Application Tips

Strengthen Your Scholarship Application

Explore these tips to learn how to strengthen your scholarship application.

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Complete the Application in 3 Steps

Once you set-up your profile in our application system, you will have to complete 5 steps BEFORE you can submit your scholarship application for consideration by the College Fund:

· Scholarship Application

· Extracurricular Activities

· Honors and Distinctions

In the first step, Scholarship Application, you will provide academic information such as your grade point average (GPA), school, major, and more. This is the section where you will answer the reflection questions, which are important for your overall application score.

While you work on the Scholarship Application step, you can save your work as a “draft.” When you have completed the Scholarship Application step and proof-read all your responses, you will click “mark as complete,” and then return to the application dashboard to complete the remaining steps.

In the remaining steps, you will add information about yourself, such as activities you participate in and any awards or distinctions you have received.

In the Extracurricular Activities and Honors & Distinctions steps, you will click on the green “+New Item” button to add a new entry. Under these sections, add as many new items as you like. You must add at least one item in each step. You can save individual entries as “draft.” Please note that the application will not let you submit if you have any entries saved as “drafts” when you go to submit. If you make a mistake, entries can be deleted using the “delete” button. When you are done with all your entries in either step, click the white “close” button at the top right, and that will take you back to your application dashboard.

The last section, Resume, is optional – but we encourage you to complete it if you are interested in internships or career development opportunities.

Once you complete each of these steps and have reviewed all of your responses, you can return to the application dashboard and click the green “Submit Application” button. The green submit button will only be highlighted and clickable if you have completed all the application steps. You must click on the green “Submit Application” button to have your application reviewed by the College Fund and to be considered for scholarships.

*** Warning – you will not be able to change your application once it has been submitted! ***

We are here to support your success. Please email us at scholarships@collegefund.org, or give us a call at 1-800-987-3863 from 8am to 4:30pm (MST), Monday through Friday, if you need assistance with your application.

Reflection Questions

The Scholarship application has three reflection questions that resemble mini essays.
These questions give you a chance to share your story. The reflection questions prompt you to discuss three subjects: an obstacle that you have overcome to get to where you are now; your educational goals and how this scholarship will help you achieve them; and how your education will help the Native community.

We recommend that you type out your responses to the reflection questions in a Word document or similar text editor. This way you can edit freely and utilize spellcheck or grammar check functions.

To enhance your responses, start by creating an outline of your thoughts and initial answers to each question. The outline does not need to be exhaustive, but it will allow you to start organizing your thoughts about the questions. You will need to choose your words carefully, as there is a limit of 300 words per question. It is very important that you think deeply about the questions and provide a thorough responses. As always, don’t forget to check your grammar and spelling!

For scoring, the reflection questions count heavily compared to other sections of the application. A high scoring essay will be clear, complete, and compelling. Thoroughly answer each question with the details of your unique story in a way that will engage reviewers. Pay attention to the help text below each question text box for additional guidance.

Formatting & Editing

These tips for formatting, editing, and proofreading make sure your application is PREPPED for excellence. You can apply these tips throughout your application.

Start with the basics:

  • Creating descriptive and appropriate responses
  • Writing in complete sentences
  • Ensuring that answers flow cohesively
  • Using correct grammar

In your Reflection Questions, Extracurricular Activity entries, and Honors & Distinction entries, use full sentences that allow your personality and passions to come forward. For example, if your educational goal is to complete a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and teach on your reservation, it is recommended that you respond with a full sentence like the one below:

It is my dream to complete my bachelor’s degree in early childhood education in order to teach the next generation of leaders on my reservation. I believe that foundational life skills can be taught at a young age, and I want to be a part of empowering these learners through my degree.

Do not answer the reflection questions with bullet points or fragments. It is not recommended to format your answer like this:

  • Educational Goals: B.A. in early childhood education, plan to teach on the reservation.

If you need help editing, just remember PREPPED.

