Understanding the Application
Understanding the Application
We're excited to see you apply!
Everyone has a different story, and we want to hear yours.
Think about the application as an opportunity to reflect on where you’ve been and where you want to go from here. What opportunities and challenges have you sought out? How are you spending your energy to improve the lives of other people?
On writing
Clear writing will help you get your point across. Try to keep your sentences short, avoid unnecessary words, and use active verbs. The thesaurus is not your friend! You can read your essays out loud to hear what they sound like.
More importantly, be yourself. You’ll need to confirm that the application is your own work and has not been edited by anyone else. While you can seek general advice, we want you to tell your story in your own words.
On personal growth
Your application may show that you have room to grow in one or more areas outlined in our selection criteria. Don’t worry – that’s normal and expected. Think about the McCall MacBain Scholarship as a chance for you to build on your existing strengths and address those areas that are less comfortable for you.
About the application
At the start of the application, we ask for personal information about you and your family members.
We’re asking because we want to understand more about you. We recognize that everyone’s journey to graduate school is different, and this information will help us understand some of the influences that helped shape who you are today.
You’ll be asked to share your community activities, extra-curricular activities, work history, and any breaks you’ve taken. We want to understand more about how you spend your time outside of the classroom.
Remember, there is no one right set of activities. We want to know about your responsibilities, accomplishments, and motivations. Similar to other parts of the application, we’ll be looking for evidence of the selection criteria in some of the experiences you share with us.
You’ll submit several short essays of 250-300 words each.
Think of these essays as opportunities to reflect on who you are. Tell us about your goals, influences, meaningful experiences, and a significant “course correction”. You can expand on activities you listed elsewhere in your application or provide new examples.
Make sure to tell us what happened. We want to know what your role was, what you actually did, who else was involved, and more.
You’ll be asked to upload all transcripts (PDF files) from your university studies. We accept both official and unofficial transcripts.
Keep in mind that we are not solely focusing on your GPA. While GPA is important, we are interested in the fit with your proposed graduate program, as well as the breadth and difficulty of the courses taken alongside your other commitments. Of course, we recognize that some programs offer more opportunity for breadth than others.
You can always provide context for your university transcripts, if needed.
You’ll upload a one-page resumé. Your resumé must be a PDF file with a minimum font size of 10. Please do not include photos.
Your resumé provides a one-page summary of what you’ve shared in other sections of the application, such as your academic, professional, and community experiences. You can use this single page to highlight what is most important to you in your experiences, and to share other information that may not have been included in the rest of your application.
If you are returning to school after being in the workforce, this section allows you to provide a more in-depth version of your work history.
You must have two reference forms completed before the application deadline: an academic* reference from someone who knows your academic work well and a community reference from someone who knows your community involvement well.
*If the program you’re applying to doesn’t require an academic reference, you can provide a professional (work) reference instead of an academic one. If your program requires at least one academic reference, then this reference must also be an academic one.
When you submit a reference request, the reference writer will receive an email with a private link to fill out an online form. See the questions we’ll ask them.
Please ask people who know you well. A good reference provides concrete examples to help us better understand you, how you meet the selection criteria, current areas of improvement, and how your proposed studies might benefit your continued growth.
Do not choose family members, fellow students, or friends.