Scholarships in the College of Liberal Arts

Oh yeah, sorry. I just got out of class so I just was hustling to get on.

I'm running to do a coffee chat with the student and I'll be right back.

OK.

Am I good to start?

Yes.

OK, I'm going to start.

Hello everyone, welcome for those of you coming in. It's good to have you all here. I want to get started with. Maybe just a quick introduction of myself and then I'll let Pete introduce himself and then we can start talking about scholarships. So my name is Cole Wise. My pronouns are, he, him, his and I am the College of Liberal Arts scholarship and Student Program coordinator. So among my duties, administering all scholarship funds in the college.

I also run programs like Ram Welcome, which is the orientation program that you all will come into CSU with and then commencement ceremonies for the college. So I'll let Pete introduce himself.

Hey there, my name is Pete Wilson. I am a sophomore, double majoring in both English and philosophy. I am currently an ambassador for the College of Liberal Arts and I'm also a Blake leadership scholar within the liberal arts as well.

Yeah Pete, great. So if he's a great resource for all of you. If you would have any questions so, well, we'll get started with talking about some scholarship information. And as we're going along, Pete's going to help me navigate the chat. So if you have any questions as I'm going along, feel free to pop those in the chat and I will answer them on a rolling basis, so don't hesitate to ask any questions and I would like to see where you all are from and what you're thinking about.

I'm majoring in at CSU, so if you can pop that in the chat, that would also be really helpful. So to start, we're going to talk about a few things in this web and R and I always like to preface it with. We have a lot of scholarships in the College of Liberal Arts, which makes us really fortunate as a college.

These scholarships are all privately funded by donors who really take the time to invest in our students and what they're doing here at CSU. And so we have about 320 different scholarships in the college with a variety of criteria and that totals just over a half $1,000,000 that's awarded annually. Which is awesome. The most unique thing about scholarships in the College of Liberal Arts.

Unlike some other institutions, is that the majority of our funds are awarded to current students. So we really like to invest in students while they're here so that we can retain them through graduation. That's not to say that we don't have recruitment based scholarships because like Pete mentioned, he's a Blake leadership scholar and that is a big recruitment scholarship that is renewable. So we definitely have those opportunities as well, and so I also want to discuss with you.

I'm writing well constructed applications, looks like and then talk a little bit about the Colorado State University scholarship application or the CSU essay that you all will.

I'm fill out.

So first, let's talk a little bit about well written applications and I always like to start with the don'ts of writing these applications and some of this may seem like common sense, don't do's, but I have them on my list because they definitely have happened before and so I always like to mention these. So don't submit a incomplete application. Make sure you're taking your time to fill out all.

The application questions and really making sure that you're thoroughly responding to the questions, don't use slang words like TTYL or BRB or anything like that. Make sure you're spelling things out if there's an acronym that you're going to use, make sure you spelled out the acronym before you use it and then you can reference it as the acronym that you'll be using in the rest of your essay, but it's helpful for committees to know what you're talking about.

Some other don'ts you know, don't don't do these applications last minute because a lot of the time that will show that not a lot of effort was necessarily taken in these applications. And don't cut yourself short if you have a story to tell, make sure you're telling it. That's what the applications are for.

So looking at some of the do's, I would always suggest brainstorming, drafting and then I'll also provide you with some tips and tricks that are associated with these scholarship applications. And then I'll probably mention this later. But the CS USA is open October 1st. It closes March 1st and the scholarships that you're applying to will be awarded for the next academic year. So the scholarship application just closed March 1st.

And those scholarships will be awarded for next academic year 2122.

So looking at some brainstorming and drafting ideas, like I said before, each scholarship has its own criteria that is associated with that, and the criteria comes from the donors that created the scholarship fund and so that criteria is there for a reason. And so if you really need to pay attention to the criteria if you don't meet one of the criteria, don't, don't waste your time in applying for it because the system will automatically read your application as unqualified.

So be intentional with the applications that you're looking at and with the criteria that it's stating. It's often good idea to take notes on the criteria components so that when you're actually completing the materials required for that specific application, you can include certain components of that criteria that was stated.

