1. Take the Application Instructions and Directions Seriously:

Allow plenty of time to complete your application, so you have time to review and double-check it. Stay within the maximum word counts for your essays and short answers. This lets our selection committees know that you understand and know how to follow directions. Don’t include extra items if specifically given number  “limits” in certain categories such as recommendations. The CDB Scholarship asks for two recommendations. We know that you’re a spectacular applicant, but again this falls under the follow directions rule of thumb.

2. Start Your Preparation EARLY:

Be mindful of the CDB application deadline. To ensure you meet the deadline, start gathering everything you need, begin brainstorming essay ideas and request letters of recommendation months ahead of time as a courtesy to your recommenders who more than likely have a lot in their schedules to take care of aside from your recommendation… and potentially that for other program applicants in addition to yours. 

Be sure to check the deadlines of upcoming Upper Level SSAT test dates and register as early as possible to be assured of your requested test date and the location of your test center. You can also register to take the SSAT at home. Be sure to indicate that you’re in eighth grade when you’re registering. This will allow you access to the UPPER LEVEL SSAT which is the required SSAT option for the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship. It also doesn’t hurt to do a “trial run” to the test site so you know in advance not only where it is but how long it will take to get you there whether driving or on public transportation. The less stress you can put into test day realities, all the better for you to focus your energy on the test itself… and not on getting there.

3. Recommenders:

Make sure that your recommenders know you well enough to support a POSITIVE letter of recommendation that makes it clear they know you in the context in which they are writing your letter and that they have the time to write and submit your recommendation in accordance with the deadline. It is YOUR responsibility to give your recommenders all of the necessary details and deadline information, not theirs to research. You do not want to make this process difficult for them, but should focus on presenting yourself in a positive light to any person willing to support your application. You can certainly provide your recommenders with details, as they may think highly of you but not remember your record-setting time in the 100 meter butterfly or the essay you had published in the school’s literary magazine. Many teachers and coaches routinely write multiple letters of recommendation over the course of an academic year. It’s fine if you supply them with appropriate data on YOU—which is not to say that YOU write your own recommendation for them to sign. Any recommender who asks you to do this is NOT a recommender that would be appropriate for you to utilize.

4. Don’t Lose Focus of the Detail:

Make sure that you know and are eligible for the specific requirements of the CDB Scholarship. Overlooking a direction or neglecting any of the submission requirements—i.e. not answering the required number of essay prompts, not submitting a work sample, not completing a parent or recommender statement—can disqualify an otherwise eligible applicant from consideration. Read the directions carefully, and don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of the CDB Scholarship team either by phone or e-mail if you have any questions.

5. The 7^th Grader is the Applicant- NOT Your Parent:

I’m going to let you in on an insider secret:  NO ONE on the CDB team wants to get a phone call from a prospective applicant’s parent that begins, “I’m filling out the application for my son/daughter…”  unless their question specifically refers to the Parent Statement  or general directions-related queries. The application is the responsibility of the student to complete. Yes—a parent or responsible adult can assist with making sure all elements of the application are in order, but it’s up to the actual applicant to be proactive when it comes to requesting the recommendations, school transcript and all of the essay writing and submission of activities, work sample, etc.

6. Stay Organized:

Keep track of various deadlines and test days with your planner or a calendar app. It’s also a good idea to keep an online or paper folder with all of the components of the scholarship application as “saved” documents prior to submission, as well as the specific people and dates you’ve gone to for your recommendations and school transcripts. Stay on top of the application components that others are responsible for in a respectful manner which does NOT mean asking them every week if they’ve completed and submitted your materials. With the CDB application, you can check online under your name to see if and when outside pieces of your application have been submitted.

7. Make Sure You KNOW The Scholarship That You’re Applying For:

It’s irritating to a reader when an applicant misspells the name of the scholarship or mistakenly lists the incorrect name if they’re applying for multiple scholarships.

8. Proof Your Work and Have Someone Else Review Your Application For Errors BEFORE You Submit:

It’s perfectly acceptable to ask another person—parent, teacher, older sibling—to read your work and ask for their input or to check your grammar and spelling. A second pair of eyes can often spot errors that you might have missed in the umpteenth reading of your work. But to be clear– this is application should be the work, ideas and creative submission of the applicant who is a 7^th grader, NOT THAT OF AN ADULT. Our readers are well versed in reviewing applications, and the “voice” we expect to be presented with is that of the student applicant, not an over-arching parent.

