Bipolar Scholarships

To be eligible, scholarship applicants must:

1. Be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, or schizoaffective disorder.

2. Be currently receiving medical treatment for the disease, including medications and psychiatric follow-up.

3. Be actively involved in rehabilitative or reintegration efforts, such as clubhouse membership, part-time work, volunteer efforts, or school enrollment.

4. Be a U.S. citizen and plan to attend a school in the United States.

5. Be of the age of 18 years or older.

The Lilly Reintegration Scholarship was established to help bipolar and other eligible people cover the cost of tuition, books and lab fees. Selection criteria and an application are available at the scholarship link provided.

The Linda Lael Miller Scholarships are awarded to women who are 25 years or older. Usually the recipients of these scholarships are non-traditional students who have a difficult time finding scholarships for which they qualify. The scholarship funds may be used not only for tuition and books, but also for childcare, transportation and other expenses not covered by traditional scholarships. In the past bipolar women have been sucessful applicants. Linda Lael Miller is a writer and philanthropist who funds the scholarships through her own personal earnings.

The Bipolar Lives Scholarship: Our very own! Entry for the first Bipolar Lives Scholarship closed at midnight on 6/1/2009. This was for an award of a $500 cash prize to a student enrolled in a United States college (undergraduate or postgrad, for example law school, MBAs, etc), community college, technical college, or trade school.

The 2009 winner is N.H., a social work student from WI. See 2009's winning entry at the new Bipolar Lives Scholarship blog.

The 2010 Bipolar Lives Scholarship for $750 is now open: Download an entry form.

NAMI mainly recommend using the major scholarship information sites to search for your bipolar scholarship. For example, NAMI suggest FastWeb. Need money for college? Use FastWeb's free scholarship search to find information on more than 1.3 Million scholarships!

NAMI do list a couple of scholarships not included above, but none for bipolar people in particular.

NAMI also advise that as the majority of scholarships related to mental illness can be found at the state and local levels, it is wise to concentrate your research on local scholarship opportunities. The best place to start is through your your high school.

Also, it can be helpful to work backwards. Make a shortlist of 5 colleges you WANT to attend, and find out what scholarships are available at from your preferred, targeted colleges. Wondering why I am no longer talking about bipolar scholarships in particular?