<p>How competitive is this scholarship? My stats and ECs are mediocre, and I don't want to bother applying for this scholarship if it's anything like the Coca Cola Scholarship. Is this the type of scholarship where the typical straight A, perfect score on the SAT/ACT, extreme ECs, students are chosen?</p>
<p>i hope not, because i'm applying.</p>
<p>Go to its FAQ, and there's a rubric that should help you a lot. The only thing I don't like about it is that financial need counts for 20%. Oh well, I can at least try.</p>
<p>I think this is much more subjective and reasonable than Coke.</p>
<p>It's not quite like the Coca Cola Scholarship. I would give it a shot, especially because it begins at the local level. To explain, every participating Elks lodge has its own scholarship award and does not come from the scholarship award money listed on the MVS website. You start off competing against only the students who apply to your local lodge so the pool could be anywhere from 1 to 100 people. On top of that, guys and girls compete separately so that increases your chances even more with such a small applicant pool.</p>
<p>First place local winners receive a scholarship and move on to the district level pool (all the first place local winners in your district). First place winners from the district move on to the state level where another set of scholarships are awarded. The first place winners at the state level then compete for the $2.296 million in scholarships listed on the MVS website. You can see the breakdown of national scholarships on the site.</p>
<p>So give it a shot and see what happens as you may be one of few to submit applications to your local Elks lodge. I remember my local lodge was thrilled that I applied because so few students ever apply. Good luck!</p>
<p>i'm applying and so far no one else at my scool so hopefully i automatically win the local 500 dollars.</p>
<p>Our class valedictorian won this last year, but he got into Stanford with near perfect SAT's, grades, and EC's...</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I was doubting about applying, but I guess I'll give it a shot. Thanks again!</p>
<p>So did anyone apply? I dropped off my son's application and the woman who took it told me lots of kids had pasted large photos of themselves on the cover, as well as in the exhibits. What's up with that? My son's app just tried to follow the directions, but I'm wondering if there's some sort of scholarship "how to" out there that says you should do that. </p>
<p>Proud Husky, thanks for mentioning the local lodge awards. Do you know how much those tend to be? And when they're announced?</p>
<p>I only had black/white photos of myself in my newspaper exhibits.</p>
<p>lol my cover was simple.</p>
<p>Name
School
DoB</p>
<p>"2008 MVS Application"</p>
<p>hah.</p>
<p>i had no pictures, and nothing written on the cover.</p>
<p>i guess i just fail. haha.</p>
<p>My D submitted hers tody. App said signature of lodge member was required on the front page of app. Thing is, we were told to just leave it b/c no one was available to sign??? Wonder how we know if it was dated and signed in a timely manner. Oh well.....faith I guess. Good Luck all</p>
<p>Submitted/got it signed two days ago. Now, it's too late for those who missed out because it had to be signed before or today. I loved the essay questions!</p>
<p>mypatty - I was told that the person in charge of collecting the apps at our local lodge wasn't available to sign, but I'm not too worried. I read the signature section and it looked to me like something the person in charge would have to actually spend time on - by reviewing the completeness of the application before verifying that it was eligible to compete. I was assured that there was a large pile on her desk, so I'm assuming the rest will be taken care of. </p>
<p>I'm glad to hear other students didn't go crazy with the glitzy photo spreads! Understatement is elegant, right? ;)</p>
<p>Are lodges allowed only to sign one application?</p>
<p>oh no! i think i misunderstood the concept of "exhibits". i essentially just photocopied the certificates of the awards I had already listed on the application. what do i do now?!</p>
<p>rainmama--I won $1,350 from my local lodge, but I think they may range anywhere from $250 to $1,500. They will probably announce them between late-January to mid-February or late-February. It depends from lodge to lodge though.</p>
<p>Do ALL local lodges give scholarships? I didn't think I was supposed to put anything on the cover. My application was pretty simple and straight-forward. I'm also worried because I was told to give it to the bartender.. I hope the bartender got it to the appropriate person who then signed it.. EEK! I'm so worried!</p>
<p>Thanks proud husky - that's a nice award!</p>
<p>lydia - I think your exhibits sound fine. My son's exhibits were things like a copy of the National Merit letter, the AP Scholar certificate, an article from a newsletter for a charity he did some work for, and a screen-shot of a website he designed. Nothing major! I think if you live in an area where you're in the newspaper a lot, you'd have lots more to work with, but urban kids don't often make it into the paper (at least for any good reason :)</p>
<p>Does anyone know how long it takes to hear about about the awards? Do they tell you if you were selected locally and that your ap is going higher. I know there were not many aps submitted in our area so I'm very hopeful that my D's application will do well. As far as the exhibits, we did use some colored printing...it just looked so much better.</p>
<p>ya i really didn't know what to do for exhibits. i had bunches of certificates i could've thrown in, but they just basically said what my application said, so i selected a couple of newspaper clippings that said more about me (i hope?) and sent in a CD of my solo with Bartlesville Symphony.</p>