Of the 1821 dated scholarship deadlines in this directory, 464 fall in May. Here is what closes each month and when to prepare.
The shape of the year in one table
Every dated scholarship deadline in the directory, counted by the month it falls in.
| Month | What it holds | Deadlines |
|---|---|---|
| January | Nominated awards. Schulich closes the 27th. | 158 |
| February | Terry Fox Humanitarian, Kin Canada, Masonic bursary. | 54 |
| March | Edmonton foundations and the Metis awards. | 327 |
| April | Spring opens. Local and regional awards. | 182 |
| May | The largest month, by far. Local. | 464 |
| June | Second largest. City and county awards. | 203 |
| July | Quiet. A few union and institutional awards. | 60 |
| August | Institutional entrance bursaries. | 103 |
| September | The fall opens. Co-op and county awards. | 42 |
| October | The most valuable month. Loran closes the 15th. | 63 |
| November | Few deadlines, largest single awards. | 41 |
| December | Institutional portfolios booked on one date. | 124 |
May has the most deadlines
464 of 1821 deadlines fall in May. April, May and June together hold 849, which is more than half of all the dated awards in the year.
By May you probably have an acceptance letter and diploma exams to study for, so these are easy to let slide. The awards still open are smaller, usually $500 to $2,000, and local, which is why they are worth the evening. A May award draws from one city or one school, and a national award from the whole country.
The largest awards close in the fall
October and November hold 104 deadlines between them, the two thinnest months of the school year. They also hold almost every large award on the site, with the Loran Award at roughly $150,000 on October 15 and the Wolf Scholars Program, fully funded, on November 2.
So the fall asks for the most work in the first ten weeks of Grade 12, for the awards with the most applicants. Loran is still worth five weeks for its finalist awards alone. Plan the fall as a few expensive applications and the spring as many cheap ones.
Four dates with dozens of awards each
Four single days carry more awards than most whole months.
- May 1, 148 awards. A genuine mix, including 24 more EducationMatters awards and 6 from CPA Alberta.
- May 31, 125 awards. 66 of these are Red Deer Polytechnic awards, listed together on its online scholarship portal.
- May 30, 92 awards. 73 of them are administered by EducationMatters, the Calgary Board of Education's foundation, with another 7 through the Calgary Foundation.
- December 18, 68 awards. 67 of these are Keyano College awards, published together in one student award booklet.
When you see dozens of awards sharing a date, you are usually looking at one institution's portfolio, which means one administering body, one set of rules, and often one application that considers you for everything you qualify for. A date that looks like 67 deadlines can be an afternoon's work. Check the administrator before you assume the date is impossible.
Month by month, and what to do in each
September and October, the largest awards
September holds 42 deadlines, among them the Charmaine Letourneau Scholarship, the UFCW Canada Begg's-Dowling-Mathieu Scholarship and the Cypress County Agricultural Service Board Bursary, all closing September 30. October holds 63 and is the most valuable month of the year. If you are reading this in September of Grade 12, the Loran application is the thing to start this week, and the reference letters are the thing to ask for before the November crush.
November and December, leadership awards and then the institutions
November has only 41 deadlines and the largest amounts. November 1 alone carries the First Nations, Metis and Inuit Bursary, the Cenovus Energy Indigenous Scholarship and the ATB Financial Bursary. December then jumps to 124, almost entirely because institutional portfolios land in it, and it holds the UCalgary Pathways to Medicine Scholarship at up to $20,000 on December 1 and the University of Lethbridge early admission date on December 15 that carries its Board of Governors Award with it.
January to March, the nominated round
539 deadlines across three months, the quietest stretch in the year. What is here is disproportionately nominated or institutional. Schulich Leader Scholarships at $100,000 on January 27 needs a school nomination, and the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award at $28,000 closes February 1. For anything nominated, the date that binds you is your school's internal one, which is always earlier than the published one and is sometimes six weeks earlier. Ask your counsellor in January which awards your school can nominate for.
March picks up to 327 as the Edmonton foundations open. The Winspear Fund classical music scholarships, the Ranald and Vera Shean Memorial Scholarships and the Belcourt Brosseau Metis Awards all close March 31.
April to June, where most of the awards are
849 deadlines. This is the part of the year worth planning properly, and the plan is boring. Write one strong essay and one reference package, and apply to everything you plausibly qualify for. April 10 and April 1 both carry clusters, May 1 and May 30 are the two biggest days on the calendar, and June 1 carries 76 more. Filter the directory to your own region and work down it.
July and August, after graduation
163 deadlines across the summer. August is mostly institutional entrance bursaries, and July holds union and community awards including the NUPGE Tommy Douglas and Terry Fox Memorial scholarships on July 15. If you graduated in June, check these before you stop looking.
The award that is in no month
The Alexander Rutherford Scholarship has no closing deadline, which is why it appears nowhere on this calendar. It opens August 1, you apply once you are enrolled in post-secondary with final transcripts available, and it pays up to $2,500 for marks you already earned. It has no date attached and no competition.
How to use the calendar
- Read two months ahead, not twelve. The deadline calendar lists every dated deadline in order with live status. In September, the only rows that matter are September and October.
- Weight your effort toward spring. Two thirds of the awards are in April, May and June.
- Check the administrator on a crowded date. Dozens of awards on one day usually means one body and often one application.
- Do the Rutherford regardless. It has no deadline to miss and no competition to lose.
Counts on this page are drawn from the 1821 scholarship listings in the directory with a calendar date still ahead, the same set the deadline calendar lists, and they move as listings are added and cycles roll over. Awards with rolling, ongoing or unannounced dates are not counted here and are not therefore unavailable. The full directory shows live status for all of them, and Build my combo narrows the calendar to what your grade and region qualify you for.