Shelby Davis Scholarship
The Shelby Davis Scholarship is granted to graduates of the United World Colleges to study at universities in the United States. The Davis family's contribution to the United World Colleges, in scholarships and grants for building projects, represents the biggest contribution to international education ever made by a single donor (as of 2002).1 Shelby Davis, the scholarship's namesake, is an investor whose largest fund, Davis New York Venture, was named to the Forbes Honour Roll for mutual fund investments; he is the son of Shelby Cullom Davis.
Davis began the scholarship program in 2000, an open-ended grant that meets the full financial need of each United World College student who wishes to attend a participating university. The Shelby Davis Foundation scholarship in addition provides a $10,000 grant to the institution that matriculates the UWC student, as well as a $5,000 grant for that university's admissions outreach. Originally, the scholarship was offered to students matriculating at one of five colleges in the United States: the College of the Atlantic, Middlebury College, Colby College, Wellesley College or Princeton University. That network of eligible universities was expanded in 2004 to include 91 institutions in the United States, including other Ivy League and NESCAC institutions. Currently 821 UWC graduates are funded from 188 countries.
The scholarship is unusual as it is restricted to students who have already faced heavy competition, in their penultimate year of high school, to attend one of the United World Colleges where they will complete their high school education. The United World Colleges (UWCs) are a confederation of sixteen upper-level secondary schools located throughout the world that educate international students, many from developing countries, as they pursue the International Baccalaureate Diploma. The colleges offer partial or full scholarships permitting students of all socio-economic backgrounds to participate in the peace project.
The Shelby Davis Scholarship provides those students who show financial need with the opportunity to pursue undergraduate study following their two-year UWC program. The funding, however, is limited to those attending American universities, opening the debate on whether such grants contribute to brain drain or provide skills to students from the developing world to better assist their home countries in the long term.
There are currently 16 UWCs worldwide. Of these, eleven UWCs offer solely the pre-university IB diploma to between 50-400 students selected from different countries while four others offer a pre-16 education as well as the IB diploma. The Shelby Davis Scholarship is well sought after by these students, as it will help cover the high cost of universities.
Participating universities
Names marked with an asterisk signify the original five universities.
1 Agnes Scott College| Decatur, GA
2 Amherst College| Amherst, MA
3 Bard College| Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
4 Barnard College| New York, NY
5 Bates College| Lewiston, ME
6 Boston Conservatory| Boston, MA
7 Bowdoin College| Brunswick, ME
8 Brandeis University| Waltham, MA
9 Brown University| Providence, RI
10 Bryn Mawr College| Bryn Mawr, PA
11 Bucknell University| Lewisburg, PA
12 Carleton College| Northfield, MN
13 Claremont McKenna College| Claremont, CA
14 Clark University| Worcester, MA
15 Colby College*| Waterville, ME
16 Colgate University| Hamilton, NY
17 College of the Atlantic*| Bar Harbor, ME
18 College of the Holy Cross| Worcester, MA
19 College of Idaho| Caldwell, ID
20 College of Notre Dame of Maryland| Baltimore, MD
21 Colorado College| Colorado Springs, CO
22 Columbia University| New York, NY
23 Connecticut College| New London, CT
24 Cornell University| Ithaca, NY
25 Dartmouth College| Hanover, NH
26 Denison University| Granville, OH
27 Dickinson College| Carlisle, PA
28 Duke University| Durham, NC
29 Earlham College| Richmond, IN
30 Franklin & Marshall College| Lancaster, PA
31 Georgetown University| Washington, DC
32 Gettysburg College| Gettysburg. PA
33 Grinnell College| Grinnell, IA
34 Hamilton College| Clinton, NY
35 Harvard College Cambridge, MA
36 Haverford College| Haverford, PA
37 Hood College| Frederick, MD
38 Johns Hopkins University| Baltimore, MD
39 Kalamazoo College| Kalamazoo, MI
40 Kenyon College| Gambier, OH
41 Lafayette College| Easton, PA
42 Lake Forest College| Lake Forest, IL
43 Lehigh University| Bethlehem, PA
44 Lewis & Clark College| Portland, OR
45 Luther College| Decorah, IA
46 Macalester College| Saint Paul, MN
47 Methodist University| Fayetteville, NC
48 Middlebury College*| Middlebury, VT
49 MIT Cambridge, MA
50 Mount Holyoke College| South Hadley, MA
51 Northwestern University| Evanston, IL
52 Oberlin College| Oberlin, OH
53 Occidental College**| Los Angeles, CA
54 Pomona College**| Claremont, CA
55 Princeton University*| Princeton, NJ
56 Randolph-Macon College| Ashland, VA
57 Reed College| Portland, OR
58 Ringling College of Art and Design| Sarasota, FL
59 San Francisco Art Institute| San Francisco, CA
60 Sarah Lawrence College**| Bronxville, NY
61 Scripps College| Claremont, CA
62 School of the Art Institute of Chicago| Chicago, IL
63 Skidmore College| Saratoga Springs, NY
64 Smith College| Northampton, MA
65 St. John's College| Annapolis, MD & Santa Fe, NM
67 St. Lawrence University| Canton, NY
68 St. Olaf College**| Northfield, MN
69 Stanford University| Palo Alto, CA
70 Swarthmore College| Swarthmore, PA
71 Trinity College| Hartford, CT
72 Tufts University| Medford, MA
73 Union College| Schenectady, NY
74 University of Chicago| Chicago, IL
75 University of Florida| Gainesville, FL
76 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill| Chapel Hill, NC
77 University of Notre Dame| South Bend, IN
78 University of Oklahoma| Norman, OK
79 University of Pennsylvania| Philadelphia, PA
80. University of Rochester Rochester, NY
81 University of Richmond| Richmond, VA
82 University of Virginia| Charlottesville, VA
83 Vassar College| Poughkeepsie, NY
84 Wartburg College| Waverly, IA
85 Washington & Lee University| Lexington, VA
86 Wellesley College*| Wellesley, MA
87 Wesleyan University| Middletown, CT
88 Westminster College| Fulton, MO
89 Wheaton College| Norton, MA
90 Whitman College| Walla Walla, WA
91 Williams College| Williamstown, MA
92 Yale University| New Haven, CT