***Coca-Cola Scholars 2017 Semifinalists***

Yo, so I got my semi finalist notif a while ago. So I was wondering about statements of impact… how long do they need to be? You seem knowledgeable @CourtneyThurston. Also average community service hours is 1200… how is that even possible??? I have maybe 900 if I’m being generous and do varsity sports, full AP courseload, 40 hr per week job, the whole gamut, and I feel overwhelmed. Also all my volunteer hours are on the same few things (tutoring Arab kids who don’t speak English, working at the Syrian refuge center, volunteering at the Council on American Islamic Relations… is that bad? They all relate to the same thing. Do they need more variation?)

Also, on the semi app, for actives and work experince what should I put for “Benefitting person or organization”? It already asks for the activity/employer so?

how did you get notified for semifinalist? Was it email or letter? Do they notify the ones who applied but were not chosen. I have gotten nothing.

I received an email @gasenioryear I believe they also notify those who were not accepted as a semi-finalist. If you don’t receive anything in the next week or so I would try contacting the email provided on the scholarship website.

How are your guy’s standardized testing stats? I feel like that is my only weak link in my application, so I hope my community service, course rigor, GPA, and essay can make up for it. I’m just curious what the semi-finalist pool looks like.

33 and 2240

I had over 1800 hours.

The Coca Cola app doesn’t ask for ACT or SAT scores.

I have a 33 on the ACT. Does Coca-Cola look at standardized testing? I didn’t see it on the application!

Hey guys! I’m a Coca Cola Scholar from 2016, and just to clarify the SAT/ACT is taken into account. Your counselor will be the one to send it, not you. But don’t let it stress you out! @pineapple86 @ILoveStanford

Thanks @MiraD1! So how would that work if our ACT is not on our transcript?

1200 per scholar is just the average. I had thousands above that. Others had only hundreds. I suspect the scholarship runs based off an aggregate points system – you can lack in some areas (I played no sports, rare for Coke Scholars) if you can make it up elsewhere.

@NikkuWadde make your statements as long as possible without sacrificing quality. In the first round, there is a mechanism (or at least there used to be) where short applications did not move on. I recommend always writing essays so that they are at least 80% of the maximum character/word count allowable.

It’s not true that testing is taken into account, because not all transcripts include scores.

Yeah, mine does not include test scores. Do counselors send them in with the secondary school report?

Some do, some don’t. It won’t affect you. At best if you submit MAYBE someone will, in passing, be like “oh that’s nice”

But not everyone will submit scores since they’re not asked for/some schools won’t put them on transcripts, so there’s no need to worry. Coke tries to judge everyone on the same plane as far as hard and fast stats go. If they don’t ask for something, there’s no advantage to including that information vs. not.

Has anyone found a word limit for the “Statement of Impact” on the volunteer activities list?

I didn’t think there were any word limits to this application?

Have any of you had trouble with requesting any of the forms? My daughter’s GC has not received any emails from CCSF though on her portal it says, “Requested”. She is using the GC for forms B, C, and D, so this affects three of her forms. She tried to cancel all requests and resubmitted them. Still nothing. GC has checked Spam folder. Thank you

@Running12 My portal updated sometime in the past two days to list all of my word limit counts at 75!

@IntoTheWoods I am having the same trouble! While my GC received her emails, she is continually getting timed out. My other recommender has not received anything and I have sent his information to CCSF twice. Nothing in the spam folder for us either. Frustrating!