9. Pay Attention to Presentation:

If you’ve written great essays and have followed all of the scholarship directives and guidelines but submit an application that is sloppy or not what should be considered as a final draft, you could jeopardize your chances of being a stand-out applicant. All things being equal, the student who submits a neat and professional looking application is going to have an advantage over what appears to be a rushed and not well-proofed submission.

10. Be Original:

Many of our readers say that a great essay opening line or a slice-of-life story captures their attention and makes that applicant memorable. Write about specific aspects, experiences, memories or moments of your life in your responses to the various prompts that are unique to YOU.

11. Your Activities:

As important as your scholastic performance may be, we want to see what you do outside the classroom that has your interest and focus, which is why the CDB application asks for the time commitment and length of time that you’ve put into a particular commitment, as well as any leadership roles you have assumed in your extracurricular life. It’s fine to dabble in a lot of different pursuits, but the limited number of response slots on the CDB application are meant to reveal your passions— the areas that you have seriously devoted your out-of-school time, effort and outreach towards.

The Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship and the annual cohort of selected CDB Scholars takes into account more than an applicant’s numerics—grade point average and test scores.  Our team looks at each application as an amalgam of the multiple aspects of what contributes to present YOU as an accomplished, multi-faceted, high-potential individual, which we hope is indicative of the CDB application in all of its component parts.  We want you to be as engaged in the application process as we will be in its reading and getting to know you.

As the program director for the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship with fifteen-plus years selecting and working with the CDB Scholars and families, I’m asked this question more than any other, so I’m here to provide some inside information that you won’t find on High School Confidential or through the grapevine.

Every eligible CDB application is read thoroughly by at least two members of the CDB staff at the Institute for Educational Advancement and logged into our online data system, one folder for each CDB applicant. If any elements of the application are missing, we will e-mail the applicant well before the submission deadline. We also send a DEADLINE COMING UP!! e-mail to every applicant who has begun to fill out or worked on an application within three weeks of the deadline. Staff members evaluate each application individually with written notes pertaining to each element of the application as well as an overall score and assign a numeric to the applicant. This score is then added to an evaluation grid comprised of the totality of that year’s eligible CDB applications. This compilation is what the CDB staff uses to determine which applications will move forward to one of three national selection committees comprised of deans and directors of admission at selective high schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States, heads of independent schools, educators who work with gifted students and CDB alumni, two-three per committee. Our CDB Scholar alumni are outstanding ambassadors and having successfully gone through the application process themselves, quite capable of helping select the Finalists.

The selection committee meetings last two days and result in the selection of between 45-55 Finalists from across the country. These Finalists will be interviewed in person or via zoom (as occurred for the 2020 Scholar selection due to the pandemic restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings) throughout the summer with one or both of their parent(s) or guardian(s) present for a portion of the interview. From the Finalist pool, each year’s CDB Scholars will be selected early in September to begin working with the CDB staff to help find each Scholar’s optimal high school fit.

In reading and evaluating hundreds of CDB applications annually, here are some tips for prospective applicants:

We always offer choices in the essays to help applicants find areas that resonate with them academically and personally. We hope that you will use the 500 word count or a close approximation to elaborate on the given topic and help us get to know what drives and motivates you as an individual in response to the prompt. In my experience, it has rarely if ever been the case that a two or three sentence “essay” has the ability to wow. If anything, it feels to the readers that you’re completing the application under duress and not of your own volition.

By all means use engaging, sophisticated vocabulary and concepts IF you have a clear understanding of their correct usage. Few things stick out more to an experienced application reader than “big” words or phrases put in for effect rather than to enhance a thought or statement. Clunky word choice is not a note you want next to one of your essays.

If you identify as a math or STEAM/STEM person, you are not alone in this applicant pool, so what can you write to set yourself apart from the pack? Well, you can be creative with your words and describe what it is about math that excites and engages you, and you don’t need to be a wordsmith to accomplish this. As readers, my team and I look forward to understanding what drives and motivates an applicant to complete this long and complex application, so help us better understand you. There are few more positive notes I write than, “I want to meet this person and get to know him/her!” It means that you’ve successfully captured my attention through an aspect of your application that presents YOU as the unique individual you are in YOUR voice.

