Sponsor Deadline
Posted: 10/31/2024

Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship Program

 In 1988, the National Collegiate Athletic Association established the Walter Byers Scholarship as a means of recognizing the contributions of the former executive director through encouraging excellence in academic performance by student-athletes. Annually, one male and one female student-athlete are awarded a $24,000 Walter Byers scholarship in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and potential for success in graduate study. It is intended that an individual named a Byers Scholar will be recognized as one who has combined the best elements of mind and body to achieve national distinction for his or her achievements, and promises to be a future leader in his or her chosen field of career service.

The Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship is separate and distinct from the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which provides numerous annual awards with smaller stipends. The stipend for each Byers Scholarship is $24,000 for an academic year. If the graduate school where the Byers Scholar is enrolled provides evidence of the scholar's satisfactory performance and progress, the grant may be renewed for a second year. Therefore, in any single year, $96,000 worth of scholarships are awarded ($48,000 to the current year's recipients and $48,000 to the previous year's awardees for their second year of graduate school).

The Walter Byers Scholarship nomination is submitted by the faculty athletics representative (FAR) or FAR Designee. Each NCAA member institution may nominate no more than three student-athletes per gender. 

Deadline: Jan. 10, 2025

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for consideration, nominees shall:

  1. Have an overall undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of 3.500 or better (based on a maximum 4.000), or the equivalent in other recognized grading systems;
  2. Have competed in intercollegiate athletics as a member of a varsity team at an NCAA member institution;
  3. Be a graduating senior or be enrolled in graduate study at an NCAA member institution;
  4. Have intentions of applying for admission into a graduate degree program at a properly accredited, nonprofit educational institution or into a post-baccalaureate professional degree program at a professionally accredited law school, medical school, or the equivalent, without restriction as to the national site of the institution;
  5. Be committed to work on a full-time basis toward a graduate degree or a post- baccalaureate professional degree;
  6. Have evidenced superior character and leadership;
  7. Have demonstrated that participation in athletics and community service has been a positive influence on the nominee’s personal and intellectual development;
  8. Enroll into a graduate degree program within five years of being named a Byers Scholar and
  9. United States citizenship is not a required criterion to satisfy eligibility requirements.