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How long is your scholarship application open?
For years, our organization's annual scholarship application has opened on January 15 and closed two months later on March 15. We're considering moving up the deadline and having the application open for a shorter period of time, possibly 6 weeks. What are the open & close dates for your scholarship program? What factors…
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EFC to SAI Changes
Hello, Can anyone provide on information transition process from EFC to SAI changes. My organization typically uses EFC chart, as well as institutional aid to determine unmet need. Does somebody have an example or template for estimated conversions for SAI.. They have developed and/or plan to implement? Thank you, Kaylin
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Scholarship rubric scales for activities, community service, and work
We are working to update our evaluation questions for our selection committees as they review scholarship applications. We are trying to create a scale to measure the quality of students' extra-curricular activities, community service, and work. We want to offer clear guidance to evaluators for why they should give…
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Evaluating Financial Need with New FAFSA
Hi, We are a small foundation and the majority of our scholarships have a financial need requirement. I was curious if (how) organizations are changing their evaluation of financial need with the upcoming changes to the FAFSA, particularly related to how the EFC/SAI will be calculated. As part of our financial need…
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What's your instructional text for scholarship essay questions?
We're making some revisions to our scholarship applications and wondered if anyone would be willing to share their instructional text for essay questions. Specifically, instructions about grammar, punctuation, proofreading, answering questions thoroughly, formatting in paragraphs, etc. No matter what instructions we give,…
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Scholarship Renewal Requirements
Hello! Cross posting with NSPA. We are trying to streamline our scholarship payments. Right now, we're all over the map, and it's quite an administrative burden. I know others have been discussing this, too. As part of streamlining the process, we want to create one standard renewal requirement instead of letting the donor…
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Scholarship Cycle fundholder recaps
Hi all! Does anyone have a sample scholarship fundholder recap they can share with me? I've just completed my first year managing a scholarship portfolio and I'm now composing a recap to share with our fundholders. I have the basic information covered (number of recipients, how much awarded, # of different schools,…
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Scholarships-Undecided Students-Universal Application
Hello. I was wondering how others handle undecided students when using the Universal Application. We start our application process mid-December and it ends April 1. Many students (mainly those attending competitive schools) do not know where they will be attending at the time of the application so they choose undecided as…
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Scholarship Evaluation
What does your scholarship evaluation look like? What questions are you asking your committee to score? We currently auto score the GPA and income. We have kind generic scores for activities/employment/community service, and then the essay is weighted pretty heavily. Curious if you are asking any other specific questions…
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GPA Requirement
Hi everyone! Many of the scholarships we offer have a GPA requirement, so we ask for GPA in the general application phase. Traditionally, we have asked for an unweighted GPA since that is the most consistent across schools. However, this year we had applicants from a school that does not provide an unweighted GPA to…
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Transition To One Scholarship Committee
Hello! We are looking to transition to one committee that reviews all of the scholarship applications. Currently, each scholarship has their own committee. Do you have any tips on how to transition smoothly? How to select the best candidate for the committee? Or how to announce the change to current committee members?
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Scoring Preferences
Hi everyone! We are doing an audit of all of our scholarships and one question that has come up is what the best practice for scoring preference criteria is. For example, some of our scholarships have a preference for those with financial need or a preference for those that live in a certain area. Currently, we score these…
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Combining Scholarship Funds
Hello everyone! We are currently seeking effective processes to combine smaller scholarship funds into one scholarship, perhaps by region, but want to make sure we are honoring the desires of our fund holders and donors. Is there any advice for how to effectively combine scholarships to better serve students and the needs…
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Scholarship Follow ups
I am wanting to know what other foundations' practice is for scholarships and follow-ups. We pay the school once a year for renewal scholarships and ask the students to submit a mid-year follow-up with their transcript from the fall along with the financials and then one for the end of the semester to make sure we know…
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In relation to scholarships how do you "score" essays and letters of recommendation?
We receive over approximately 500 scholarship applications each year and each application has three letters of recommendations and an essay question that relates to each individual scholarship (we have approx 40 scholarships total). Currently we have a scholarship committee consisting of board members and volunteers that…
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Scholarship Checks vs. Gift Cards
Hello, I'm wondering if anyone uses gift cards rather than checks to award scholarships? Every year we are reaching out to students, specifically our middle school award winners, multiple times encouraging them to cash their checks. I'm interested in how other foundations handle this problem. Thanks!
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Scholarships to a for-profit school
Hi everyone, We have an org fund that is the "friends of," or fundraising arm of a for-profit school. The "Friends of" Fund wants to distribute scholarships to the for-profit school to eligible students. Do any of you manage anything similar to this scenario? Thanks for any insight! Lori Sellers Trenholm Director of…
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Using Standardized Test Scores to Evaluate Scholarship Applicants
After making standardized test scores optional on our UA in 2021, we returned to requiring them in 2022. None of our individual scholarship opportunities use test scores for eligibility, but our reviewers have found them helpful in assessing applicants' academics. Given the trend toward colleges/universities not requiring…
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Scholarship - room and board
Good afternoon, I have a few questions related to scholarship payments: Do you limit scholarship payments to tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance at the educational institution, or for fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for courses at the educational institution? Do you allow students to use…
