Scholarship Judging

Sofia Ongay

Hello Fellow Scholarship Administrators,


We are getting ready to implement our first scholarship application judging cycle. What is your institutions typical reviewer window (period of days) for application judging?


Thank you so much in advance!

Trish Reimer

Hello! The review (judging) period is usually determined somewhat by the applicant pool. For those opportunities with a great many applicants, I give reviewers more time. Generally speaking, I try to give them about a month. . They know the timeframe in advance so they can plan their schedules. I also am able to send reminders to those reviewers who procrastinate ?. Also, during the review period, I offer optional tutorials (via Zoom) to help new reviewers or provide a refresher for returning reviewers. I also have a document that I send to all my Reviewer Chairs so they can assist their reviewer group with any general questions.

-Trish

Mallorie Fonseca

Hi Sofia!

Our reviewers typically have anywhere from 2 days to 2 months. It really depends on the group. We have a few groups that meet and decide the day after the deadline of their scholarships and others that work on their reviews on and off for several weeks. Our most common period is 2-4 weeks and I extend the dates for them if they end up needing more time.


-Mallorie Fonseca (she/her)

Amy Bosler

Hi! We usually give the readers 2-3 weeks, then end up having to do "clean up" of unread applications, so the deadline is extended for a few days. Why do people always wait until the last day to start reading? It's unfortunately, but I am a big proponent of giving a false deadline with at least a week of wiggle room, so that you can extended the deadline a couple of times for people who are only motivated when the deadline is looming or past. All scholarships in the cycle have the same deadline, even committees.

Cindy Bublitz

We give our reviewers two weeks.