<p>I agree TIB. Using a numerical, computer-based means for evaluating applicants is not good because lots of people who are qualified are left out. When I was filling out my application I had many empty spots (drama, student council etc), but I realized they cant expect you to have everything. I had a good number extracurriculars in addition to my awesome stats but I didnt fluff, which I realize may have been the better thing to do since its all quantified.</p>
<p>Coca cola’s view of a qualified applicant seems to be the antithesis of what any elite college looks for.
CC-Broad, unfocused achievement rewarded.
College-Narrow, focused achievement rewarded.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go as far as calling them, but I am quite disappointed that they are using a quantitative process to give away 3 million in 4 year awards. (I could see them doing this for like 100k, but 3 million dollars!?) Makes me question the motives…
Do they truly want to help students, or do they simply want to improve relations with the community in order to enhance their brand name.
I am partial towards the later.</p>
<p>You don’t have to call them, just email from their site. Bombard them with inquiries. I already sent them a message suggesting that because of the confusion and unnecessary anquish they created, everyone who applied should receive $1,000. Let the semi-finalists continue on, but everyone who took the time to apply this year should receive a good-will award. Something was mightily wrong with the process and they need to be fair.</p>
<p>lol, I wouldn’t mind that, TIB.</p>
<p>I’ve always known that they did it off some point system (read it in some book my mother checked out), but I didn’t know they didn’t even distinguish between awesome awards and mundane awards.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, perpetual. It actually gave a reason for the fact that every semifinalist from my state came from small small schools where it’s easy to be class president, football captain, other sports and other clubs at the same time.</p>
<p>lol it looks like a computer basically formulating all of this, kind of like ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ in a way</p>
<p>TIB, despite your attempts to sound mature and sophisticated and, shall we say not kindergarten bound?–you end up sounding like the ****ed-off kid who can’t understand why he didn’t get semi-finalist. What’s pathetic is that you don’t even have the courage to admit it like everyone else on CC. </p>
<p>Personally, I find your comments (a total of 3, by the way) condescending and offensive. What right do you have to tell the semifinalists to “get over yourselves”? So why don’t you stop making new screen names to complain and to encourage complains against long standing scholarships with solid reputations that have been operating the way they have for many years? If you want to be considered for a corporation’s scholarship, you should be ready to accept their rules of the game. You, as 1 out of the 100,000 applicants, have no say in how the winners are decided, so you better take your own advice and “get a grip”.</p>
<p>And to everyone who thinks the finalists are only those from small schools and you somehow missed out because you went to a more competitive school? I can assure you that I go to one of the most competitive schools in all of United States (that advocates a narrow, focused approach as far as ECs are concerned) and I still got it.</p>
<p>And I don’t know why there are ****ed. It just says p i s s e d (sorry about the spaces, I wonder if this will be any better)</p>
<p>First of all, I did not say all semifinalists are from small schools. I merely observed that every finalist in my state came from a small school, and I can’t say that most of the 2A football captain/cheerleader-class presidents will have a great chance against you guys from big schools and big states with big resumes.</p>
<p>And there is no second of all.</p>
<p>I think some people in here are just bitter that they didn’t make semi’s. You should have already known that Coca-cola accepts the first batch by a points system. That being said, it was probably most likely that the first batch was picked by a computer because they only have two months to go through like 100,000 applications. Coca-cola has always operated on this system. Of course every process has its loopholes. Undoubtedly, Coca-cola has left out many many just as qualified applicants, but that’s just like colleges right? So many really good people get rejected. However, the people who are accepted are just as qualified. I’m pretty sure the 250 finalists will be amazing.</p>
<p>Hm, didn’t get past the first stage, not that I was anticipating/expecting it. I just got the email (went to spam), and I think it’s helpful to start out with some mini-rejections before the big ones come. :P</p>
<p>I didn’t make it. Shucks. I am President of so many clubs and taking several AP classes and very high test scores. The only thing I didn’t have was Yearbook…it doesn’t make sense that Yearbook was the the deciding factor. Oh well. Congratulations to everyone who got selected and best of luck!</p>
<p>Just for some perspective, I made it, and I did not put anything down for Class Officers, Debate, Drama, Speech, or anything like that. My Community Service Honors section filled only two boxes. I had only two AP classes down, no IB classes down. I DID fill every box for the “Academic Honors” section, though. A good 30-40% of the boxes I left completely blank, so I would like to think that they used some other method besides counting the boxes to determine semifinalists.</p>
<p>cheers to locos–as a Coke 07 scholar, I’m not quite offended, but shall we say “disappointed” by many of the posts on here. It IS like college, and sometimes it DOES seem random…and kevin has a very good attitude about that–if you apply to the huge scholarships, you’re going to have to get rejected by them at some point. A lot of CCers haven’t dealt with that before, and that’s why we call this “maturing.”</p>
<p>BUT to not sound pretentious, yes, computerized decisions are unfair. However, let me ask you this–oh wise populations, what do you propose for a solution?<br>
Cutting the aid in half so that every single application (of which the number increases every year) can be hand-evaluated?
Cap the number of apps so that the number is manageable with current staff?
–or–Make the selection process multi-tiered, and use computers to do the initial screening, but hand-evaluate the later tiers, in order to be more accurate “when it counts”?..oh wait, that’s what Coke does!
The world isn’t perfect, far from it, but is there actually a better, feasible way?</p>
<p>I didn’t receive any notification that I am a semifinalist. However, this morning, I received a “Coke Scholars Newsletter”. Was this a mistake? Also, when you go to the website, no semifinalists come up for any state. Anyone else get this email?</p>
<p>i got a coke scholars newsletter this morning too…but i think it’s supposed to be for like, coke scholar alumni, because it talked about them going on a trip with other alumni…</p>
<p>anyways, i didn’t get semi, so i was confused by why i got that letter.</p>
<p>I got the same message, bandnerd and puppylover. I think it was sent to all applicants and alumni regardless of status. Still, kinda rubs it in for the non-semi-finalists, doesn’t it? :(</p>
<p>You really are loco or DO need to get a grip - on your attitude. I wonder if CC wants someone of your caliber representing it? I guess that is what they get for depending on a computer to make their decisions.
What exactly gave you the idea that I wasn’t selected a semi-finalist? I never said that, not once. I merely feel that the process was unfair to all of us, the chosen and the unchosen. Everyone deserves an explanation and to benefit in some way. As a semi-finalist, it isn’t exactly rewarding to know we were selected randomly by a machine and not because we were worthy. I feel as cheated as those who weren’t chosen.
Apparently for you, money is money so it doesn’t matter how or why you get it. As long as you can sleep at night…
So sorry to appear pathetic simply by expressing myself, as you have so uneloquently done in 60 posts (to my now four). My only goal was to defend people I felt were treated unfairly in a process that we have discovered sorely needs to be re-evaluated.
All you have managed to do here is degrade my right to free expression.
I haven’t made up screen names to mask my identity. This was my first visit to the forum. Thanks to people like you, it’s my last. You just suck the life out of it.</p>
<p>P.S. As for the newsletter we all received – it is another reason we should ALL, as loco so beautifully and maturally put it, be “****ed off” at CC for using personal information from our scholarship applications for its own benefit. If you notice, they’re raising money and they don’t even differentiate from those who are true alumni and those who aren’t. Like loco, CC doesn’t care how it gets its money, either.</p>
<p>I did get a rejection email.</p>
<p>Most of the semifinalists from my state were also from small, little-known schools.</p>
<p>does this only qualify for seniors, or can i be a first year student in college?</p>
<p>So is there any way to check the semifinalists? I do not really check my email often.</p>