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. Please share only that which you are comfortable with.

• 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 which will be used for our reception program booklet if you are selected). Your application is reviewed by only:

  • 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 reception web page. 
  • You might 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.

Saving vs submitting your application

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

Deadline

• The application opens in mid-November and closes in early February. Check out our web page for specific dates. 

After you apply

After the application deadline, all submitted applications are reviewed by the committee. The committee carefully evaluates each candidate and makes final award decisions within approximately four weeks of the deadline. If you are selected for an award, you will receive an automated email notification from scholarships@finaid.wisc.edu with instructions to complete your offer in the Wisconsin Scholarship Hub (WiSH).

Accepting funds

If you are selected for a scholarship, you must complete the following steps in order to receive your funds : 

• acceptance step in WiSH
• post-acceptance steps in WiSH.

Required: Complete these steps within one week of notification to ensure your award is applied to your student bill on time and to prevent any delays in disbursement.

Applicants who are not selected will be notified by email within five to six weeks of the application deadline.

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