SCHOLARSHIP REVIEWER RESOURCE GUIDE
Thank you for volunteering to help us review supplementary material for this Engineering Scholarship cycle! You are making it possible for us to continue to not only offer our Scholarships Program, but to sustain any future growth. This would not be possible without you!
The Review period will begin on Monday, July 10th @ 9:00am* and will remain open until Friday, July 21st @ 11:59pm.
FIRST TIME REVIEWERS
You will be receive an auto-generated invitation to log into Academic Works and set up your reviewer account. Once you do this, you will be able to access your applications for review!
- Please watch this brief (<5 minutes) training video before you begin your evaluations. It will give you an overview of how to navigate Academic Works.
- If you would like to review your rights and responsibilities as a UCLA Financial Aid and Scholarships Reviewer, please reread the contract.
RETURNING REVIEWERS:
Once the review opens, you will not get an invitation from Academic Works. Your only notification will be from Alina Haas at the School of Engineering. You are able to return and log into Academic works. The credentials should be the same, or you can reset your password if you have forgotten.
If you need a review
LOGGING IN
The Welcome page defaults to Applicant/Admin log in. You need to log into the Reviewer/References portal. At the top it will say “Welcome”! Just above that, you’ll see two tabs. Make sure you go to the References and Reviewers tab to sign in.
WHAT YOU’LL BE REVIEWING + SCORING RUBRICS
For each applicant that you have been assigned, you will have access to selected information from BOTH the General Application and the Engineering Application.
We are asking you to review and score elements from the Engineering Application only.
- Use side-by-side view to have the applications on the left and the scoring on the right.
- In this view, click on the +/- in the grey bar next to “General Application” so you are only looking at the Engineering Application. We strongly recommend this so you are not tempted to be influenced by any other factors of a students application that just the 2 items above.
NOTE:
Large application pools are randomly assigned to reviewers, so before exiting a student’s application, please click SUBMIT, not just SAVE. This will prevent the system from reassigning the application to another reviewer.
Reviewers can edit a previously submitted review up until the deadline by clicking the blue button! We will not be pulling any review information until after the deadline.
3 ENGINEERING CLUBS AND/OR COMMUNTIY ACTIVITIES
Scoring Rubric:
You will be able to see their General Application entries, but you will only be scoring the Engineering Application listings based on the Rubrics below (You can also see this by clicking on the Help Text link available in the review platform):
LEADERSHIP
*Please rank student’s membership roles/club positions from 0-4*
* RANK 4 – Showed exceptional initiative or leadership in involvement/role (founded club, ran events, etc)
* RANK 3 – Key leadership/organizer roles or involvement w/ clear detailed responsibilities
* RANK 2 – Key leadership/organizer roles or involvement without details or assisted with club events but not a key organizer
* RANK 1 – Little to no involvement other than attendance/basic member activity
* RANK 0 – No activity, input blank
MEMBERSHIP, ROLES, CLUB POSITIONS
*Please rank student’s membership roles/club positions from 0-4*
* RANK 4 – Involved in 3 or more roles in at least 2 or more clubs and demonstrates clear growth of responsibility & commitment
* RANK 3 – Involved in at least 2 roles in at least 2 clubs and demonstrates clear growth of responsibility & commitment
* RANK 2 – Involved in at least 2 roles in at least 1 club or has multiple club involvement and demonstrates clear growth of responsibility & commitment
* RANK 1 – Involved in at least 1 role in at least 1 club or no official titles, but active participant
* RANK 0 – No activity, input blank
Reviewer Notes:
- Please consider each entry on it’s own merit. Do not try to compare the student to their other activities or even to other students. Just score each individual item as best you can based on the rubric provided.
- Remember, scoring these documents high or low doesn’t necessarily guarantee or eliminate their eligibility. This is just one part of what will be considered by the selection committee.
- You are only scoring one small population of the applicants; you may have very strong applicants or a collection of weaker ones. Just try to give the most fair scores you can based on the rubrics provided.
- Some students may be in their first quarter at UCLA, and they have been instructed that it is okay to list activities that occurred prior to UCLA at a different school.
- Please feel free to use the comment box at the bottom of each scoring page if you want to give us any further information beyond the scores. That will only be visible to Student Affairs staff on the selection committee.
Student Prompt:
Please choose a combination of 3 Engineering clubs and/or Engineering community activities to detail.
- Focus on activities in which you are passionate and/or have been involved for multiple years.
- Examples should show an increase in responsibility, involvement, or leadership roles, if applicable.
- Please use examples in which you were active within the past 2 years. If you are a new student, you may use activities that you were active in prior to UCLA up to 2 years ago.
