Gates Cambridge Scholarship (2027/8 Entry)

Title: Gates Cambridge Scholarship: How US and International Students Apply for Fully Funded Study at Cambridge

Meta description: The Gates Cambridge Scholarship covers full tuition, travel, and living costs at the University of Cambridge. Here’s how the two application rounds work and which one applies to you.

Note for now: applications for 2026/7 entry are closed. The next window opens in September 2026, for students starting in 2027/8. If Cambridge is on your list, this is the one to start planning for early. Gates Cambridge is one of the most generous scholarships out there, and it’s genuinely open to any nationality outside the UK.

There are two separate rounds, and which one you fall into depends entirely on your citizenship and location, not on your course.

Round 1: US citizens living in the US:

• Applications open around September 2026
• Full application, including references, due by the end of October 2026
• Decisions land by December 2026, offers by early February 2027

If you’re a US citizen but currently studying or working outside the US, you don’t apply here; you go into Round 2 instead.

Round 2:  everyone else (including US citizens abroad):

• Applications open around September 2026
• Deadline depends on your course — either December 2026 or early January 2027, so check the specific course page in the Cambridge Course Directory
• Offers go out by early April 2027

What it covers: Full tuition, a maintenance allowance, flights, and other course-related costs. This is a full-ride scholarship, not a partial one.

One thing worth flagging: once an offer is made, you only have 72 hours to accept it, so have your decision-making sorted before results come out.

If you’re not sure which round fits your situation, Gates Cambridge’s own advice is to just email them directly before you apply; it’s a fair enough question that they’d rather answer it upfront than have you apply to the wrong round.

For more information and application: 

Visit the official website of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship