F.A.Q’s
Do I need to know which college I will be attending before I complete the application?
Yes, you will need to make a final decision before you can complete the application. You will need to provide us with the actual cost of the college you’ve chosen and the financial aid award from your college. The deadline for the scholarship is May 8 to allow applicants to choose which school they will be attending and to receive the financial aid letter from the school. That said, you can begin your application and also view the sample application before you have made your final decision.
What are acceptable forms of documents to upload to my application?
All uploaded documents need to be in one of the following file formats: pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, or png. WE PREFER PDF FILES OVER ALL OTHERS. See below for more information about file types.
Documents Written on a PC:
If you have written your document in Microsoft Word, please name the document something that you can easily recognize and save your file as a .doc or .docx file type. For example, “Formal Essay.docx” or “Activity Essay.doc” and upload the file in the appropriate field.
Documents Written on a Mac:
If your Mac does not have Microsoft Office installed you will need to convert your Pages file to a PDF before you can upload it to your application. (Pages is the default word processing program on your Mac. If you have not installed a version of Microsoft Office, then your file is a Pages file. For example “Formal Essay.pages”)
How to Convert Your Pages file to PDF:
After completing and saving your document in Pages, click on the File menu and select Print. Under the printer menu, on the lower left hand side click on PDF and select “Save as PDF.” Select a file name and location for your PDF file that you can easily recognize (for example “Formal Essay.pdf”) and click “Save.” The default application for opening your PDF on your Mac will be Preview. You can view your PDF here before uploading the file to your application.
If your Mac does have Microsoft Office installed and you have written your document in Microsoft Word, please name the document something that you can easily remember and save your file as a .doc or .docx file type. For example, “Formal Essay.docx” or “Activity Essay.doc” and upload the file in the appropriate field.
Documents Written in a Google Drive Account (Googledocs):
After completing and saving your document in Google Drive, click on the File menu. Hover over “Download As” and select “PDF Document (.pdf).” After downloading your document, save your new PDF document as a name that you can easily recognize (for example “Formal Essay.pdf”) and upload it in the appropriate field in your application.
I am a current freshman in college. The financial aid office told me that they will not send out the rewards for next year until June. However, this application’s deadline is May 8th. What should I do?
College students filling out the New Application for College Students need to upload a copy of their financial aid award for the current academic year. We understand that you will not be receiving your award for next year until after the May 1st deadline.
I am a home school student, so I don’t technically have a guidance counselor. Who should fill out the guidance counselor recommendation form for me?
If you are a home school student then one of your parents, as your teacher, may fill out the guidance counselor form and write a recommendation letter for you. Only one of your recommendation letters can be from a family member and we do suggest that you provide a third recommendation. You can do this by adding a second recommender in the General Recommendation area of the application.
Do college and high school transcripts have to be official or can they be unofficial downloaded from the schools site?
For high school applicants, the transcripts are uploaded by the guidance counselor, which makes it official. For students completing the New Application for College Students, we do require an official college transcript.
- If you graduated from high school within the last year, you should upload an official high school transcript in addition to your college transcript.
- If you have been out of high school for more than a year and have studied at college for three or more semesters , the high school transcript is optional and may be either an official or unofficial transcript.
- If you have been out of high school for more than a year and have studied at college for two semesters or less, you should upload an official high school transcript in addition to your college transcript.
I received some one-time scholarships for my first year in college, but won’t receive them next year. How do I show that on the application?
If you are a current college student, list the name of each outside scholarship you receive in the “Other Financial Awards” section of the “Your Eligibility” page of the application and enter the award amount. Also indicate if the award is renewable for next year.
What happens if I receive other scholarships after I apply for the William Wiersma Scholarship?
If you receive other scholarships after applying or receiving the William Wiersma Scholarship we ask that you provide us with that information.