It's always a good idea to use an outline, an ideas and experience.

I call it an experience bank. So when you're doing a resume that you have to tailor to a certain position, for example, you're going to have this this experience Bank of everything that you've done throughout your maybe high school career and you're going to pluck out certain experiences that will best qualify you for that position. And so it's the same thing with scholarships. If you have big experience, bank a big Bank of leadership activities, involvements, community engagement, anything like that.

Then when you're reading the criteria for a scholarship and it asks you for leadership and community engagement, you can pluck out those experiences and plug them into your essays.

It's always, always, always a good idea to type all your essays in a Word document and not necessarily in the application itself, just so that if you happen to lose Internet access or your browser reloads, you don't. I would hate to see you lose your application before it is saved. And CSU has a writing center that is free to students and I'm also available to students. If you would like to.

Have your essays read before hand.

See there's.

Call sorry, sorry to interrupt, we just had a question in the chat they asked are the scholarships that were due by three. One for current students and not incoming students.

Yeah, that's a great question, so there for both, so that three that March 1st deadline is for both incoming and current students, so that is aligned universitywide for all scholarships. That's a great question.

So when you're drafting and submitting, make sure you're elaborating. Tell your story and follow the word limit. This is like I said before, a really good time to Share your story in what why a degree in the liberal arts is the best Ave for you in your future career goals? If if the if there's a question, so I think the first question is about your goals, your goal statement, and there's three parts.

To that goal statement.

So when you're writing that essay, it's always a good idea to follow that logical order of ideas in the essay. So address part one Part 2 and part three in a logical order, rather than a scatterbrain.

And kind of response in one long paragraph.

See there's another question when will we hear back about the scholarship that was due on March 1st, so awarding will occur at the end of April to beginning of May. So if you receive a scholarship you'll be hearing at that time.

Like I said before, stay away from slang and use clear, concise language when writing these. Your grammar and spelling must be impeccable and this is where it's a really good idea to use the writing center and or me or some of your faculty or your peers to edit your essays and application.

Always a good idea to reread the question from the application and make sure your essay is aligned and that you can follow what you were trying to get at. If for some reason you feel like it goes off on a tangent, it might be a good idea to come back in in a few days and reread, rewrite and edit some of your application materials.

And when you're in putting your answers into the CS USA, you can always keep pressing submit and you can over edit over that submit button. So if you keep pressing submit, that's fine. Up until that March 1st deadline and it will take your newest version of the draft that you're submitting.

So some tips and tricks that I have for you all is to really put some time and energy into every application you submit.

If you start early and work steadily, that was something that a professor had taught me in. Music is to start early, work steadily rather than pile everything at the end of the application cycle.

And if your Jeep so if there is a scholarship that requires a 3.0 GPA and you're right at that 3.0 GPA, you're still qualified. But what would help your application rise to the top is some of the essays that you write. It can really over shadow that GPA component of your application and be honest and let your authentic self shine through. Your faculty members are actually the ones that are reviewing these applications, and so they'll know you in a classroom.

But this is a chance for them to get to know you outside of the classroom setting and really get to know why you're at CSU and what you're doing.

And it's often hard to talk about yourself. That's a skill that you have to learn when applying scholarships when applying to positions and jobs.

Is to be OK with sharing your experiences and at certain times really being vulnerable in those experiences that's important.

So now I will mention the CS USA which is the Colorado State University scholarship application. This application is available to all CSU students, both incoming and current, and there's both merit and financial need based scholarships, something that I'd like to mention that to students who may not. Their families may not be filling out the FAFSA because they already know that the adjusted gross income may be too high for any.

8 is that you don't actually have to fill out the FAFSA to be too in order to apply for the CS USA and be considered for scholarships. There's two types of applications that the College of Liberal Arts uses. The first is the general application and that is auto matched and I'll talk about that here in the next slide.

And the second is supplemental applications, and these are what we call apply to applications, and that will also be discussed here in just a second.

So the CS USA general application these are auto map so this is this is the application that every single CSU student fills out and it's the same for all students. And so once you press submit on this that finish that Gold finish and submit button at the bottom right hand corner.