Select your recommenders with care. I cannot emphasize this enough. Since the recommenders—academic and professional—are required to submit their grids and comments directly to the scholarship, you won’t have the opportunity to see what’s been written about you. Few things can derail an otherwise solid application more than comments by someone YOU’VE chosen who either does not have positive things to say about you or who just goes through cursory motions to complete a form without providing any real insight or approbation to heighten your application. Make sure your recommenders are people who know you well and who have shown themselves to be supportive, encouraging, helpful mentors or role models—people who you admire and respect and who feel the same about wanting to encourage and support your CDB application, because they know you well enough to be a staunch supporter of your candidacy.

You are welcome to employ your parents or teachers as proofreaders, but the core ideas should be yours, as well as the writing of your essays, submission of your work sample and finalizing all aspect of the application components. The CDB application is meant to be a reflection of you as an applicant, not your parent. There is a one-page parent letter that should handle that aspect of the application. More to come on this element in the Parent Section of this blog.

If you describe yourself in your CDB application as a dancer or a musician or an artist or singer or inventor or photographer, by all means SHOW US, either as a work sample or in the additional information portal. This is less about you impressing us as a superstar and more about sharing your passion(s) with our team. It’s frustrating to repeatedly read about a special skill or area of interest in your application and not see any visual or oral indication of this element of you.

It is up to you—not your parent—to check in with your recommenders and school office to make sure that the materials they’re compiling for you —recommendations, standardized tests and transcripts—are submitted well within the CDB deadline. You don’t have to make a nuisance of yourself, but go about completing each element of the CDB application in a timely fashion, so you’re not driving everyone around you CRAZY with completing the application minutes or hours before it’s due.[blockquote text=”Make sure your recommenders are people who know you well and who have shown themselves to be supportive, encouraging, helpful mentors or role models—people who you admire and respect and who feel the same about wanting to encourage and support your CDB application, because they know you well enough to be a staunch supporter of your candidacy.” show_quote_icon=”yes” text_color=”#000000″ width=”90%” quote_icon_color=”#aa230d”] 

And now to the parent responsibilities…

While you are always welcome to call or email the CDB Scholarship team with questions or information that’s needed to help with the application, please do not word your questions to us as, “I’m completing the CDB application for my son or daughter.” This is a HUGE red flag for us as to the efficacy of your child’s application and not at all what you should be doing in regards to his or her submission.

As parents or guardians, you are offered a page to let us know about your son or daughter—what makes him or her unique, special talents, areas that perhaps only you as a parent see or know from having lived with this young person more than anyone else. Please don’t use this as a forum to reiterate what’s already been noted in other places of the application such as grades or awards received. This is meant to be your personal statement, and we always appreciate you staying within the one page limit without utilizing the smallest font and no margins top to bottom or side to side. We want to know as parents, what you see, know, feel and value about your child that you want to pass along to us. If you want to tell us about particular vulnerabilities or issues that your son or daughter has had to contend with or overcome, we look upon this as informational and not judgmental. Strengths and weaknesses as well as other aspects of character only help us round out the reality and clarity of an applicant. Perfect superstars as described by parents are immediately suspect to an experienced reader. If your child meets the CDB Scholarship eligibility criteria, by all means support their application, but please do not coerce, bribe or force the issue. The decision to apply—as well as complete and submit—a CDB application should be the responsibility of the applicant. As a parent, you can certainly support the process, but from the sidelines and not as a “co-writer.”

Finally, when decisions are made—whether it’s in selecting the Finalists or ultimately the annual CDB Scholars– please understand that in any competitive process, there will sometimes be results that are not to your liking or expectation. The decisions have less to do with what your child did “wrong” on his or her application or wasn’t “enough” in any given area and more with the reality that the CDB Scholarship draws an incredible, awe-inspiring applicant pool of truly stellar young people from all echelons of the seventh grade national gifted population. The selection process is one that the CDB team takes very, very seriously and meticulously as we evaluate and discuss hundreds of highly accomplished young people and always wish we had the resources to recognize many more of these highly accomplished young people than we are able to do each year with the 25-30 CDB Scholarships we award.

I can’t reiterate this enough, but the CDB team always looks at the multiple aspects of an application, not the singularity of test scores or an applicant’s GPA. Every Institute for Educational Advancement program is centered around the whole child—his or her academic, social, emotional and character-based aspects that all work together to comprise an exceptional individual who will find engagement and fulfillment as a Caroline D. Bradley Scholar within a cohort of peers, mentors and role models spanning selection since 2002.

