Aralia Students Are 3x More Likely to Place Top Computer Science Competitions
1. What is the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship?
Originally launched in 2021 to uplift underrepresented and underserved students from low-income families to pursue careers in tech, the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship has grown to support a broader range of high school students to pursue careers in tech. Amazon Future Engineer offers college scholarships up to $40,000 per winner and summer internships at Amazon. In 2025, 400 exceptional high school senior applicants, who demonstrate financial need and intend to major in computer science and engineering, will be awarded this highly competitive and prestigious award.
Amazon Future Engineer Scholars will receive up to $10,000 to cover any unmet needs in their college financial aid package and be invited to intern at Amazon the summer after their freshman year of college. The scholarship amount winners receive out of the “up to $40k” is determined by how much financial aid the winner’s college provides. If your college financial aid package leaves an unmet need of $9,000, then your Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship will be $9,000 per year for a total of $36,000.
2. What internships do Amazon Future Engineer Scholars receive?
Amazon Future Engineer Scholars may work as a Software Development Engineer (SDE) Intern or a Hardware Development Engineer (HDE) Intern. All interns will be placed in teams with full-time Amazon employees and other interns in their cohort to build impactful projects on Amazon Web Services, seller logistics, Amazon retail platform, and more. Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship interns will ship production-level code to deliver a real impact on Amazon customers. Interns will learn valuable professional work etiquette and technology problem-solving skills from their managers, career mentors, senior leadership, and older coworkers experienced in the tech industry.
Internship Pay
Internship salaries differ depending on the position, location, and previous experience. Based on job postings, the base pay can range from $47.84 to $96.15 per hour—these prices depend on the cost of living in the internship city. From previous data, in Summer 2025, an Amazon undergrad sophomore intern based in Boston, MA, will earn an estimated $52.72/hour. In contrast, in Summer 2023, an undergrad sophomore intern based in the Bay Area, CA, will earn $60.65/hour. Internships at Amazon (and other tech giants such as Google and Microsoft) typically last 10-12 weeks, resulting in an estimated total pay of $25,200 to $29,078 for a 40-hour workweek in a 12-week internship. Amazon may also provide housing stipends or accommodations.
Software vs Hardware Engineering Interns
Amazon Future Engineer SDE interns will collaborate with experienced software engineers to develop and implement software solutions. They engage in the entire software development lifecycle, including frontend UI or backend systems design, coding, testing, and deployment. On the other hand, HDE interns will work with expert teams to deliver new or improve existing hardware engineering projects. They will work on developing the physical design, prototyping, testing, and troubleshooting of hardware components. Take a look at a Summer 2025 Software Development Engineer Intern SDE Intern job description open to current freshmen; this will be the kind of internship awarded to Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship recipients. Also, check out a Summer 2025 Product Design Engineer Internship HDE Intern job description open to current freshmen who will be working in hardware development.
3. Who is eligible to apply?
- Current high school seniors who have taken or are currently enrolled in a computer science or engineering class at a high school or college. (Students who have not taken a related course may qualify by taking an assessment created by Amazon to test fundamental knowledge of tech.)
- Will pursue a bachelor’s degree in a CS-related field at an accredited 4-year college (or a 2-year community college with the intent to transfer to a 4-year college). Accepted majors include Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Programming, Math (Mathematics; Applied Math), Data Science, Electrical Engineering, Transportation Technology, Computer Info Systems, Computer Info Science, Cognitive Science, Informatics, and Information Technologies.
- Demonstrate an official need for financial assistance by submitting legal documents.
- Minimum 2.3 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale.
- Must be authorized to work in the US as an international student with an Employment Authorization Document, a Permanent Resident/Green Card holder, or a US citizen.
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4. When will Amazon Future Engineer Scholarships be announced?
Based on 2024 data, results will be announced in March or by latest April 23.
5. How to apply for the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship
Application Requirements
Unofficial high school transcript.
Recommendation letter from (preferably) a computer science, robotics, or mechanical engineering teacher.
Copy of the first two pages of your household’s most recent IRS 1040 form(s).
Deadline
Applications are due on January 9, 2025, at 3:00 pm CT.
6. How hard is it to get the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship?
The Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship award is highly competitive and prestigious, and it’s only getting more challenging to win this award. In 2021, Amazon awarded 100 scholarships, 250 scholarships in 2022, and 500 scholarships in 2023; however, in 2024, Amazon lowered the scholarships to 400. Amazon reports the acceptance rate for Amazon Future Engineer Scholarships to be around 7%. In 2023, over 8,000 students applied for Amazon Future Engineer Scholarships, while 500 scholarships were awarded, which makes the acceptance rate more precisely 6.25%. With an estimated increase in future applicants and fewer scholarships offered, the newer acceptance rates may fall below 6%.
7. Tips on How to Win the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship
Amazon looks for “Students are selected based on academic achievement, demonstrated leadership, community involvement, work experience, future goals, and financial need.”
Internships and Community Service
We recommend applicants to have previous internship experience in computer science/engineering so they can speak to their professional work ethic and accomplishments in their application. Additionally, if internships aren’t viable in your area, try to get involved in community service organizations or related school clubs to demonstrate your commitment to driving social change in your community and your leadership skills. The more experiences you gain outside of required high school classes, the more sense of direction you’ll develop for your future goals.
Future Direction
Try new opportunities even if you aren’t 100% sure you’ll like them or that this is your career path. Not only will you gain experience to decorate your resume and transferable skills such as communication and professionalism but also knowing what fields don’t appeal to you is understatedly valuable. This will help you, in your application essay, to write about why computer science/engineering intrigues you, which niche you aspire to specialize in, and potential areas for contributing your innovative ideas and expertise.
Profile of a Winner
Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship Winners from 2024 have mentioned inspirational influences from students’ high school science teachers, movies starring scientists who share their backgrounds or self-identifiers, and family struggles. Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship winners have organized coding programs for young girls, led youth business groups, founded STEM mentorship programs, volunteered to teach refugee and immigrant students, and many more impressive accomplishments.
Notice of Acceptance
Winners have previously been requested to interview as a surprise to notify of acceptance. All award recipients will receive a package in the mail with their formal acceptance letter. Previous packages contained merchandise such as signs, water bottles, flags, letters, shirts, and pins.
8. Prepare for Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship with Aralia Education
One of the application requirements is a computer science or engineering course. Aralia Education Technology offers a rigorous 10-session group class on Intro to Computer Science. Led by experienced, dedicated teachers from top-ranking private high schools in the US, the online course will teach high school students the basics of computer programming with Java. Topics include program control, abstraction, making decisions, and user input. Aralia’s computer science course will equip you with the expertise to deliver an exceptional application to the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship. Learn more about how the Intro to Computer Science course can help you become a better student computer scientist.
Introduction to computer science with a focus on programming. Learn the basics of computer programming using Java as an example language but with the concepts will apply to all languages. Topics include program control, abstraction, making decisions and user input. We will focus on how to design a program, how to write code well and how to read and analyze existing code.
