Let me start with the number that matters: zero. That’s how much of my education my family could pay for in US dollars. If you’re reading this from a similar starting point, I need you to hear the rest of this article as a plan, not a pep talk.
No single scholarship carried me. A stack of them did: institutional aid, actuarial-specific awards, exam-fee support, and small local grants that individually looked too small to bother with. The students who fund their education this way aren’t luckier. They apply to more things, earlier, with a better system.
The stack, from biggest layer to smallest
Layer 1: institutional aid. For international students especially, the university itself is usually the largest funder you will ever have. Merit aid at the point of admission dwarfs almost every external scholarship. This means your “scholarship search” starts with which schools you apply to, not with scholarship websites.
Layer 2: actuarial-specific awards. These are the ones this community sleeps on, because most students have never heard of them. The IABA scholarship for Black students in the US and Canada. The Organization of Latino Actuaries. The Actuarial Foundation’s awards. The CAS Trust Scholarship. Fewer applicants than general scholarships, and the committees actually understand what passing Exam P means.
Layer 3: exam-fee support. Exam fees are the quiet killer of actuarial dreams. The CAS/SOA Actuarial Exam Support Program exists specifically to cover registration fees and study materials for candidates who need it. If cost is the reason you haven’t registered, apply before you talk yourself out of the career.
Layer 4: small and local. Church funds, community foundations, departmental awards, regional actuarial clubs. A $500 award feels small until you remember it’s two study manuals or most of an exam fee.
The calendar is the strategy
Here’s the pattern almost every actuarial scholarship follows: applications open in January or February and close in March or April, for awards paid the following academic year. Which means the students who win started their materials in December.
Build a simple sheet: scholarship, deadline, requirements, status. Update it monthly. When the resource database on this site shows a deadline, treat it as a prompt to verify on the official page, dates shift, and the official site always wins.
What the winning essays have in common
I’ve now read essays from both sides, as an applicant and as someone mentees send drafts to. The winning ones do three things:
- They tell a specific story, not a summary. “I want to help my community” loses to the actual afternoon you sat with your cousin explaining how insurance could have saved the family business.
- They connect the money to a plan. Committees fund trajectories. “This award covers Exam FM registration in the fall sitting and the ADAPT subscription for it” is fundable. “This would help with my studies” is not.
- They answer the giving-back question honestly. Every actuarial diversity scholarship is, at its core, asking: will you hold the door open behind you? Have a real answer. Mine became this website.
If you take one thing
Apply to the things that feel too small, too specific, or too competitive. The application you don’t send has a pass rate of exactly zero, and unlike the exams, these ones refund your effort in interview practice even when you lose.
Ubuntu: I am because we are. Someone funded my seat at the table. Go claim yours.