- You can detail up to 3 different official school affiliated clubs/organizations/research. Hobbies such as personal coding projects that are not part of an official club or organizations should not be listed.
- Listing fewer than 3 is fine. It is about the content more than the quantity.
- For the General Application, If your top 3 engineering clubs are your top 3 overall clubs, then it is fine to duplicate in the General Application. But it is also a place to highlight other interests and involvement. This could be reviewed by other committees for other awards beyond the Engineering deadline.
ENGINEERING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Scoring Rubric:
You will be able to see their General Application essay, but you will only be scoring the Engineering Application essay based on the Rubrics below (You can also see this by clicking on the Help Text link available in the review platform):
WRITING STYLE
How well is the paper written? Is the paper focused/easy to read?
*Please rank this essay’s writing from 1-5*
* RANK 5 – Extremely well written, flows well, and focused & easy to read, no grammatical errors
* RANK 4 – Well written, flows well, focused and easy to read some room for improvement, few grammatical errors
* RANK 3 – Fairly well written, decent flow, a little choppy, room for improvement, some grammatical errors
* RANK 2 – Poorly written, some flow, repetitive in places, few grammatical errors
* RANK 1 – Very poorly written, no flow, few grammatical errors
GOALS/FOCUS SPECIFIC TO ENGINEERING
Clear goals and/or focus supported by action (e.g. involvement in internships, research or extra curricular activitities which will help them reach their goal and/or support their focus.
*Please rank essay’s goals and/or focus from 1-5*
* RANK 5 – Very focused with set goals, goes into detail and refers to specifics from internships/reasearch/etc, jobs or experiences related to goals/engineering path
* RANK 4 – Discusses goals, goes into detail and refers to specifics from internships/interships/research/etc, jobs or experiences related to goals, room for further expansion
* RANK 3 – Discusses goals & and how Internships/Research/etc related to goals, needs further expansion
* RANK 2 – Some focus
* RANK 1 – No focus
OVERALL ESSAY
Demonstrates passion/dedication for field or goals, shows initiative or compelling circumstances.
*Please rank essay’s demonstrated passion from 1-5*
* RANK 5 – Passion comes through and tells a clear story demonstrating the relevance of past experiences as they directly tie to future goals. Essay details standsout as personal and unique.
* RANK 4 – Communicates the importance of past experiences and ties to future goals but could expand further to strengthen paper. Detail may be more vague so as may apply to many individuals.
* RANK 3 – Experiences/Circumstances stated but description does not necessarily convey understanding of importance of experience, needs expanding further to strengthen paper.
* RANK 2 – Mentions experiences but doesn’t show clear connection tying them together.
* RANK 1 – Unclear what is the overall message/story is. May be a more of a laundry list of accomplishments.
Reviewer Notes:
- We did not specifically tell them “we want to see A, B, and C”. This essay is not about how well they answer a certain question, but how well they can communicate. Putting together a well focused, well written essay that discusses a student’s relationship with the field of engineering, why they are here, what they are doing, and where they are going, is a part of their ranking. If they are missing pieces of that, then their essay will not score as high as other students who did.
- There is no required formatting as the application is just an essay box.
- Please consider each essay on it’s own merit. Do not try to compare to other students’ essays you’ve been assigned. Just score each individual item as best you can based on the rubric provided.
- Remember, scoring these documents high or low doesn’t necessarily guarantee or eliminate their eligibility. This is just one part of what will be considered by the selection committee.
- You are only scoring one small population of the applicants; you may have very strong applicants or a collection of weaker ones. Just try to give the most fair scores you can based on the rubrics provided.
- Please feel free to use the comment box at the bottom of each scoring page if you want to give us any further information beyond the scores. That will only be visible to Student Affairs staff on the selection committee.
Student Prompt:
In 700 words or less, please write an essay based upon your personal relationship with engineering.
- The strength of your essay is STRONGLY considered.
- Do not be vague, Be detailed: This is your opportunity to demonstrate your passion for Engineering by referring to specifics from your life: internships, jobs or experiences, etc., that have been formative in guiding you down this path to Engineering and guiding you to what you hope to achieve.
- Do not discuss your future and/or goals, without any reference to what you have already accomplished: Feel free to discuss your future plans, but be sure your future plans are well supported by past experiences and choices, as described in your essay
- Please do not focus on finances. We understand that many students are in a situation of financial need and financial need is already taken into consideration when reviewing applications based on data provided by the Financial Aid Office
- For the General Application, it is fine to use the same engineering essay. That is still a personal statement, but it can also be different. You have a chance to highlight other interests and passions. This could be reviewed by other committees for other awards beyond the Engineering deadline.