If you never finished college but some how made it big in the business world would you dedicate your resources to making sure deserving citizens complete college? That is what Jim McLamore, the co-founded Burger King, has been doing over the past 25 years. He never finished college himself; however, his foundation has spent the past 25 years trying to make sure other kids do.
The Burger King Scholars Program has handed out nearly $64 million since 2000. More than 54,000 students have won scholarship money through it. Awards range from $1,000 all the way to $60,000, split across several tiers. The foundation’s goal is simple. One scholarship for every Burger King restaurant in North America. That works out to roughly $7 million a year, every year.
The most important part of this program is the fact that you do not need to work at Burger King to qualify. The General Track, the biggest category by far with over 4,200 awards, is open to high school seniors who simply live near a participating restaurant. Zip code, county, or state.
The General Track pays $1,000. Awards are tied to specific restaurant locations, so how many go to your area depends on how much that location’s franchisee has contributed that year. This is the entry point for most applicants, and it is genuinely accessible if there is a Burger King near you.
Above that sit the employee-specific tiers. Up to three James W. McLamore Whopper Scholarships pay $60,000 each, reserved for students who show leadership, real work experience, and financial need. Up to seven King Awards pay $15,000 each, one per region. Two Hometown Scholarships pay $10,000. One Nancy McLamore Scholarship pays $20,000, named for Jim McLamore’s late wife and reserved for a Burger King team member. These higher tiers require you, or a parent, to actually work for Burger King or a franchisee. The General Track does not.
Who Qualifies to Apply
For the General Track, you need to be a graduating high school senior planning to attend college or a post-secondary vocational program. A 2.0 GPA minimum. Living in an eligible zip code, county, or state tied to a participating restaurant. For the employee tracks, you or your parent need to be employed by Burger King or a franchisee, usually with a minimum tenure requirement.
Selection looks at GPA, work experience, extracurriculars, financial need, and community service together. No single factor decides it.
When to Apply
The 2027-2028 cycle opens October 15, 2026, and closes December 15, 2026. There is a catch worth knowing. The portal closes early if it hits 30,000 applications, even if that happens before December 15. Tens of thousands of students apply every year, and the cap has closed the window early in past cycles. If you are eligible, do not wait until the deadline date. Apply the week the portal opens.
Once winders are announced the Scholarship checks go directly to the student’s school, not the student and is usually paid out by the last week of August. A shift lead at an Arkansas Burger King became the first Nancy McLamore recipient, winning $20,000 toward a nursing degree after years of working the register. That is the kind of story this program is built around. Real jobs, real financial pressure, and ultimately real degrees on the other side of it.
Remember most corporate scholarships this large come from tech or finance companies. Burger King is a fast food chain. That matters because it make this scholarship eligible pool skews toward students already working service jobs, or students whose families do. The application weighs work experience heavily, right alongside GPA. A student juggling a part-time job and a full course load is not at a disadvantage here. If anything, that experience counts in their favor.
This is also a franchise-funded program, not a single corporate check. Each participating restaurant contributes to the pool that funds General Track awards in its own area. That is why award availability varies so much by location. A city with ten Burger King locations funds more local awards than a town with one.
Final Thoughts
If a General Track $1,000 award feels small there are other options on this websites you can try. For example the Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship shares Burger King’s structure in one specific way. No employment or membership connection required for its main track either. And if you want to see how a different brand-funded scholarship handles a similarly low-friction first step, the Coca-Cola Scholars Program runs the same philosophy at a much higher award tier.
A few resources worth having ready before the portal opens. How to Write a Winning Scholarship Essay by Kelly Tanabe and Gen Tanabe is useful for the McLamore Whopper track specifically, where leadership and work experience need to come through clearly. The Scholarship System by Jocelyn Paonita Pearson is worth reading if you are planning to apply to Burger King alongside several other programs this fall, since the application cap rewards students who move fast. And Paying for College by Kalman Chany helps make sense of how a $1,000 award actually fits into a bigger financial aid picture.
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