OVERVIEW: The Greater Omaha Chapter (GOC) uses a scholarship review process document as a guideline to help the Education Committee (EC) in their review/evaluation of applicant packages for Chapter scholarships.
Applicants are not required to select scholarships they are interested in competing for. Using the information you provide, you will be matched with and considered for each scholarship you are eligible for.
PROCESS: Scholarship applicants must submit their applications
via the GOC online application form by the established deadline. Any exceptions
to the published deadline must be coordinated in advance with the GOC, Vice
President of Academic Affairs. As part of the application process, applicants
are required to obtain two separate recommendations to be completed
online by references (specifically any combination of instructors, student advisors,
or academic mentors) of their choosing. References are required to provide contact
information in order for members of the EC to be able to authenticate the recommendations.
Applicants will be expected to direct references to the appropriate area of
the GOC website in order for references to complete the online recommendation
form.
Regarding recommendation sources, applicants are encouraged to find out if their source has already been asked by multiple applicants to write a recommendation on their behalf. If this is the case, we highly encourage you to find a different recommendation source so as to ease the burden on this individual and to ensure a more unique/original recommendation is submitted on your behalf.
Both the scholarship application and reference recommendations will be submitted to the GOC via online forms. Upon submittal, each member of the EC will receive this documentation for their subsequent review and evaluation.
The Vice President of Academic Affairs, who also serves as the Chairperson for the EC, will convene the EC to review scholarship applicants and to make formal decisions as to who will receive available scholarships.
The Vice President of Academic Affairs will provide notification to scholarship recipients. It is customary for recipients of GOC scholarships to be invited to a general membership luncheon in order to be formally recognized for their selection and accomplishment.
SUBMISSION DATES: Our online scholarship form is a controlled item. It will only be available for applicant entry during specified time windows. These controlled time windows facilitate our ability to monitor applications and possibly identify those applications in need of minor adjustment. Our process focuses on two primary seasons (Fall and Spring), which correlates with a typical academic school year. The periods below identify when the online scholarship form is anticipated to be available:
FALL: 1 September thru 31 October (award at December luncheon)
SPRING: 1 February thru 5 April (award at May luncheon)
Our intention is to abide by these time windows; however, based on the amount
of applications received, the time window for acceptance may be increased temporarily.
Should this happen, it will be formally communicated via the website. Applicants
are encouraged not to game the system and count on this. Additionally, should
the online form inadvertently be available outside of an identified time window,
no applications will be accepted that are time/date stamped after 12:00a on
the evenings of 31 October and 5 April, or whatever extension date that has
been established.
CRITERIA: To assess prospective recipients, our evaluation process touches on three areas – Evaluation Criteria, Checklist Criteria, and areas for Further Consideration.
I. Evaluation Criteria. The most significant area of our evaluation is our weighted Evaluation Criteria. We assess candidates across 4 categories in decreasing areas of significance in order to establish a composite score based on a total of 100 possible points. This is where we use instructor recommendations to help in our assessment as one of the weighted criteria. Overall, we are attempting to minimize the subjectivity within this process as much as possible.
1) Scholastic Performance (High School or College GPA)
2) Financial Need
3) Recommendations
4) Community or Organizational Involvement
II. Checklist Criteria. The next area of significance is our Checklist Criteria. This information is basic yes or no information each applicant is required to provide as part of the online application process. An applicant can seriously reduce their competitiveness by not fully completing the online application. Additionally, these checklist items must be completed in order to even be considered for a GOC scholarship offering.
1) US Citizen – Y / N
2) Is Individual on a Full Ride Scholarship – Y / N
3) AFCEA Scholarship winner for prior academic year – Has individual waited an academic year before re-applying – Y / N
4) Are you currently enrolled in a school in Eastern Nebraska/Western Iowa – Y / N
III. Further Consideration . Our last criteria are items for Further Consideration. This final criterion will be used as a determining factor to help differentiate candidate packages.
1) Geographical Location
2) How well applicant presents themselves
click here to contact webmasters