Robert Frost’s 1923 poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening has spoken to me more times than I could even begin to count – on both personal and professional levels. Whenever deadlines loom, I reflect on Frost’s yearning for the peaceful, serene power of nature – how it unassumingly wields a force larger than life, almost as if to say that nothing else matters, even though we know, resignedly, that is not the case. The quiet, yet almost jarring, juxtaposition of freshly-fallen snow and jingling horse bells so perfectly evokes December’s ability to make the world stand still for a moment, take in the smell of a wood-burning stove, and embrace the silent, though recognizable, sound of nature peacefully existing.

In the last stanza, Frost laments:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Though the woods I traversed the other night were light, (June, here, replacing December’s winter solstice with its summer counterpart), my mind kept circling back to Frost’s pining. Oh, were we to have the endless freedom to escape into the woods until we’d exhausted its mysteries; oh, the satisfying snap of twigs and crunch of leaves underfoot.

Oh, to be a Yunasa camper!

For they are afforded such luxuries. For seven days, 42 campers, ages 10-15, did what Frost wanted to do, but ultimately couldn’t, on that evening: simply be. Unencumbered by the tethers of technology, deadlines, homework and competition, they were catapulted into a Colorado wonderland of campfires and kayaking, starry nights and sing-offs, dancing and digging. They bunked with peers and trekked up and down the hills of Camp Shady Brook, alternatingly dusty, wet from paddle boarding or smelling of campfire smoke. They had no connection to the outside world – and were all the happier for it.

On more than one occasion, a few “barbaric yawps” (to quote another poet) were released in the face of water balloon fights and gaga tournaments, card games and puzzles, the last piece of cheese pizza and the last glass of sparkling cider at the camp social. On Friday, campers sported red, yellow, green and blue bandanas for the mini-Olympics, the ball field a rainbow swirl of friendly competition and team spirit. Most of the time, the four corners of camp echoed with raucous laughter, impromptu guitar solos and thunderous applause.

But there was also a beautiful serenity that blew through camp each day before lunch: psychosynthesis. Campers grounded themselves as they listened to Fellows describe situations meant to engage the heart, mind and all five senses. Through a quiet lilt, as read aloud by Fellows, campers were transported to settings that stretched their imaginations far more than simple geography (beach, mountains, spring) would have one believe.

Like Frost, Yunasa campers also had promises to keep, though theirs revolved around broadening horizons, trying new things, facing challenges, being brave, discovering new truths and, most importantly, embracing themselves for who they are. Many tried the climbing wall or Giant’s Ladder for the first time; others found their voice during Heart of the Matter and shared previously-unspoken truths about themselves with others. There is no safer space anywhere; Yunasa allows one to share as much or as little as they’d like to – all the while being encouraged to share more than they had before. Nowhere else exists a place with more open hearts, minds, spirits, perspectives or intentions.

During the Closing Ceremony, fifth-year campers and a bevy of their compatriots shared what – and who – they were most grateful for. Though varied in their responses, one underlying theme stood out: Yunasa West is a place like no other and, even though it only exists for a week, its spirit and the friendships formed sometimes carry more weight than anything else in the campers’ lives throughout the rest of the year. There is a spirit here – a trust that forms through intentional reflection, building the new labyrinth from scratch, trekking up to the fire pit for an amazing view and an even more amazing variety show, tie-dying fresh white t-shirts and dancing to Toto’s Africa surrounded by glow sticks and string lights.

There is beauty in the intricate, organic support systems that evolve from the moment one steps foot on Yunasa West’s ochre soil. Homesickness is overcome by a high-five or an invitation to join one in a game of ninja; the challenge course doesn’t seem quite as daunting when you have five friends cheering, “You got this! Keep going!”; it doesn’t matter that no fish were caught over a span of four days. (Talking about Harry Potter during the futile hour-long fishing excursion was far more interesting than any snagged trout would have been, anyway.)

Oh, to be a Yunasa camper! And to stop by woods – lovely, [light] and deep – for a week on end. Deadlines or not, I need to walk through the woods more often. This shall be my promise to keep.

If you’ve been to a Yunasa camp, what is your favorite memory?

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