Maroon and Gold Leadership Award is one of the University-wide scholarships available in the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Our previous article on UMN Scholarships covered broad categories of Minnesota’s scholarships, like the Need-based scholarships and International scholarships. It also provided an overview of specific scholarships under those categories.
However, this article focuses on the Maroon and Gold Leadership award. We will cover all the essential information you must have to aid a successful application including the award amount, eligibility requirements and how you can apply.
About Maroon and Gold Leadership Award
The Maroon and Gold Leadership award targets students with outstanding potential who display the qualities mentioned above. It is a highly competitive award where most awardees are in the 1-3% of a graduating class.
Award amount
This scholarship awards $12,000 yearly to selected awardees, renewable for four years.
Scholarship requirements
Here are a number of requirements needed to get the Maroon and Gold leadership award:
- Recipients must be citizens of the U.S or permanent residents, or be eligible for the Minnesota Dream act.
- Must be an undergraduate of University of Minnesota
- The performance of a student in high school is used to determine the level of academic preparedness.
- Students whose native language is not English or who have lived in the United States fewer than eight years will require an English proficiency test.
- Class rank/Grade point average if available is considered
- Rigor of academic curriculum based on what is available in the high school (including enrollment in honors, AP, IB, A-Level, or college-level courses when available)
How to apply
The Maroon and Gold Leadership award considers all admitted freshmen based on an overall assessment of the freshman application. It automatically considers all applications submitted by the corresponding application deadline date.
Hence, no separate application is needed.
Take note that you are a freshman if you are still in high school or if you have already graduated from high school but have NOT enrolled at a University, College or any other school.
Application process
Your freshman application should include three compulsory items:
- Application form
Submit all application forms in any of the following platforms of preference: Golden Gopher or the Common Application. Submit only one application, a double submission will hinder your admission decision.
- Application fee
A non-refundable fee of $55 is paid on any of the application platforms. Alternatively you can receive an automatic fee waiver based on the answers in your application form.
- Academic record
All applicants must self-report their courses, grades, and test scores as part of the freshman admission application.
- In the Golden Gopher platform, this can be done by completing the Academic Record section. Note that if you are using this platform, after you submit your Academic Record, remember to follow the prompts on the screen to review and submit your application form.
- If you are using the Common Application platform, complete the Courses & Grades section, then click “Yes” to the statement “I am able to obtain a copy of my transcript.”
Applicants can track the progress of their scholarship application through a tool called Application Tracker. This is a tool used to determine which application materials have been received, and whether a decision has been made on your application.
Important Application information
- If you take a course at a college while in high school, self-report any college courses as “Dual Enrollment” for the course level on your Academic Record.
- If you did not graduate from high school but earned a GED (or other high school equivalency), submit official test scores.
Application deadline
| Deadline Category | Date | Admission decision on Application Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Early Action I Deadline | November 1 | January 31 |
| Early Action II Deadline | December 1 | February 15 |
| Regular Deadline | January 1 | March 15 |
After you apply
- Within two weeks of scholarship submission, students will receive an acknowledgement that the application was received.
- Within four weeks of submission, students will be notified if any items needed in the application are missing. (Self-reported grades, application fee, test scores etc) Missing items will also be uploaded on Application Tracker.
- When the application is complete, students will receive an email indicating that the application is complete and when they will receive a decision. Students with complete applications will also receive an email from the University inviting them to also consider the University of Minnesota’s other campuses (Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester.)