PREPPED stands for Prepare, Readability, Every Question, Punctuation and Grammar, Passion, Examples, and Double Take. Here’s how to be PREPPED on your application:

  • Prepare: Gather necessary information prior to starting the application. Prepare your response by thinking critically about the questions and creating outlines when appropriate.
  • Readability: Do your answers flow? Are the sentences and thoughts laid out in a cohesive way that leads the reader through your answer from start to finish? Are there any parts that sound awkward or out-of-place?
  • Every Question: Did your answer completely address a every part of the question?
  • Punctuation and Grammar: Is your grammar correct? Did you place commas in the correct spots? Do your possessive nouns include the apostrophe properly? Have you used the correct form of commonly misused words, such as they, they’re, their, and affect or effect?
  • Passion: Read over your words and ask yourself if your passions are evident in your writing. Are you writing something because you think it is what the readers want to hear or are you genuinely passionate about your goals and dreams?
  • Examples: Did you provide specific examples to better explain your statements? Are these examples relevant to the question and the point you are trying to make?
  • Double Take: Once you have gone through the finer details of editing and proofreading, ask a friend, instructor, tutor, or family member to read through your responses. Ask them to use the PREPPED checklist. After they have read them over and provided feedback, edit your answers once more to reflect any changes. Then go through this checklist one last time.

Congratulations! You are now PREPPED and your application responses are ready for submission!

    Application Photos

    The American Indian College Fund may use your application photo in donor reports, direct mail appeals, and marketing opportunities. Students will need to upload a photograph in their application each year.

    Try to focus on the following things when selecting a photo for your application:

    • Your photo or headshot should feature you above all else
    • Your face should be clearly visible (avoid ball caps, sunglasses, or heavily pixilated or dark images)
    • Headshots are preferred but full-length photographs are acceptable
    • Traditional regalia is encouraged but not required
    • Please have someone else take the photo and avoid selfies
    • Consider the lighting. It is better to have light in front of you than behind you
    • Don’t forget to SMILE!

    Proving Descent

    For students who are not enrolled tribal members themselves but are able to prove that their parents or grandparents have tribal enrollment, the following is very important.

    The graphic below illustrates an excellent example of how to prove descent through a paper trail:

    Examples of tribal documents may include:
    – Official letter from the tribe stating the enrollment status of the parent and/or grandparent;
    – A copy of the Tribal ID card;
    – CIB (Certificate of Indian Blood)

    Enrolling in Your Tribe

    Each tribe has their own unique requirements and process for becoming an enrolled member. The best first step is to reach out to your tribal government to learn more. If you need help contacting your tribe, visit the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) website at https://www.doi.gov/tribes/enrollment to learn more.

    As each process is unique, and tribes of differing sizes and administration have varying capacities to handle enrollment requests, you shouldn’t assume that your request will be processed quickly. Many smaller tribes with limited staff are completely unavailable to complete this work due to seasonal subsistence activities and other cultural practices.

    Extracurricular Activities

    Extracurriculars are any activities that you do outside of your required schoolwork. This includes, but is not limited to, traditional and cultural activities, clubs, sports, volunteering, work/employment, faith-based activities, community-based activities, and hobbies.

    Extracurricular activities set you apart from other applicants and increase your chances of receiving a scholarship. For these reasons, we encourage you to add a complete history of your extracurricular involvement.

    Don’t be discouraged if you do not have time for sports or a dozen bake sales. The American Indian College Fund encourages you to think outside the box when it comes to your time spent away from school work. Many of our students are nontraditional students, returning to school later in life when they have full-time jobs and families. For this reason, employment and family duties can be Extracurricular Activity entries on your scholarship application. More entry types are:

    • Volunteer and/or service-related activities
    • Athletics
    • Student Government
    • Academic and Professional Organizations
    • Multicultural Activities
    • Employment
    • Work Study
    • Family-related activities

    Updating Your Profile & Application

    Applicants can view their profile and scholarship application whenever they wish. Students will be able to update their profile as needed. However, the scholarship application cannot be edited once it is submitted.

