UC Berkeley Leadership Award Alumni Scholarship?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>I just received the following email from UC Berkeley:</p>

<p>"Dear Prospective UC Berkeley Student,</p>

<p>UC Berkeley’s California Alumni Association [California Alumni Association at UC Berkeley] would like to invite you to apply for the Leadership Award Alumni Scholarship. The Leadership Award is a one-year, merit-based scholarship that recognizes students who provide outstanding, innovative, and motivational leadership contributions in their academic, work, or community environments. Students compete for the scholarship every academic year. It is one of the most prestigious scholarship programs at UC Berkeley. </p>

<p>Deadline to apply: Monday February 2, 2009 by 5:00 p.m. PST</p>

<p>Please visit (link) for full details, application and eligibility requirements. </p>

<p>We look forward to receiving your application! GO BEARS!</p>

<p>Best,
(signed)"</p>

<p>Is this an email that is sent to a large portion of applicants (ie: based off of GPA, test scores, etc. -- just a preliminary weeding out of qualified candidates) or is this a more selective invitation and indication of possible admission to UC Berkeley?</p>

<p>Thanks for the feedback!</p>

2

<p>I just got the same email, and was wondering the same thing.
I says it doesn't reflect application status, but are they just saying that to prevent everyone from calling them?
This seems pretty major. :/</p>

<p>EDIT:
so i did some searching...</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/461059-email-leadership-award-alumni-scholarship.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/461059-email-leadership-award-alumni-scholarship.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/461070-regents-leadership-scholarship-etc-invitations.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/461070-regents-leadership-scholarship-etc-invitations.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Looks like we're in good standing to be accepted, but NOT A GUARANTEE by any means. More of a "Ugh I have to wait 4 months, I don't have a shot" morale booster.</p>

3

<p>Wondering the exact same thing.... Anyone have any input? </p>

<p>Does it make a difference that I am OOS?</p>

4

<p>I'm out of state too btw</p>

<p>It probably doesn't make much of a difference instate or OOS, but then again, the UC regents just cut instate enrollment for a lot of campuses. (not Berkeley)</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the reality check, killthefifi. Guess I was so excited to be receiving correspondence from Berkeley that I completely overlooked the lovely disclaimer hidden in plain sight at the bottom of the email. ;)</p>

<p>But on the optimistic side, it's got to be some sort of good omen, right? (Or at least I guess I'll choose to believe so . . . )</p>

6

<p>Oh, Seeing that email absolutely made my day!
Berkeley actually... cares. =]</p>

<p>After being murdered in the stanfurd slaughter, knowing that my application means something to someone, enough to send me an invite, seems pretty awesome.</p>

<p>And yes, it seems like a good omen. Although the criteria for admission and the scholarship are different, knowing that being invited for one, with the fact you're prob. well rounded, is enough to increase your chances for the other.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, I got one too, but after talking to some friends (who have a rather low GPA, and almost no leadership activities), I'm beginning to think that this email means....pretty much nothing.</p>

<p>If compared to the application for the UCLA scholarship, this CAA leadership one seems like a joke...</p>

8

<p>I got an email about the Leadership Award and another email about the Achievement Award scholarship. Mean anything?</p>

9

<p>xannaxannax, I don't think that UCLA admissions sends invitations to apply for the Regents scholarship until the first week of February. Are you just going off of the stated guidelines listed on UCLA's website (that only the top 1.5% of applicants are invited to apply)?</p>

<p>And yes, having read through the application of sorts that we were emailed the link to, it does seem as though the Berkeley leadership scholarship is kind of iffy. I'm assuming that there had to be some sort of criteria for it, however -- I truly doubt that their alumni organization would willingly subject themselves to reading through tens of thousands of applications once again.</p>

<p>ducksssss, I think all of us (within this forum, anyways) received both of those emails, unfortunately. Doesn't seem like there's too much significance to them after all.</p>

10

<p>i thought everyone got it.
but ill tell myself that it's special. it cant hurt. and it would be some welcome good news after thinking about how dismal my grades are right now</p>

