Image Credit: Davidson Institute Each year, thousands of high school students around the world apply for the few spots offered by highly coveted merit scholarships.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship is one of the most prestigious high school scholarships in the United States.

In this post, we provide a comprehensive overview of the Davidson Fellows Scholarship including key dates, application requirements, and tips and tricks for how to win.

What is the Davidson Fellows Scholarship?

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship is sponsored by the Davidson Institute.

Each year, around 20 Davidson Scholars are chosen to receive scholarships in $50,000, $25,000, and $10,000 amounts.

The scholarship considers students who have completed a significant piece of work in one of its offered categories, including Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Literature, Music, Philosophy, and Outside the Box.

Entries are split by category and evaluated by a team of qualified judges with expertise in the domain area.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship seeks projects that are of the same caliber as college graduate projects and looks for students with extensive knowledge and acumen in a certain subject area.

What’s the Eligibility Requirement for the Davidson Fellows Scholarship?

To apply for this highly competitive program, make sure you meet all the eligibility requirements below: Be 18 or younger Be a U.

S. citizen or permanent resident Completed a piece of work that is not a community service project  What are the Application Requirements?

To be considered for the scholarship, make sure to submit all requirements below:  10-minute video showcasing your project Around 2 essays explaining the process of designing/pursuing the project and how its significance to society  2 Nominators submitting the online Davidson Fellows Nomination form  Extra material that varies depending on the type of project, usually a research paper and visual model (for STEM subjects) and a portfolio for humanities-based subjects The video is a chance for the student to be creative and emphasize certain components not addressed in their application.

The online application lists a series of suggestions to consider when making the video:  • You can briefly summarize your submission, why it was done, its significance, its social relevance and any other details you’d like to highlight. • You can describe how you became interested in this project, how it evolved and how working on it has helped you develop as a student and a person. • You can also describe how your submission fits into the larger context of the field of study and describe any ideas/people/theories that influenced your work. • You can discuss if you’ll continue with this project, future work and plans, anything else you’d like to add to round out your submission.

How Do I Win the Davidson Fellows Scholarship?

Now that we’ve established that the Davidson Fellows Scholarship is a highly competitive program, you need to have an exceptional application to distinguish yourself in the applicant pool.

If you’re a Davidson Scholarship hopeful, make sure you follow these steps to win.

Start early.

Giving yourself ample time to prepare your application will reflect on the overall quality of your application.

Because selection of scholarship winners relies heavily on the short video, you need to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward to create a lasting impression on the application reviewers.

Creating an authentic and attention-grabbing video that encompasses you as a person is undoubtedly a time-consuming task.

It’s advised that you start working on putting together your video at least two weeks in advance.

Additionally, in competitive programs like these, it’s best to start on your essays and other materials well before the deadline so you have enough time to reread and revise.

Lastly, starting your Davidson application early ensures that your recommender has enough time to prepare their materials on your behalf.

See the Davidson Fellows Scholarship application timeline below for the most recent year.

Fall 2023: Applications open.

February 14 2024: Online application and nominator forms due.

July 15, 2024: All applicants notified on or before this date of their decision.

Highlight your personality.

Utilize your application to your advantage.

Make sure to personalize your video and essays as much as possible in order to hammer home who you are as a person and why you deserve a spot in the Davidson Fellows program over everyone else.

The Davidson Scholars program puts a heavy emphasis on the intellectual pursuit of knowledge.

Think about what field of study your project falls under and why you chose to pursue that route.

Why does it captivate you?

How do you see yourself exploring it more in the future?

Because usually technical presentations are required for project submissions, like research papers and visuals, make sure to ask your research mentor or advisor to look it over and make sure everything you’ve written is in exactly the same format as you intended.

Create a technically-sound video.

Since your application consists of a video, make sure its format, visual presentation, and sound are at the same caliber as the content.

Think of it as a chef crafting a meal.

The final deliverable is how he chooses to plate it for the customer, and is arguably just as important as the taste.

Your video needs to be easily digestible and successful in presenting your life story to the selection committee.

Take advantage of visuals, as mentioned above.

It’ll also be helpful to pair images with a compelling voiceover that you wrote the script for beforehand.

In addition, if you’re apt in editing (or know a friend who can help), use those skills for the video.

Keep the viewer engaged and leave them wanting to support you on your intellectual journey, and ultimately, award you the scholarship.

Fulfill all application criteria.

Make sure that you’ve fulfilled all requirements prior to the deadline.

Ensure that your video was successfully uploaded and is in the exact format that you intended.

Concluding Remarks In conclusion, we provided a comprehensive overview of the Davidson Fellows Scholarship as well as how to maximize your chances at winning.

Undergraduate scholarships not only do a great deal in alleviating financial burden but are overall great opportunities to socialize with other bright scholars and gain a supportive community.

However, each scholarship can only accommodate so many recipients—the key lies in applying to multiple to increase your odds at obtaining one.

Check out Rishab’s ultimate scholarship guide that contains 90+ vouched scholarships that are absolutely worth the time applying for.

Best of luck!.