It will take all your responses and all the information gathered both on this essay or on this application and everything imported from your financial, an academic profile and it's going to auto automatically auto match you to all scholarships that you'll be qualified for and it will put you in the pool for consideration among the faculty members that are reviewing them.

So that's why it's so important on that general application to take your time and be authentic and to fill out every application. Because every question on that application is there for a reason and it's there because it Maps to another scholarship that requires that specific question.

Like I said, before that can be edited throughout your application period.

So if you start to have questions, make sure you pop him in the chat and Pete will stop me.

So these supplemental applications. These are what we call apply to in there called apply to because you have to submit your general application 1st and then there's going to be further materials or answers or portfolio work that is required of you outside of that general application. And so these are scholarships that you'll have to individually go look for.

In all, I will make sure to put the website in the chat for you all to go in and look for specific scholarships that are applied to.

And these require supplemental applications, so the supplemental questions, which may be an essay, are directly tide to the criteria in in the scholarship. So that example there at the bottom it might be a little bit hard to see. I can't see it myself, but this particular one, I believe, is an art education scholarship, and it actually requires the student to upload a Lesson plan.

Uhm?

And maybe an artistic goal statement for this scholarship. And once you do that and your general application is submitted and you meet all the other criteria, then you will be considered in the pool so that that is an example of something that requires something else of you. This is a really great way to let your specific discipline and your knowledge in that discipline shine through. That's part of the reason that further materials are required of you is to see how well you can grasp.

The information that is discipline specific.

OK, I haven't lost you yet. I'm going to go over some language, some lingo that is used in the CS USA. That is oftentimes confusing and we've talked about auto match and apply to scholarship. You will also see the abbreviation GS and all that means is that they are asking for good academic standing, which if you're not in academic probation, guess what you have good academic standing. So that's not necessarily.

A really hard one to qualify for.

You're going to see two types of financial need criteria, and I'm going to go into this in the next two slides, so I'm going to come back to this.

And then of course, as you all have been filling out the FAFSA, you probably recognize this abbreviation EFC, which is the estimated family contribution that comes at the very end of the FAFSA. After you just spent a lot of hours with your parents may be arguing and going through this long FAFSA application and then it just pops up this number. This FC, saying this is what the FAFSA determines your family should be able to.

Pay per year for college.

Which is not always accurate for your situation, so I want to recognize that too.

So let's talk financial need. So, as I mentioned before, there's two types of financial need. This is an example of just the criteria language that just says the two words financial need so you can see it there in the Clark Inon Scholarship majoring in journalism and technical communication, number two financial need #3 good academic standing or GIS demonstrate writing ability. So likely there's going to be an essay associated with this one.

And then a couple other ones. If you see the word financial need then you can elaborate on why you think you need scholarship funding or what financial situations you have that would require funding from scholarships. This is not directly going off of the EFC. This is a place where this I think it's question four or five on the general application and.

This is where you can really tell your financial story and this this criteria just the two words financial need can be interpreted by the Faculty Committee.

Whereas financial need as established by the Office of Financial Aid or Office of Student Financial Services or OFA.

That is going to go strictly off of your FAFSA information and your estimated family contribution. If you see this language, I always say if your estimated family contribution is $20,000 and below, you will be classified as having financial need if it's above.

$20,000, then I would not pursue applying for something like this criteria wise. So here's just an example of one of the scholarships in the college that has this criteria language in it.

I also offer scholarship advising appointments that are set up as though, like you will be meeting with your academic advisor to come up with your four year plan in terms of curriculum that you'll be taking each semester. I can also meet with you to discuss your scholarship plan and what to apply for win and so some scholarships require you to either be a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior and so we can develop a plan together.

So that you know every year that the CS USA comes around, what scholarships you're ready to apply for?

I would like to talk about what happens when you are awarded a scholarship. There are requirements of you. Some of those requirements are they will ask for a professional photo of you or a photo that you wouldn't mind a donor seeing or I always say if your grandparents wouldn't want to see it. We don't want to see it and so just making sure that it's inappropriate photo to accompany your donor Connect survey, which will act as your thank you letter to your donor so your donor gets this nice printed out thank you letter and it has your.