    Profile – It’s important to keep your profile information up to date in our system. If your contact information changes, it is your responsibility to update your email and phone number with us. This is important, as we will notify students of awards, opportunities, and next steps via email.

    Full Circle Scoring Insights

    What happens to my application when I submit it? How will my application be scored?

    When you click “submit,” your application is stored securely in the online application system until scoring begins. Students who submit their application between February 1 and May 31 will have their application scored by the end of July.

    Applications are scored by independent reviewers who have experience in Native higher education. Each application submitted between February 1 and May 31 will receive three scores by three separate reviewers. We then take the average of those three scores to assign the application its final score. American Indian College Fund staff members do not score the applications.

    For scoring consistency across the applications, all readers use a rubric system to determine how many points to allocate for various portions of the scholarship application. Higher scores are more likely to receive a scholarship. As a merit-based scholarship program, the rubric scores applications based on thoughtful responses and a student’s ability to demonstrate merit. The reflection questions are the highest scoring portion of the application. There is also a preference for students attending tribal colleges and alumni of tribal colleges.

    Typically, scholarship awards are determined by the end of July. You can log in to your online application profile at any time to see if you have received an award. If the word “pending” appears beside the application, that means your application is still under review, so keep checking back!

    We hope this has been helpful in outlining how scholarship applications are scored. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us by email or at 800-987-3863.

    If you have additional questions about applying for scholarships, be sure to read through our Frequently Asked Questions.

    News & Events

    Empowering Students, Building Nations: Reflections from the 2025 CSSI Convening/CNSS Conference

    “Empowering Students, Building Nations–Cokv Hecvlke En Yekcetv, Etvlwv Oh Hayetv”

    By AIHEC Member, Student Services, and the American Indian College Fund TCU Student Success teams

    Under the warm skies of Oklahoma, nearly 200 participants representing 30 tribal colleges and universities gathered June 10–12  on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation at the stunning campus of the College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN). The 2025 CSSI Convening carried the theme “Empowering Students, Building Nations–Cokv Hecvlke En Yekcetv, Etvlwv Oh Hayetv,” a message that echoed throughout the three-day gathering which celebrated collective wisdom, cross-institutional connection, and Native student success.

    This year’s convening was a powerful reminder of what’s possible when partners align with purpose. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and the American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) have long worked in close collaboration to uplift tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), and this joint convening stood as a shining example of that ongoing partnership in action.

    The event kicked off with a pre-conference hosted by AIHEC, which centered on communities of practice (CoPs), a key initiative supporting TCU professionals through shared learning and peer exchange. CoP workshops sparked rich conversations around student services, equity-rooted strategies, and data-informed practices. The Four CoP priority areas were Advising, Developmental Education, Distance/Digital Learning, and Institutional Policy.

    Service providers from Student Ready Strategies (SRS), Advising Success Network (ASN), Every Learner Everywhere (ELE), and Strong Start to Finish (SStF) were invited to lead sessions. They were supported to intentionally weave in cultural knowledge while fostering strong relationships within each CoP, laying the groundwork for sustainability beyond the convening.

    The pre-conference set the tone, but the next two days of the convening came to life like a carefully woven basket.

    This Indigenous-centered SEM conference is the first of its kind. It was an opportunity for professional development and peer-learning for TCU leaders to come together to share  knowledge and expertise around Strategic Enrollment Management. SEM is the touch points that a Native Student takes in their journey through higher education that can start at any moment, whether its interacting with the college through marketing at pow wow tabling, through dual enrollment at their high school, participating in career counseling, or enrolling in the GED program that the TCU offers.

    All of these are examples of SEM and how TCUs strategically engage Native students with activities to help guide them through their individual journeys to become successful leaders for their communities and in Indian Country. SEM incorporates enrollment, retention and graduation plans in alignment with an institution’s strategic plan.

