Before applying, we strongly encourage you to visit our “Before You Apply” page, which will help you prepare. This initial online application requires you to list your grades, school and community activities, and employment, but no essays or additional materials are required. The deadline for submission is Monday, October 31, 2016. (Don’t forget to click the submit button!)
2. Semifinalist Selection
We review all online submissions and applicants learn by mid-November whether they will become one of the roughly 2,200 Semifinalists.
3. Submit Additional Material
The Semifinalists submit additional materials by late December. Materials include a biographical questionnaire, official transcript, essays, and recommendations.
4. Program Reading Committee
The Program Reading Committee, which includes education professionals and past recipients, reviews Semifinalist applications in early January.
5. Regional Finalist Selection
Semifinalists learn by late January if they will be one of 250 Regional Finalists. Regional Finalists will receive at minimum a $1,000 educational stipend.
6. Regional Interviews
Regional Finalists participate in interviews, either in person or via video conference, with the Regional Interview Committee. The Regional Interview Committee is divided into interview teams of three, each team comprised of two program alumni and one Foundation staff member. Depending on the location of the Regional Finalists, their interviews will take place on February 17, 18, 24, or 25.
7. Coca-Cola Scholar Selection
After regional interviews, 150 Regional Finalists will be named Coca-Cola Scholars. Regional Finalists who do not advance will receive a $1,000 educational stipend. The 150 Coca-Cola Scholars will all be awarded $20,000 in scholarship funds.
8. Scholars Weekend in Atlanta
The 150 Coca-Cola Scholars attend the 2017 Scholars Weekend April 20 – 23, where they meet their peers for a time of inspiration, fun, and camaraderie. Scholars participate in the Leadership Development Institute, an intensive leadership training during Scholars Weekend that challenges the newest class of Coca-Cola Scholars to develop an inside-out leadership philosophy.
Want to learn more about what it is like to experience Scholars Weekend? Read about it first hand from 3 of our 2015 Scholars!
9. The Alumni Family
The Coca-Cola Scholars Weekend marks the beginning of a lifelong connection among new scholarship recipients and the extended family of thousands of Coca-Cola Scholars.