Introducing Scholarship 2.0: A Scholarship Where Students Don't Just Apply... They Pick the Winner

April 15, 2007

Embracing the democratic spirit of online communities, CollegeToolkit.com has launched a $10,000 scholarship with a special twist. Students are not only the applicants, they are the judges. The winner of the award will be based solely on the voting of CollegeToolkit.com's student users.

"For almost every other scholarship, these students are at the mercy of a scholarship committee, comprised of adults many years their senior," CollegeToolkit.com president Mark Rothbaum said. "We wanted to devise a scholarship that put these students in control, that allowed them to be on the other side of the judge's table for once. As with popular sites like YouTube and Digg, our users will dictate which essays deserve the top prize."

In order to apply for the scholarship, students are asked to submit an essay from an admissions application or to answer the question "Why do I want to go to college?". Entries will be posted on the CollegeToolkit.com website where users can vote on the ones they believe are the best. The first round of voting will narrow the field down to 10 finalists; the second round will select a scholarship winner from these 10 finalists.

Students do not need to have a minimum grade point average. They do not need to submit SAT or ACT test scores. There is no financial need component. The scholarship award is open to all U.S. students.

"We hope our scholarship grabs the attention of students and gets them to tell their friends about the award opportunity," Rothbaum said. "We really want to engage students and encourage them to start thinking about scholarships and paying for college."

The first round of the scholarship contest runs until July 31, 2007.

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