    A keynote address from Dr. Amanda R. Tachine (Diné) and Jameson D. Lopez, Ph.D. (Quechan) ignited participants to think through how decolonial data leads to liberated futures while advocating for Indigenous data sovereignty in the important work and collective rights of TCUs. They asked participants to think deeply about the values they seek to pass down to future generations and strategies they can commit to moving forward that are integrated into Indigenous Data Sovereignty work.

    A panel on CoPs showcased TCU representatives from enrollment managers, the National Alliance on Concurrent Enrollment TCU Chapter, first-year experience and mentorship programs, career readiness, and the transfer advisory committee. Panel representatives spoke about their CNSS funding, their vision for the CNSS program, and how they hope the program will be sustained after the grant period has ended.

    The TCU administrators and staff leaders led 24 breakout sessions as an opportunity for participants to learn from one another and share practices from their respective institutions. TCU volunteers from the Enrollment Manager CoP organized breakout sessions through several tracks such as academic advising models and practices, professional development and campus community, pathways and structured degree planning, and new student welcome and engagement events.

    A highlight included a session on navigating tribal college transfer, a session led by the transfer advisory committee at the College Fund that provided practices for developing a cohesive transfer system for institutions and introduced the work and progress of the committee’s transfer course. A session about student success through dual credit initiatives spoke to how the CNSS funded program reduced barriers to high school students receiving college education.

    The conference also included cultural exchange opportunities. Representatives from Dine College led a live demonstration of making Chííł Chin or sumac berry pudding. Their presentation included sharing the cultural significance, tools involved, ingredients, and ended with a tasting.

    With the TCUs leading sessions, volunteering their time to help create the breakout schedule, serving as representatives on the panel, The College Fund hopes to continue fostering opportunities for TCUs to share the vision of the CNSS program of fostering collaboration and peer learning to make it sustainable after the grant period ends. To learn more about the CNSS program visit our website here: https://collegefund.org/cultivating-native-student-success/

    The full article can be found at the Tribal College Journal.

     

     

    Scroll through photographs from the conference:

    We’re Still Here: Culture, Community, and College at the Heart of Native Resilience 

    Cheryl Crazy Bull - headshot

    Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund

    We know the news media and now, social media influencers, don’t intentionally give positive free “advertising,” and it is often very hard to have positive outcomes from remarkably ignorant and dangerous comments. But this week tribal colleges and universities and Native students received a bit of free advertising after a Fox News commentator made a genocidal remark on her social media account (in response to a college professor’s presentation about Native sovereignty) that “we didn’t kill enough Indians.” That remark unwittingly underscored the importance of tribal colleges and universities. 

    Make no mistake. The post is both hate speech and a thinly veiled threat, and the comment has no place in public discourse. The individual who made the comment is known for the hatred she regularly spews, but that isn’t the point I wish to make here.  

    Instead, I wish to explain how comments like these demonstrate the importance of tribal colleges and universities. 

    Imagine if your children heard comments like this in the classroom, in the media, or in their communities. Imagine if your children were discouraged from pursuing a higher education, were bullied, or were told they shouldn’t even be alive. Someone made a comment like this about a Native college professor who has, despite the odds facing Native people, entered college, persisted, graduated, and is now teaching Native students and others about our histories, our cultures, and our legal rights as Indigenous people—all subjects that were denied to our people for generations. 

    That’s right. Our children and grandchildren are learning in tribal college classrooms about their legal rights as citizens of sovereign nations. They are learning about our ties to our land. They are learning about the trust and treaty rights inherent in these legal agreements with the U.S. federal government to provide our people with education, health care, housing, the right to practice our spiritual and traditional practices, along with the right to our land itself. 

    Native students and graduates are revitalizing our languages, our communal values, and our science that helped us, for centuries, be proud stewards of the land and its inhabitants—all its inhabitants. 

    Native students, like any student, have the right to learn about their proud backgrounds. Our children are the descendants of people who know how to survive. They have the right to celebrate their cultures and histories without mockery, bullying, or threats to their existence. 

