Tips for the Upcoming Application Deadline
Happy December! It’s hard to believe that 2016 is almost over, and we are half-way through the school year. The holiday break will be here before we know it. This year the University of Louisville’s Scholarship, Honors and Guaranteed Entrance Deadline is December 15—less than two weeks from today.
During my 10 years at UofL (has it been that long???), I’ve worked with a lot of scholarship students. I have complied some helpful (I hope) advice based on the top FAQs I get concerning the scholarship application:
1. The resume – take your time!!! Don’t forget about the student-involvement resume! This is such a key piece of how we award scholarships and we want to make sure students don’t treat it like a throw-away item. Please include everything that gives us a complete picture of who you are as student: honors, awards, athletics, service, work experience—it’s all relevant! Make sure your resume is grammatically correct and everything is spelled correctly. This sounds like such an obvious advice, but you would be surprised how many resumes get points deducted for incorrect grammar. In the last couple years, we have even put our resume scoring rubric on our website. We want you to know exactly what we are looking for when we look at your resume!
2. Make sure you review all pages of the scholarship application! The student-involvement resume is on page 5 immediately before the signature portion of the application. Don’t panic if you don’t see it on the previous pages! Essays and other supplemental materials are on previous pages. My advice is review all your work before submitting. Save it and look at it the next day.
3. Letters of recommendation—start early. If letters of recommendation are required for your scholarship or program, please know that you CAN submit these PRIOR to submitting your application. Letters of rec are on page 4 and you can enter your recommender names and e-mail addresses and notify them immediately. You can also check the status of any of your recommendations—you can send reminder e-mails or even change recommenders. Please note: the Trustees’ and Vogt scholarships DO NOT require letters of recommendation.
4. Confirming you ACT and GPA—we will always award your scholarship based on OFFICIAL scores and grades. If you are taking the December ACT, please feel free to enter your ANTICIPATED score to get access to the award or program you want to apply for. Don’t worry about entering “false” information—we always verify, and this is truly the way to gain access to our application. And finally, don’t forget to make sure all official scores and documents are on file January 13, 2017.
5. Work with your admissions counselor. Contact your admissions counselor if you have any questions concerning your resume prior to submission. I am always happy to review resumes now and identify areas student can improve upon! Find your admissions counselor.
No matter what—please feel free to reach out your counselor for any questions or concerns. We are here to help, and we want to make this process as simple as we can. This is your future and it’s worth taking your time to get it right!
Happy December and Go Cards!!
Liz Fitzgerald
Assistant Director of Admissions