<p>edit it looks like achievement is determined by cutoff income 86K</p>

11

<p>And then perhaps go on to read the note at the bottom of the email:</p>

<p>"Please note that this email message does not in any way reflect your admission status. The alumni scholarship process is completely separate from the UC Berkeley admission selection process. You are no more or less likely to be admitted to UC Berkeley because you have received this invitation and your decision to apply or not apply for Alumni Scholarships will not affect your admissions status."</p>

12

<p>they sent it to everyone who had over 3.3 unweighted gpa.</p>

<p>from: California</a> Alumni Association at UC Berkeley - Student Area</p>

<p>
[quote]
Minimum 3.3 unweighted GPA
Demonstrate innovative, motivational leadership impacting academic, work, or community environments
Submit a UC Berkeley application for Fall 2009/Spring 2010 enrollment
Interview in-person in the United States, London, or Hong Kong in May 2009
Submit a Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) to UC Berkeley by May 1, 2009

[/quote]
</p>

<p>so its not too big of a thing i guess, though i had my hopes up for a little bit</p>

13

<p>i had no interview planned, i guess thats after you apply</p>

14

<p>Getting the invite does not mean you are accepted to Cal
DO APPLY- it is a great scholarship, $1500 EACH YEAR, up to $2000 as a senior.
The app is not that long, the interviews are either in your local area or by telephone.</p>

<p>Of all the scholarships my DD applied for, this and the Byrd were the two that really paid off. So many other big ones (SAMMY, etc) are big but attract so many people it reduces the odds dramatically.</p>

<p>You do not have to be a classic leader- student body president. They are looking for people with all sorts of leadership styles and looking for people who will be active and involved on campus.</p>

15

<p>I was recently accepted to Berkeley. Has anyone heard anything from the scholarship folks?</p>

16

<p>I am also interested in knowing if anyone has been notified about Leadership awards.</p>

17

<p>^ They have a timeline on the scholarship webpage. Why don’t you take the initiative and go look there instead of reviving another unnecessary thread to clog the first page?</p>

18

<p>You will probably start hearing very soon about interviews. People are invited to interview with the local alumni group and you should know about your scholarship by the end of April (just before you have to decide where to go) </p>

<p>I am sure people will be posting on CC as soon as they begin getting invites.</p>

<p>If you are unable to interview in person you can request a phone interview instead</p>

19

<p>Thats wierd…
After I submitted my application it said they would notify us by 3/31</p>

20

<p>I thought I might shed some light, after going through this same process last year (btw, I’m a first-year at Cal and received the leadership award).</p>

<p>First, the invitation while very nice, is as someone mentioned above sent to a lot of the Cal applicants. Nevertheless, I highly encourage you to apply.</p>

<p>Second, it is somewhat selective as the (ASA) website states that there are 10,000 applicants a year and only a few hundred spots. I’m not entirely sure how accurate these numbers are, but anyhow don’t let it discourage you and be sure to apply!</p>

<p>Third, once you get an interview, don’t stress if you can’t do an in-person interview! I did a phone interview and it went just fine.</p>

<p>A few more tips that I think might be helpful:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Like an above poster, don’t worry about not fitting into the student body leader or any type of leadership mold. I personally didn’t do any leadership experiences in clubs/student govt/sports, however I did do some substantial leadership through scouting. The main point, I believe, is to highlight what you have done and how it exhibits your leadership qualities.</p></li>
<li><p>They’re looking for future leadership ‘potential’. I know this is vague, but I have a strong gut feeling a big criteria isn’t necessarily how much you’ve done in the past but what you plan on doing in the future. If you’ve visited Cal before or had a friend/sibling here before, you’ll have an idea of some leadership roles you can take on campus. If not, I’d say something along the lines of continuing the leadership activities (aka. clubs and extracurriculars) you’ve done in high school in addition to exploring new interests on campus.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, dont’ get discouraged. I found out about getting the award extremely late, way past the SIR deadline and also the deadline for when the award was supposed to be announced. I believe I found out near the end of May, so basically it had no effect on my decision to go to cal. My guess is that I was an alternate who got lucky because one of the finalists choose to attend another school. I really have no idea, but I’m very grateful.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>It is a nice scholarship and there’s a few benefits besides the money, but to all the hs seniors who don’t get it, don’t get discouraged and re-apply the following year! </p>

<p>Hopefully this’ll help a bunch of you guys out!</p>