Information it has your thank you response to it and then your photo so that they can see who received the scholarship. It's important to thank our donors because.

As the donors really like to be connected with the recipients and they they invest a lot of money in our scholarship recipients. So it's a nice way to give back to them. And it's actually a great networking opportunity. I've known students who have gone on to get actual professional careers with their donor because their donor was so impressed by them when they were scholarship recipient here. So it helps you stay connected with us after you leave.

So.

Coming October 1st, you will be ready to apply until March 1st of next academic year. If you've applied this last year through March 1st and you were selected to receive a scholarship, you'll be hearing from us in late April to early May, so that's all I've got for you all an I am open to questions. If there are any.

Thank you so much, Cole. Did you answer the questions in the chat already? OK, great.

I'm cool, I was wondering if you could speak to your experience or actually will go to Pete. Then you call? What exactly is the Blake scholar or a Blakes color? You want to fill us in?

Yeah, absolutely. So the Blake scholar Eva is. It's not just a scholarship, but it's also a program so the Black Scholars Program is looking for highly motivated seniors in high school that are going to go to CSU and it's looking that they're highly motivated in academics and in leadership and in my community engagement. So it's looking for those three things. And then if you're admitted into the program, it's going to be a mentor program that's like focused around development of leadership.

And just basic liberal arts skills and how to apply those together so critical thinking, communication, problem solving, really learning how to properly like lead through those skills. It's a mentor program. Like I said, so you're going to have a professor who like is with your cohort of probably anywhere from 5 to 15 other incoming students. He's going to be there to help guide you. It's like you even take classes with it as well. So like I'm I took a class my freshman year of Fall and I'm also taking one junior year for the program with my cohort.

It's all about developing those skills, and it does come with a scholarship amount, but the program is like more important, 'cause the scholarship just depends up based on your financial need and how much is available to give out at any given time.

Huh?

Thanks, Pete, so that's one great program. And then also I would love for Cole if you could share about your Daniels Fund experience, we may have some juniors joining us today. Juniors in high school and if so, I think it's good for them to know about what programs to apply for next year. Do you mind sharing what that was like for you when the deadlines were?

All of those things.

Yeah, yeah for sure. So I received the Daniels Fund back in 2014, which seems like a long time ago now, but that was an incredibly difficult scholarship process and it required a lot of time and energy and you'll as you're applying to scholarships, you'll notice that some require much more of you than others. Some others are just an essay and then they'll pick somebody. Others are a full fledged.

Process that you have to go through. So like Pete did with the Blake Leadership Scholars program, that was a multi level step application process. So like the Daniels Fund it was submitting your application then they came back asking for financial information. Then they came back asking for more essays and financial information. Then I had an interview and then I found out in late March and that application actually opened.

I think it was August.

Middle of August and I didn't find out until end of March, so it could be a very strong out long process. The better if some of you are familiar with that. That is also a really strenuous application process, but what I like to tell students is that it's totally worth it, right? Even if you don't get the scholarship. The big scholarship that you're applying to you have got really valuable skills through the application process and really tangible skills. The essays.

That you write the interviews. That you're right, you're learning more about your finances and so those are all skills that come out of these larger scholarship processes. So I would just suggest do as much research as you can before you're applying to the scholarship process and really inform yourself so that you know what to what to expect going into it. If it's going to be a long process going, go into it knowing that it's going to be a long process, and you'll have to do some preparedness work.

On your own, to be able to deal with that.

Yeah, thanks so much cool I know on both you and Pete have gone through some pretty competitive scholarship.

Experiences in both of you have really made the most of what you were offered, so thank you very much to our participants. Do you have any other questions today?

Watch.

If nothing's coming to mind, I'm going to put in the chat my contact information. I'm the recruitment coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts, and I'm happy to connect you with any resources on campus or faculty staff who you need to connect with, and if there are no other questions. I just want to thank you. Oh yeah.

