that enabled Mr. Mondlane to attend Oberlin College. Successful candidates will be offered up to $10,000.

Eligibility

Any citizen from a sub-Saharan African country who is applying to the College of Arts and Sciences is eligible for this award.

Selection

The Oberlin College Office of Admissions will select Mondlane Scholars. Criteria for selection include a strong academic record and the potential to excel within an American liberal arts curriculum. This award does not require any supplementary materials.

About Eduardo C. Mondlane (1919-1969), Oberlin Class of 1953

In fall 1951, a tall, charismatic man transferred to Oberlin College from the University of Lisbon. Thirty-two years earlier, Eduardo Mondlane had been born in a peasant village in Portuguese, East Africa, the son of a tribal chief. He attended Witwatersrand University in South Africa until forced to withdraw by the new apartheid government. Interested in the fate of his native land, Mondlane went to Portugal to study. Finding discrimination there as well, he secured a scholarship to study in the United States. What he was to call his "American Decade" began with a B.A. at Oberlin College, followed by an M.A. at Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. at Harvard. His academic field was anthropology; his field of action became African Politics.

Mondlane worked as a research officer in the Trustee Department of the United Nations, a position that led him back to Africa and, in 1962, to Dar Es-Salaam, where he took the lead in developing national liberation movement in Mozambique. Tragically, he was denied the fruits of his vision by his assassination in 1969 in Dar Es-Salaam. Mozambique attained independence in 1975.

Mondlane's cosmopolitanism, his marriage to a white American woman, and his American education, rendered him particularly suited to forge a broad and inclusive nationalist movement. It is significant that he began his American education with a degree from a liberal arts college, one whose motto at the time was "Think one person can change the world?"

Eduardo Mondlane became a prominent force in changing the political landscape of Africa. It is wholly appropriate that Oberlin College established a scholarship in his name and memory to enable another African student to follow in his path and fulfill his dream of a world of peace and justice.

The Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer Scholarship fosters Japanese-American understanding and cooperation. Successful candidates will be offered up to $10,000. Reischauer Scholars will be educated in the liberal arts and committed to international understanding.

Eligibility

Any Japanese national who has been admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences is eligible for this award.

Selection

The Oberlin College Office of Admissions will select Reischauer Scholars. Criteria for selection include a strong academic record and the potential to excel within an American liberal arts curriculum. This award does not require any supplementary materials.

About Edwin O. Reischauer (1910-1990), Oberlin class of 1931

President John F. Kennedy in 1961 made an unusual appointment. Rather than nominate a career diplomat as the American ambassador to Japan, he nominated a scholar and teacher of Japanese and East Asian history: Edwin O. Reischauer. In addition to representing the interests of the United States, Reischauer saw the ambassadorship as an opportunity to mediate between what he called his “two homelands,” and to build “an equal partnership” between two industrial nations across the barriers of language, culture, race, and history. Today, the partnership he built is a crucial source of stability in world affairs.

Described by the Washington Post as “the most successful Ambassador to Japan,” Reischauer was born in Japan to missionary parents. His father was a professor at Meiji Gakuin University, and his mother founded the Japan School for the Deaf in Machida. Upon graduating from the American School in Japan, he enrolled at Oberlin College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history. He earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University, where he became a professor of Japanese studies and director of the Harvard Yenching Institute.

After the death of his first wife, Reischauer married Haru Matsukata. Like her husband, Matsukata was educated in both countries, and worked to develop “better understanding and peace between my two countries.” While many circumstances contributed to Ambassador Reischauer’s success, it is significant that he earned an American liberal arts degree. By enabling a Japanese student to follow this same path, the Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer Scholarship is a fitting memorial to a significant American friend of Japan.

The Yakubu Saaka Memorial Fund was established with gifts received in memory of Yakubu Saaka, longtime Oberlin College Professor of African American Studies. Successful candidates will be offered awards of $10,000 for four years.

Eligibility

Any citizen from Africa who is applying to the College of Arts and Sciences is eligible.  

Selection

The Oberlin College Office of Admissions will select Yakubu Saaka Scholars. Criteria for selection include a strong academic record and the potential to excel within an American liberal arts curriculum. This award does not require any supplementary materials.

About Yakubu Saaka

Dr. Yakuba Saaka served as a devoted and longtime professor of African American Studies at Oberlin from 1972-2008.  For several generations of Oberlin students, his courses on African politics and cosmology were staples in understanding African culture and tradition. 

A prolific scholar, Dr. Saaka published three books and many scholarly articles, and for many years authored the Collins Encyclopedia entry on Ghana. A specialist in African politics, Dr.Saaka practiced what he preached: he served in Ghana's Third Republic as a member of Parliament, as deputy foreign minister, and as a United Nations ambassador while on sabbatical from Oberlin. 

He renewed his commitment to Ghanaian national politics by declaring his intent to run for president in the 2008 elections.  Oberlin is proud to offer a scholarship in his name to celebrate his life and extraordinary career.

Local Scholarship Programs

Oberlin College offers special scholarships for graduates of Oberlin High School and for children of Oberlin College employees.

The Oberlin College Board of Trustees has established a program that provides tuition scholarships to the natural or legally adopted children of full-time college employees. The scholarships may be used for tuition and instructional costs only.

For more information, call the Office of Human Resources (440) 775-8430.

Oberlin College offers full-tuition scholarships to qualified graduates of Oberlin High School. Applicants must have resided in the Oberlin School District for at least four years prior to high school graduation, must have attended Oberlin High School for four years, and must continue residence in the area while enrolled at Oberlin College. The Oberlin School District includes the city of Oberlin and parts of New Russia, Pittsfield, Carlisle, and Amherst townships. Applicants also must meet the admission requirements of Oberlin College.

Transfer students are eligible for the scholarship, provided they meet Oberlin's admission requirements and are graduates of Oberlin High School who have met the residency requirement.

For information, contact the Office of Admissions at College.Admissions@oberlin.edu.