Returning Adult and Nontraditional Student Scholarship Application Tips and Information

Essay questions:

• Essays should be as complete as possible and provide as many details as necessary to address the questions. You may be asked to explain your financial need, academic success or potential, educational and career goals, commitment, and service to the wider community. At the same time, please do not share anything you are not comfortable sharing.
• Feel free to add information such as: challenges and opportunities you face as a nontraditional student; what receiving this scholarship would mean to you and/or your family; academic, vocational, or life experiences; and any financial challenges you may encounter as a single parent, returning, or other nontraditional student.
• Your application is confidential (EXCEPT your 100-word biographical statement). Your application is only reviewed by:
  • The Adult Career and Special Student Services (ACSSS) Scholarship Committee
  • Scholarship donors (if required by the review process)
  • UW–Madison employees who require access for processing or review

Biographical statement:

• These statements should be written in a third-person point-of-view. See examples from the "Reception Program" booklet located on our web page https://acsss.wisc.edu/scholarships/. 
  • Some ideas for things to write about:
    • What means the most to you about obtaining an education.
    • Challenges you have faced as a returning or single parent student.
    • Educational or career goals.
    • Sources of inspiration.

References:

• List two references: one professional and one educational. List name, relationship to you (i.e. professor, mentor, advisor, supervisor, coworker) and include their email and phone number. Uploading a letter of reference with your application is not necessary.

Saving vs. submitting your application:

• You can save your application and come back to it to make changes.Once you hit submit you cannot go back to make changes. Wait to submit until you have reviewed it and are completely satisfied with how you answered the questions and have uploaded all the necessary documents.

Deadline:

• The application opens in mid-November and closes in early February. Check out our web page for specific dates: https://acsss.wisc.edu/scholarships/  

Questions?  Please contact us at 608-263-6960 or advising@dcs.wisc.edu.