#RAREis Scholarship

Living with a rare disease means managing unique challenges, including frequent doctor visits, rigorous treatment regimens and hospitalizations, and exposure risks. While quality and duration of life continues to improve thanks to improved diagnosis and treatment approaches, individuals living with rare diseases still face disparities in achieving traditional life milestones. That’s why the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases established the #RAREis Scholarship Fund – to enrich the lives of adults living with rare diseases by providing support for their educational pursuits.

Thanks to the support of Amgen,* The EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases will provide one-time awards of $5,000 scholarships to 53 rare disease recipients in 2024. Horizon Therapeutics was acquired by Amgen in 2023.

Who Can Apply?

Anyone 17 or older, who is a resident of the United States and who has been diagnosed by a physician as having any form of rare disease, regardless of treatment status.  Applicants will be asked to provide a Diagnosis Verification Form provided by a physician verifying diagnosis. Undiagnosed applicants may apply with a completed Diagnosis Verification Form by a physician. A Spanish Diagnosis Verification Form is also available.

Applicants must plan to enroll full-time or part-time in undergraduate or graduate study at an accredited two- or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical/trade school for the Fall 2023 semester. There is no minimum amount of credit hours to be part-time. Students do not need to be pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree.

A disease is defined as rare when it affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. If you are unsure if your disease is rare, please refer to The National Institute of Health and the Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center. and/or NORD

How Do I Apply?

The 2024 application will be open from March 18 – April 22, 2024

1. Start your application online. You will be directed to Scholarship America, the company we have hired to manage the application.
2. Create a Scholarship America profile/account. If you applied a previous year, you should already have an account and can just login with your password. This is a quick step to get you into the Scholarship America Hub.
3. After your profile is created, the Scholarship America Hub will generate ALL scholarships you are eligible for. You can then search for the RAREis Application and start the application process, including:
4. Your application requires documents to be uploaded. You must provide your most recent transcript of grades. Grade reports are not accepted. Unofficial or online transcripts must display students full name, school name, grade and credit hours for each course and term in which each course was taken. You must also submit a completed Diagnosis Verification Form.
5. You must answer the essay question. The 2024 question will be announced when the application opens. The 2023 essay question was “In what ways can your education and career goals contribute to diversity, equity & inclusion, and/or accessibility for the rare disease community?” (2,000 characters maximum, which is approx. 350-400 words).