For widowed parents with a student either applying to college or already in college, I’ve just added 70 scholarships to the list of college scholarships for students with a deceased parent. Most of them are limited to residents of specific states, and many are specific to the deceased being in the military or a first responder. The list now totals 155 scholarships, with the newly added scholarships falling into these categories (some scholarships fall into more than one category):

• Military – 64 scholarships (45 new) for the children of deceased military personnel
• First Responders – 43 scholarships (25 new) for the children of deceased first responders
• September 11 – 9 scholarships (3 new) for the children of victims who died as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the resulting rescue and recovery efforts
• General – 56 scholarships (9 new)… This is a catch-all for all the college scholarships that are not specifically for children of military, first responders or victims of 9/11. They include general scholarships for students who lost a parent and also some that are specific to a school or cause of death, such as cancer.

I’ve also updated the format of the scholarship lists so that they can now be searched and sorted, which I hope makes the list now easier to navigate. Please contact me if you have any feedback or suggestions or know of any scholarships that I’ve missed.

Note that some scholarships aren’t yet accepting applications for the 2025-2026 academic year and still refer to the 2024-2025 academic year on their website.