The National Research Scholarship Service compiles an annual “Top 10” list of strange awards offered to college students. Here’s a few oddball endowments that have made the list:
The Women’s Western Golf Foundation has $2,000 a year awaiting female high school seniors who are U.S. citizens and who have high academic standing, financial need and an involvement with golf. Skill is not a criterion.
A Fragrance Research Fund grant of up to $50,000 is available to clinical psychologists doing postgraduate research in aroma-chology.
Arts Management Ltd. offers $12,000 to any Australian woman painter whose portrait is judged best. Recipients can use the Portia Geach Memorial Award for anything they want.
The International Union for Vacuum Science’s Welch Foundation Research Scholarship offers up to $12,300 for postgraduate students doing research in vacuum science.
American high school seniors in the top 25 percent of their class who have been golf caddies for the past two or more years can apply for an Evans Scholarship Program though the Western Golf Association. The award pays full tuition and housing.
For graduate students interested in doing research on crossbows, shillelaghs, muskets and other antique weapons, the American Society of Arms Collectors offers the $5,000 Antique Weapons Research Fellowship. Applicants must be willing to write a scholarly report that would be published in the society’s bulletin.
Students whose last names are Anderson, Baxendale, Borden, Bright or Murphy may qualify for Harvard Radcliffe Scholarships.
For women flyers who prefer helicopters, International Women Helicopter Pilots/Whirly Girls Scholarships grant $4,000 to encourage careers in vertical flight.
The Mycological Society of America offers $1,000 to Ph.D. candidates at U.S. or Canadian universities who are interested in the study of fungus.
For a left-handed freshman enrolled at Juniata College and who needs the money, Beckley Scholarship Foundation offers $700.
For graduates of Mt. Carmel High School who don’t drink, smoke, play rough sports or live anywhere but Mt. Carmel, Pa., the G.J. Deppen & Voris Auten Teetotaling Non-Athletic Scholarship Fund offers scholarships for all areas of study at Bucknell University.
High school seniors and undergraduates with the surname of Gatlin or Gatling might want to take a shot at the John Gatling Scholarship Program which offers full scholarships up to $8,000 at North Carolina State University.
For students whose ancestors put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, Descendants of the Signers of The Declaration of Independence Scholarship/Grant Program offers grants of $800 to $1,000 for all areas of study.
The David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship Program could pay your way to graduation at Ball State University if you are a junior telecommunications major with an “average yet creative” mind.
Tupperware Home Parties scholarships are available for undergraduate study to Tupperware dealers, managers and their offspring.
Are you a little out of shape? The New England Chapter of the National Association of Advance Fat Acceptance offers $500 to high school seniors who will be going to college and who are fat.
Valparaiso University in Indiana offers scholarships to sets of twins who will be attending the university. One twin gets a free ride through school with full tuition paid.
The Billy Bartle Foundation offers $2,000 scholarships for people of short stature, with no limit to what you can study.