Chess Team Scholarships

We welcome candidates who are excellent students, strong chess competitors, and congenial people who like to play on a team and contribute to the activities of The University of Texas at Dallas Chess Club. UT Dallas offers scholarships to qualified chess-player scholars.

While all scholarships are academic scholarships, students may achieve them through two different means. The first is the Academic Excellence Scholarships Program administered by Undergraduate Education. This program has varying levels of scholarships, such as Honors, Distinction and Recognition. Students must have high SAT scores, GPAs, class ranking, etc. In the fall of 2008 the mean SAT score of the incoming UT Dallas freshman was 1248 for Math and Critical Reading (highest among Texas public universities). To read more about the details of the AES program, please go to http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/ugraddean/aesprogram.html.

Another approach that students might take in applying for scholarships at the UT Dallas Chess Program is that of Tournament-based Scholarships. Each year, UT Dallas offers several full four-year tuition (and fees toward housing) scholarships. These scholarships are typically at the Academic Distinction level, and may be upgraded to the Honors level ($3,000 yearly cash stipend) if the student's academic qualifications merit an upgrade. Most of these awards go to the winners of local and state events with some reserved for national and international events.

Mandatory: All scholarships are only for students who are accepted to and matriculate at UT Dallas. Thus, it is very important to be admitted to UT Dallas as soon as possible in order to be considered (see Admissions below). To maintain the award, the student must earn at least 15 credit hours per semester and maintain a semester grade point average of at least 3.25 (on the 4.00 point scale).

Admissions Process:It is very important that both U.S. and international students go to http://www.utdallas.edu/enroll/apply/fprocess.php to understand the steps in the admissions process at UT Dallas. Everyone must complete an on-line application before he or she is recognized by the UT Dallas system.

International Students: The MOST CRITICAL factor is that students allow time to schedule, study, and take the TOEFL and SAT exams, which are listed on the Admission webpage (above). Ideally, a student will start reading this webpage the spring semester (March-May) the year before a scholarship is to be awarded. International students need extra time since TOEFL and SAT exams are not always easy to schedule. Academic performance must be high. Thus, students may wish to take the exams a second time to improve their scores. Please read My Experience with the SAT Exam by IM Marko Zivanic. In the spring semester, even after admission to the university and the award of a scholarship, there will still be some time required for paperwork to submit for visas.

Titled Players:Masters, International Masters, and Grandmasters are invited to contact James Stallings at james.stallings@utdallas.edu. In 2009, the U.S. Chess Federation rule restrictions for titled players, such as International Masters and International Grandmasters, were amended. To see who qualifies to compete on college chess teams, please go to: http://www.utdallas.edu/orgs/chess/uscf-ccc.html.

Graduate Students: At this time, all funding for the Chess Program is from Undergraduate Education, and there is no funding for graduate students. The Chess Program is always under review, and this might possibly change in the future. Thus, students must contact individual graduate programs for funding.

More information: If you have questions on any of the above, please contact the Chess Program Director, James Stallings at james.stallings@utdallas.edu.

Recruiting Form: If you are interested in applying to UT Dallas to become a member of the UT Dallas Chess Team, please fill out our online Recruiting Form.