    We know weakness and fear hide beneath such hateful words. We’ve been here before. 

    After generations of Native students endured abuse in boarding schools, tribal nations revolutionized education for their people by creating tribal colleges and universities. These remarkable institutions are the perfect places for Native students to study. Chartered by their tribes while serving entire rural communities in the spirit of kinship, tribal colleges build strong community members and even stronger communities, teaching their students that every one of us, and each and every one of our gifts, is needed to build a stronger community and nation. And they do this while providing all students with an affordable, relevant higher education steeped in Native traditions and cultures.  

    Tribal colleges and universities are not just educating individuals. They are building strong communities where all our children in rural communities can be seen, heard, and respected for their contributions. 

    Many elected officials and pundits advocate cutting funding for these remarkable institutions the Carnegie Foundation called “underfunded miracles,” as they are making significant, even unprecedented, contributions to their communities, regions, and states.  

    But these people don’t understand what they are up against: generations of resilient people from resilient nations. We’ve seen and heard far worse. Such ugliness and short-sightedness are not a surprise to us. 

    What might be a surprise to them, however, is the number of decent people who share our communities’ values, rooted in the belief that education is the answer—not just to our communities’ issues and to making our children’s dreams reality—but also to the challenge of creating a stronger, more beautiful nation where all of our children can bloom.  

    Whether Native or non-Native, students who study ranchland management at a tribal college in the Great Plains, the arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts, nursing in rural Montana where health care worker shortages are threatening the longevity of its citizens, these students and others who become electricians, social workers, and entrepreneurs are the key to our communities’ prosperity. 

    Tribal colleges and universities, our students, and graduates are working to develop stronger, more vibrant communities nationwide. There is nothing to fear about that, no matter what the pundits and fearmongers might say. 

    We thank you for joining us and honoring us with your support as we speak the truth about our Native histories and identities as we work to fulfill our commitment to create stronger Native communities and a stronger nation for a better America—where we can all thrive as committed and respectful neighbors. 

    Please continue to follow this blog, where we will be sharing our vision for how we can make that happen together, ensuring the tribal colleges continue their remarkable work serving their communities, and that we ensure every Native student who wants an education has the resources to do so. 

     

    Our Work Is Not Finished

    As we learned last week, the nation’s legislators passed the Trump Administration’s reconciliation bill that included significant budget changes for many programs including many that serve Indian Country.

    In spite of the outcome, we want to thank you for your calls and emails to your elected officials on behalf of Native students and Native higher education. You showed up for what is right: the future of our communities.

    As you know from our advocacy, we opposed the reconciliation bill because of those budget changes and how they impacted education, health care, and safety. At the College Fund and throughout Indian Country, we are deeply worried about the cuts in funding and the changes in programs.

    The future for all of our communities is intertwined with EVERY ONE of OUR shared communities. Our nation’s future depends on the future of every one of us. It is more critical than ever that we work together to educate the doctors, teachers, scientists and leaders of tomorrow.

    The federal budget will have a profound impact on education, not just for Native communities, but for everyone. And although much was lost, we want to take time and remember our work together culminated in a few wins, too. For example, Pell Grants remain intact, ensuring the nation’s low- to middle-income students can study and enter the careers of their choice. In addition, “Workforce Pell Grants” were added for qualifying students enrolled in accredited workforce programs in high-skill, high-wage areas, even if the programs were short-term.

    Know that our work is not finished. In Native cultures, we believe we cannot afford to throw away a single person’s gifts. Every individual has something to contribute, and every talent must be fostered for us all to flourish. To that end, we invite you to continue to walk beside us as we work to ensure Native students can further their education to give back to their communities—and that the remarkable tribal colleges and universities who serve Native and rural communities keep their doors open to graduate the skilled and talented workers we need.

    We will be sharing our initiatives on our web site and social media regularly and we look forward to working alongside you as we work together to build a better future for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come.