Oh no, I I just put in two more questions from the like question box. So the first one is colon can speak to. This is what are the deadlines for the Blake Scholars program? And then are there scholarships for transfer students?

Yes, so the deadline for Blake's leadership Scholars program is February 3rd and we have that earlier than that March 1st date because it's a recruitment based.

Scholarship and so we have to get moving on it much quicker and absolutely there are scholarships available for transfer students so.

I posted that link in the chat. I would suggest visiting that libarts.colostate.edu/scholarships link to look at the criteria.

I see a couple more.

Can Freshmans CSU students apply for the Daniels Fund? So the Daniels Fund is, uh, when I got it? It was a last dollar scholarship and I believe they changed their funding model, but it's a four year renewable scholarship and you apply to that. Your senior year of high school so that you have it for all four years. So unfortunately, freshman at CSU cannot apply for it. But seniors, high school seniors, rising freshman, will be able to apply for that.

I'm in Aaron. This is recorded. You just have to reach out to admissions to get the recording an I can put on their Mail here would give me a second to look it up.

Yeah, why she's doing that. There's like always two things that come to mind when I think a scholarship just for great advice. An one is what Cole was saying about on that general scholarship application were asked about financial aid. That aspect is really important because let's say a lot of like friends that I know their freshman year. Their parents are willing to help them fund and then you get that contribution that the fast one might have predicted. But then there they have to pay for themselves. Sophomore junior senior year you just junior senior year. That's why that question is so important and that's going to.

Be what gets you qualified for a lot of those applications that the fast food might not say you will qualify for, But because you're special financial situation, it's really important that you answer that question. My other like advice thing that I always think of is it isn't doesn't always have to be a one in all scholarship. A lot of students view it as oh I need to get this big scholarship and it will pay for everything. But it's I like in my experience is more like a jigsaw puzzle. So what you want to do is you want to like.

Get a small scholarship and maybe it's $3000 just from the CSU. Just getting into it. Getting admitted into CSU and then you get 1000 front honors program and then you get a small by college. A liberal arts scholarship and then you get another one from your job or something. I mean, it's not.

Just one big program like the Daniels Fund. Those are great, but those small scholarships really add up in the end and that's going to help you afford like college intuition. It's always a great way to go about it.

In, uh, I just put the email in the chat for contacting admissions to see if you can get the recording. For this. They're the ones who have access to all the recordings.

So yeah.

When we hear about the winner winner when we hear about the winners, the scholarships OK, when do people hear about their scholarship selection?

So end of April to beginning of May is when people will be notified.

Big questions here today.

Correct?

Yeah.

Alright, looks like Daniel Spence Scholarship is only available for high school seniors. That is true. Very true, yes.

Hey.

Cool, you must have done a great job with the web and R because you have questions. This is good.

In something that Pete said, I think that should be highlighted. Is that a lot of these funding opportunities are stackable, so as he said, it's kind of like a jigsaw. So maybe you get into the Honors program and you earn $1000 for that and maybe you get the Blake Leadership Scholars Fund and that's an you know, a range of. There's a range of amount that they'll give you there and then maybe you earn like maybe you join or you come to see us.

You when you spend a year here and you are an ambassador like Pete the first year, he was a volunteer and then he just got hired on a scholarship for our team. He's in a leadership position and so now he gets to stack that amount on top of everything else and so he's actually increased his funding over his time at CSU by being involved. So that's something that I would encourage you to do as well. Just look for funding opportunities your freshman year. Go after.

It your sophomore and junior year, Eva said, do we hear about the Blake Scholarship earlier or at the same time? And is it still possible to apply to the Daniels Fund if I'm currently a senior?

So we're currently working through our way with Blake, and so likely students will be hearing one way or another here in the next few weeks.

And they actually just announced the Daniels Fund class for 2021, so that application has closed and everybody has been selected at this point. So unfortunately, no, the Daniels Fund application is not open.

Great.

Any other questions?

All right, thank you all for joining us today. Hope to be hearing from you soon and again. Please reach out with any questions.

Lily

Thank you call. Thank you Pete. Always good to see the two of you.

thank you.

Nope.

Sia

See ya, thanks.