Out of the following scholarship programs, how would you rank them in order of least to most competitive?
-Ron Brown
-Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
-Coca Cola
-Gates Millennium Scholarship
They are all very competitive.
Maybe @courtneythurston knows.
Why would it matter? Isn’t the dollar amount and length they apply the most important thing?
By number of applicants, Coca-Cola. By far.
Which is slightly weird given that it’s one of the smaller scholarships on that list by dollar amount.
From last year’s numbers –
Coke: 103k applicants
JKCF: 1800 applicants
Elks: ~19k applicants
Not sure about AXA. Probably over ten thousand.
Gates: I believe the figure last year was around 10k. I didn’t apply, so I’m not 100% sure.
@ErinsDad I just would rather not spend a lot of time applying for scholarships that I have a small chance of getting
@CourtneyThurston Thanks
Coke has so many applicants in the initial round simply because it is super easy to apply to, so don’t worry about the huge number. Apply and see if you make it to the next round, which narrows to only 2000 if I remember correctly? Anyway, you are going to need stellar, dedicated community service(in terms of true impact, not just hours) and a stand out recommendation from the your service supervisor-if that doesn’t sound like you then yes, it is a waste of time.
Ron Brown had about 5000 applicants last year, which has decreased drastically over the past few years because the word got out about how competitive it is. You need to have a HPYMS profile for this one, and they look for movers and shakers so to speak. You can assess whether you think you are a good match.
Elks MVP-this can be a real tricky one to gage because it starts out local, then regional, then state. There can be a lot of biases and agendas along the way, and every lodge and region is going to differ in competitiveness and selection. However some lodges and regions offer their own scholarships to applicants so there is a chance for those in addition to the MVP.
I don’t have 1st hand experience with the others. My best advice is to pick a few that seem to match your qualifications the best, rather than worrying about the competition. My S won some scholarships last year that I thought he had no chance at, and didn’t win some that I thought he was a shoe in for.