Scholarships available?

[3ct0s]

Hey there

I am a student in the EU who really wants to attend this year's Defcon in Vegas. I was unsure if Defcon gave out student scholarships, so I figured I would ask here. If you know anything about it please let me know!

[number6]

Hey there

I am a student in the EU who really wants to attend this year's Defcon in Vegas. I was unsure if Defcon gave out student scholarships, so I figured I would ask here. If you know anything about it please let me know!

First, you will probably have better luck in searching for "DEF CON sponsorship" more than "DEF CON Scholarship"

The closest things I've seen to any kind of scholarship/sponsorship from DEF CON is for people that have played specific roles in contributing to DEF CON.

People that speak on the main stages as part of an accepted talk approved under the "Call for Papers" have been given an option for free entry and a few other perks or a small cash payment often less than the cost of a badge. (See https://defcon.org/html/defcon-32/dc-32-cfi.html for some examples)

Many volunteers have also received compensation to free entry to DEF CON such as "DEF CON Goons" (the volunteers that work across all parts of DEF CON in official DEF CON departments) and possibly some people running contests, villages, and similar things.

Not all volunteers get free entry to DEF CON. For example, some people that have been to several DEF CON and understand how things work at DEF CON decide that they want to be a goon, and know one or more goons that vouch for them. These people can sometimes be accepted as "new goons." If that trial works out, and there is space for them the following year, some are invited to become actual goons. Goons work during DEF CON, and some people would rather not spend their time working.

Some people volunteer to help villages or other things without getting free entry into DEF CON. Those that get free entry make arrangements with organizers of the thing for which they are volunteering long before DEF CON starts.

A final group that has historically been able to get entry to DEF CON has been people that manage to earn coveted "black badges" as an award for doing something amazing, like winning a "black badge contest." The only "always a black badge contest" has the the original "DEF CON Capture the Flag" while all of the other contests have a chance each year to become black badge contests. Those decisions are usually not announced ahead of time, or people might only choose to compete in black badge contests and ignore all of the other contests.



The cost to enter DEF CON has been close to $500 but a larger cost (if travelling alone) can be travel+food+hotel room, where travel is often more expensive when needing to travel to the US from another country.

Some universities or university-departments/colleges get support from donors to have scholarships to visit DEF CON for their students. (An example claiming to provide this from ~10 years ago in 2014: https://www.starkstate.edu/public/sy...cholarship.pdf )

There are also some groups that provide sponsorship/scholarship to people based on other criteria. One example was historically https://www.dianainitiative.org/about/ ( An example from last year, 2023: https://www.dianainitiative.org/wp-c...11-19-full.pdf )

Some people are able to get their employer to subsidize their cost to visit DEF CON. This includes people still in college participating with an internship program.

If you are planning to volunteer within a village, or similar thing at DEF CON, contact the people running that thing to see if they can get you into DEF CON for free as part of the work you are doing with them.

If you are not working as a volunteer for one of those things or do not plan to work as a volunteer, then searching for a 3rd party to provide you sponsorship is a next likely choice.

If you do manage to find some kind of sponsorship, why not share what you found with others so they can possibly benefit?

Good luck!