Wait, Coca Cola Scholarship? Coke has a scholarship?! As in, the actual Coca Cola?
Yes, they do! And it’s an awesome one.
The Coca Cola Scholarship is a long-established program that awards up to $20,000 to its Coca Cola Scholars. And what’s really cool about it is that, unlike many other corporate-sponsored scholarships, the Coca Cola Scholarship is not limited to the kids and grandkids of Coca Cola employees (in fact, Coca Cola employees are not eligible for this scholarship)!
Are you intrigued? We hope so! Let’s dive in!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(click to skip ahead)What is the Coca Cola Scholarship?
The Coca Cola Scholarship is a merit-based scholarship (which means it’s based on your accomplishments, achievements, and potential, and not on your financial need). This scholarship is particularly focused on students who have demonstrated leadership and service AND who commit to serving their community in college and beyond.
The Coca Cola Scholars Foundation is dedicated to supporting students who will serve as the next generation of community and educational leaders. They want to provide students with the resources they need to make positive change and to be problem-solvers and innovative thinkers, and the way they do this is by helping to ease some of the financial burden of attending college (and let’s face it, for many of us, it IS a burden).
The applicant numbers are high for this scholarship, which also means it’s highly competitive (usually around 90,000 applicants compete for 150 scholarships), and while these odds probably sound daunting, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. If you are a student who really wants to lead a life of service and leadership (and believe us, that’s not everyone), this could be just the scholarship for you!
(Important side note: if you want to apply, be sure this doesn’t take away from time spent on other, less competitive scholarships and on your college apps. If you want to explore an in-depth guide to paying for college, including how to think about what kinds of scholarships you should spend more time on, head to that link.)
Coca Cola Scholarship requirements
In addition to a commitment to leadership and service, the basic eligibility requirements are pretty cut and dry, and these come directly from the Coca Cola Scholarship Foundation:
You must be a current high school senior attending a school in the United States (home-school students are eligible)
You must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. National, or U.S. Permanent Resident
You must be on track to graduate during the year you apply for the scholarship
You must plan to attend an accredited college or university with the goal of earning an associate or bachelor’s degree
You must have at least a 3.0 GPA
Again, these are the basic eligibility requirements, but considering the number of students who apply to become Coca Cola Scholars (again, around 90,000), meeting just these basics is highly unlikely to get you to the final stages of the application process. Not to worry, though! We have some tips for you about how to stand out from the crowd (and we know you can)!
Tips for winning the Coca Cola Scholarship
If you think you’re a good candidate for this scholarship, you’ve likely already done a lot of the heavy lifting. You need to have already demonstrated a commitment to leadership and service, and your grades need to be strong (again, at least a B average). This is not stuff you can pull together at the last minute.
But there ARE some additional tips and tools that can help you make a strong showing during the application process:
Tip 1
Use all the space you have available to you in your application. The scholarship committee wants to hear all about your leadership and service activities, your volunteering, any awards you’ve received, and any work experience you have. List them all! This is your chance to paint a picture of what you’ve achieved and accomplished, so now is not the time to be modest (having said that, don’t make stuff up to pad your application!).
Tip 2
“Leadership” is key. So make sure to highlight all the ways in which you’ve demonstrated your leadership skills. And be creative about this! If you run a club, that’s an obvious example of leadership. But maybe you also organized a clothing drive at your school, coached a team, or tutored younger kids. These are all examples of leadership, too. We encourage you to think outside the box about this!
Tip 3
Include information in your application that illustrates what your priorities are and what you most value, and then lead with that information. If you are deeply committed to issues of educational access, for example, you can start with that and list all the activities you’ve done that relate to this issue. Again, your application is the place for you to introduce yourself to the scholarship committee, and since you have control over what you do and do not include, let them see the things that are most important to you first.
Tip 4
Ask your parents, teachers, school counselors, family members, and friends to check that you’ve included all the cool (and relevant) details about your service and leadership in your application. Unless you’ve kept a running list (and how many of us do that?), chances are you’ll forget something. But the people around you might remember that month you spent organizing a fundraiser or the time you wrote a letter to your City Council.
How to apply for the Coke Scholarship
As with many scholarships, the application process for the Coca Cola Scholarship includes quite a few steps and stages:
The application opens on August 1 and remains open until October (the exact date changes a bit from year-to-year). Once the application process is open, you will be able to access the application link on the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation page. This is where you’ll complete and submit your application.
After the October deadline, the scholarship committee reads through all the applications they receive to narrow the field down to 2,200 semifinalists.
If you get to this stage (yay, you!), you will be asked to complete a second application. And from there, the committee will choose 250 finalists.
Things start to get a little more intense at this point. Finalists will sit for an interview with a panel of community leaders (think education, arts, business). This panel is called the National Selection Committee. The panel will have read your application, so they will likely ask about specific details and information. They’ll want you to elaborate, to perhaps explain how a specific activity impacted you, and they’ll likely want to hear about your future plans. So, the key is to prepare! Know your application inside and out, and ask someone you trust and feel comfortable with to do some practice interviews with you.
These interviews used to all take place in person in Atlanta, but online interviews are now available (requesting an online interview does not impact your chances of winning a scholarship).
After this series of interviews, the Coca Cola Scholars for that year are announced!
Coca Cola Scholars
You might be wondering if there is a “typical” Coca Cola Scholar, and the answer (thankfully) is “no.”
While Coca Cola Scholars all share (you guessed it) a commitment to leadership and service, the ways they demonstrate that commitment are vast. Coca Cola Scholars have gone on to careers in education, medicine, the arts, government and public policy, and on and on.
The thing to remember is that students who become Coca Cola Scholars are high school seniors who have an obvious and demonstrated wish to help their communities. Sometimes this is their school community, but oftentimes this is their school community and beyond. But again, helping one’s community can mean many different things.
So, if this sounds like you, we encourage you to consider applying for this scholarship. It IS a lot of work, but it can also be really fun and rewarding to reflect on your accomplishments, to reaffirm your commitment to those around you, and to be in conversation with like-minded people. There is no reason why you can’t be one of those lucky 150!
Jessica B.
Jessica has a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern California and teaches English at a Los Angeles-area independent school, where she has also been English department chair and a class dean. Sandra Cisneros is her hero, and she loves books, her awesomely-sarcastic family, the beach, cozy sweaters, and more books. Oh, and her sweet pitbull/lab mix named Ruby.
Top values: Curiosity, equity, wonder
