Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling

Scholarship

IACAC is pleased to offer five $2,000 scholarships (non-renewable) to students who exhibit the following:

Financial need
A commitment to learning
Leadership skills and/or Community service involvement

A separate transfer scholarship is available from IACAC to a community college student to further his/her education at a four-year IACAC member institution.

Eligibility Criteria

The applicant must be a graduating senior from an IACAC member high school (where at least one counselor is an IACAC member) with a GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. To verify if your high school is an IACAC member, check the list here;
The applicant must enroll as a full-time, college freshman at a postsecondary institution in the 2025-2026 school year (preferably at an IACAC member institution);
The student must demonstrate involvement in high school, the community, or service to others with motivation to achieve personal goals; and
The applicant must demonstrate need. Students need to supply either their parents combined income and/or their SAI from the FAFSA forecaster.
Scholarship is available to all eligible students regardless of citizenship or residency status.

Selection Process

Applications will be reviewed by the IACAC Scholarship Committee
Academic credentials, demonstrated need, resume, personal essay, and the counselor’s recommendation will be evaluated

Student Application Instructions

Before beginning the online application you will need: your counselor’s email address, an essay, and a resume. The student’s portion of the application must be submitted by Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 11:59 pm CT.

Failure to comply with these application instructions may result in disqualification of eligibility.

Essay

Write an essay addressing the following topic:

Reflect on a time when you worked with others to achieve a meaningful goal

The essay should typed, double-spaced, and two pages in length.
Write your name, high school, and essay prompt at the top.
Save your essay as a Word Document or PDF. You will upload this file in the application.

Activities & Responsibilities Outside the Classroom/Resume

Prepare a resume that demonstrates your leadership, involvement in high school, the community, and/or service to others. Include the total number of service hours. Download a sample resume.

Write your name and high school at the top.
Save your resume as a Word Document or PDF.
You will upload this file in the application.

Tell Your Counselor

Tell your counselor that you have applied for the IACAC Scholarship. Ask your counselor to submit the Counselor Recommendation form with your high school transcript. They will also receive an email with a copy of your application.

All materials from your counselor must be submitted online by Friday, March 7, 2025 at 11:59 pm CT.

Apply Now

Counselor Recommendation Instructions

After the student has submitted an application, the counselor will be sent an email notification. Counselors will need to provide the student’s:

Email address (if available)
Letter of recommendation (PDF or Word Doc)
GPA
GPA dates
Highest grade/GPA in the class
Rank
Transcript
Information regarding the financial need of the student
Geographic IACAC District of the school (double check this as our map recently changed)
School profile

Transcripts and school profiles should be uploaded online in PDF or Word Doc format.

All materials from the counselor must be submitted online by Friday, March 7, 2025 at 11:59 pm CT.

Due to firewall issues, counselor recommendation notifications may not come through.

If your student submitted an application and you did not receive your recommender email, please follow the instructions below:

Log into Kaleidoscope: https://apply.mykaleidoscope.com/login
If you have not logged into Kaleidoscope before, you will be able to set up a password by clicking ‘Click here to set your password’ under the sign in button.
Once logged in, your dashboard will show the recommendation request(s) that need to be completed.

Questions?
Contact scholarship@iacac.org.

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Illinois Association for
College Admission Counseling

Contact

iacac@iacac.org 400 E. Randolph Street, Suite 3115
Chicago, IL 60601 847-565-6202

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