These scholarships are awarded by the Education Abroad Office and/or an external committee, and have various types of award criteria, including language learning, previous travel, program sponsor, host country, and program type. UNL Education Abroad scholarships are merit-based (“essay-based”), and financial need is also considered.

There are three distinct applications:
- the MAPS Scholarship Application (to apply for several awards at one time)
- Early Abroad (Students going abroad within their first two years at UNL)
- Wiebers (For students studying a language abroad)

Students are encouraged to apply for all applications that they are eligible for. Students may start scholarship applications prior to acceptance into a program.