Materials You'll Need to Apply for a Scholarship
You need this information for your scholarship application
It will help you to have the following materials on hand when completing your scholarship application. Information listed below will be used to help evaluate your application. Requirements may differ among undergraduate, graduate school, medical school, theological school, and other scholarships so look closely at the criteria for specific scholarships.
- FAFSA 2024-2025 FAFSA Submission Summary (formerly Student Aid Report) if you wish to be considered for need-based scholarships. File your FAFSA with the federal government after it opens in December and upload the resulting PDF document to your scholarship application. If you have not received your FAFSA Submission Summary due to the delays in the federal processing system, you may upload a copy of the FAFSA confirmation email you received, which should include your estimated Student Aid Index (SAI) and estimated eligibility for Federal Pell Grants. If you do not have a confirmation email, the other alternative is to complete the Federal Student Aid Estimator at https://studentaid.gov/aid-estimator and upload a copy of those results. To get a PDF of your Submission Summary, login to the FAFSA website and select the option to View or Print your Submission Summary from the “My FAFSA” page. When you send your Summary to print, change the destination from your printer to “Save as PDF” and save the file to your computer. If you are applying for the Carpenter Memorial Scholarship for Norfolk school counselors or to attend a vocational program that does not participate in the Federal Student Aid Program, the Submission Summary is not required. Vocational students may submit a tax return instead.
- Financial information. In addition, use this Statement of Family Income & Resources Worksheet [PDF] to gather information on your family's 2023 income. You will need to enter this information in your online application if you wish to be considered for need-based scholarships. Please provide 2023 financial information in this section even though your FAFSA is based on 2022 income.
- School transcripts. Please upload current copies of your transcripts in PDF or JPEG format. Since you are uploading your own transcript, it is an "unofficial" transcript. Applicants for undergraduate scholarships must submit a high school transcript unless you completed high school more than four years ago. High school transcripts should include senior year classes/grades. Current college students and graduate school applicants must upload transcripts of all previous and current college and post-graduate work. Your name, all coursework, grades, GPA, major(s) and/or degree earned must be visible on the transcript. If you are uploading an electronic transcript from National Student Clearinghouse, Parchment, or another service, make sure the file you provide does not have time-limited access restrictions and IS NOT locked.
- References. Two references are required. You can provide email addresses of those who will send us letters or you can upload copies of their signed letters of recommendations. You may want to consider guidance counselors, teachers, school administrators, or coaches who know you well and can comment on your academic and personal strengths. Your references cannot be related to you. Note: Some scholarships require recommendations from specific people. The Jennifer Mooney Greene Scholarship requires that one letter is from the AVID Coordinator. Theological scholarships require that one letter is from a member of the clergy. The Carpenter Memorial Scholarship only requires one letter, but it must be from the school counseling director, principal, or the NPS school counseling coordinator.
- Personal statement. You must upload (in Word or PDF) a typed response addressing one of the following questions:
- a time when you put yourself at risk (physically, socially, emotionally, or professionally) to do what you thought was right or fight for something you believed in
- a hardship you've overcome, how it changed you and/or what you learned about yourself from the experience
- an incident you wish you had handled differently
- a time when you accomplished something you or others didn’t think you could do
Note: The Carpenter Memorial Scholarship has a different personal statement prompt regarding your counseling career and educational plans.
Additional tips:
- Check your files. After you upload documents and save your application, check whether each file you uploaded opens and is the correct document.
- Multiple page documents - Documents with more than one page should be saved and uploaded as one file.
- File types - Only Word, PDF and JPGs are allowed. Do not upload ZIP files, Google Docs, PAGES, HTML or CSV files.
Please read how to use the scholarship portal. And, be sure to follow the directions and provide all required information.
