As the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation awards its 500th scholarship in its first 5 years, it is changing the lives of a select group of graduate and professional students with scholarships which recognize that financial need and academic excellence often go together. The 76 students who received the Foundation's graduate and professional scholarships were chosen after a countrywide selection process that received1,290 nominees from over 600 universities and colleges across the country. Each of the scholarships are worth up to $300,000, which puts them among the largest scholarships offered in the USA.

"Support for exceptional students, particularly those with financial need and a great drive to succeed, can have a profoundly positive effect on society," said Dr. Matthew J. Quinn, executive director of the Foundation. "These students have overcome tremendous obstacles, and we are proud to help them continue their education and prepare to make valuable contributions to our world."

Students attending any accredited university or college in the United States were eligible to apply. Each school could nominate up to 2 students. Candidates then underwent a rigorous assessment at 2 stages by independent panels of academic experts, including admissions counselors, graduate school deans,  and faculty. The selection criteria included  financial need and academic achievement as well as a will to succeed, leadership, and community involvement.

6 schools had more than 1 student receive a scholarship: Stanford University, University of California-Los Angeles, Brown University, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, and Yale University. More than fifteen recipients had come up through junior college. The 76 students plan to attend schools across the US and the world, including eleven heading to Harvard University; four each to attend Stanford, Columbia, and Oxford; and 3 to the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor Laurie Kohn of the Georgetown University Law Center, who served as a panelist, said, "The recipients of scholarships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, whose standards are exceptionally high, exemplify qualities we all admire, particularly that unique combination of ability and drive that sets some people apart. What the Rhodes Scholarship is to overseas study, the Jack Kent Cooke awards are rapidly becoming to the best students in America who have financial need."