Your profile will need to be completed and submitted as an application for our local scholarships. Please use this checklist to make sure your profile is ready to submit and to ensure that you earn maximum scholarship scoring points.

Our local Dollars for Scholars scholarships will open on January 1, 2024.  You will have until 11:59 p.m. on February 29, 2024 to submit your completed profile.

1.  Use an email address other than your current school email address

If you have already started a profile using your school email, just edit your email address on the basic information section of your profile. Remember to use your new email address the next time you log-in. Your school email account will cease to exist after you graduate and we need a permanent email address to maintain contact with you.

2.  Request 1st semester grades transcript from your Counselor 

Our local scholarships require a current transcript from your counselor, which would be the 1st semester's grades.  Submit a request to your counselor for a current transcript showing your 1st semester's GPA. Your counselor does have the ability to verify your transcript information after you have submitted your profile for our scholarships, provided your transcript request is sent before 11:59 p.m. on February 29, 2024.  If your transcript request is sent and your profile is complete, go ahead and submit your profile for our scholarships before the deadline.

3.  Look over your profile - make sure all the sections are complete. Scoring for scholarships will be based on the information you provide.

Include ALL your work and activity information.  Include the number of hours you work as these hours are used in calculating scoring points.  Since we use the number of years a student has participated in an activity for scoring, the number of hours listed for activities can be estimated. We suggest you take the number of hours of participation in an average week multiplied by the number of weeks for rough estimate.  You do not need to put a lot of work into this calculation.  

4.  Essays 

 GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS ESSAY  - required          State your goals as to your education and future career and describe your plan to accomplish these goals, including the school you will attend. Explain what circumstances have affected your decision to pursue further education in your chosen major and how you have prepared for these studies.  Be sure to address the following points in no more than 250 words:

  1. Immediate educational goals - state what you will be majoring in and where you will attend college
  2. Your chosen career and why you chose this career
  3. What have you already done to prepare for this goal - classes taken, volunteer activities, work experience etc.
  4. Future plans with career/education.

 

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES ESSAY  - optional         Describe any obstacles or difficulties you have overcome or expect to encounter in the future.    Obstacles or difficulties may include recent personal tragedy, illness, disability, divorce or other family issues, parental unemployment, financial need, etc.  Basically any unusual circumstances you would like us to take into consideration in no more than 250 words.

5. Parental consent (if student is under 16).  

A parent will need a different email address than their child's to log into the student's profile to give consent.

6. Formal Acceptance of Scholarship (if granted).  If granted a Dollars for Scholars scholarship, remember to log onto your profile by June 15, 2024, and formally accept the scholarship.  

If granted a scholarship from Charles City Area Dollars for Scholars you will need to log onto your profile on our website and formally accept the scholarship. This serves as your electronic signature for the application.  This should be done soon as possible after the Dollars for Scholars Award Reception as you will have until 11:59 p.m. on June 15, 2024 to complete this.  Scholarship America requires that every Dollars for Scholars scholarship be formally accepted through the website. Failure to formally accept your scholarship by the June 15th deadline will cause you to lose your scholarship.  You will be asked to enter your College Student ID which you may not receive until later in the summer.  Go ahead and complete the acceptance process without this information, just put 000000 as your student number and come back at a later date to add the ID.  If you have any trouble with this process, contact a Dollars for Scholars Officer listed on our website or email us at ccdollarsforscholars@hotmail.com.  

7.  Scholarship Award Reception Attendance required.

 If awarded a local Dollars for Scholars scholarship your attendance at the May award ceremony is required.  If circumstances prevent you from attending, you may contact Kathy Herrick, our Board President, to be excused from attending.  You may reach her at 641-228-7967 or herrick6@mchsi.com

8.  Need help or have questions with any part of this scholarship process?

Contact Kathy Herrick at 641-228-7967 or email herrick6@mchsi.com  or  ccdollarsforscholars@hotmail.com.  We are here to help!