Since 1997, the AFSA Scholarship Fund has supported Merit Awards for high school seniors. This page details the 2025 judging procedures and scoring process for AFSA’s Academic and Art Merit Awards and Community Service Awards.

1. General Information on Judges
2. Panels
3. Academic Merit Criteria
4. Selecting Academic Merit Winners
5. Art Merit Scoring
6. Community Service Award Scoring
7. Feedback

I. General Information on Judges

Approximately thirty AFSA members participate as judges (20 for Academic Merit, five for Community Service, and five for Art Merit). Judges include members of the AFSA Scholarship Committee and AFSA member volunteers appointed by the Scholarship Committee. To help with continuity of scoring, each year AFSA has both returning and new judges. All judges attend a Merit Awards judge orientation session each year to learn/review the scoring process. Judges will not be placed on a panel for any category their children are currently applying for AFSA scholarships.

II. Panels

Typically, 150 to 200 students apply for AFSA Merit Awards each year. In 2024, there were 85 Academic Merit applicants, 17 Community Service applicants, and 31 Art Merit applicants. Academic Merit applications are divided randomly between four to five panels depending on the number of applications. In addition, there is typically one panel for Community Service applicants and one panel for Art Merit applicants. Each judging panel is comprised of approximately five judges.

III. Academic Merit Criteria

There are seven criteria (unweighted GPA, high school activities, any awards won, two-page essay, one letter of recommendation, rigor of courses taken while in high school, and special circumstances, if any) on which the students are judged; not all criteria are weighed equally. The Scholarship Committee each year reviews the weight/points assigned to each criterion and tweaks the system, if need be. Please note that because many colleges are no longer requiring standardized test scores, AFSA will no longer require standardized test scores for its Academic Merit Award application. In the 2025 program the points are as follows:

GPA

AFSA uses unweighted GPA’s on a 4.0 scale. For student whose school(s) use a different point system, they will be provided instructions on how to convert their cumulative, unweighted GPA to a 4.0 scale.

Rigor of Courses Taken

The typical AFSA Academic Merit applicant has taken a number of higher level classes and AFSA needs a way to recognize such accomplishments. Students are awarded points based on the rigor of the advanced, honors, gifted AP and IB courses they take, especially in their sophomore, junior and senior years of high school.

Any Awards Won/Honors Bestowed

The student will be awarded points for national, regional, state, local or any other honors bestowed or awards won.

Extracurricular Activities

With the "activities" score, the judges look at the following activities: academic activities, sports activities, other extra-curricular activities/employment, volunteer activities, etc. Judges give points for evidence of sustained effort, real achievement in one or more fields, social/character-building/intellectual value of activities, and leadership in one of the above areas.

Essay

Students write a 500-word essay on the following topic: "Describe the most significant experience you’ve had growing up in the Foreign Service. Share how it impacted you and what learned from the experience." Judges score on following directions, grammar, essay structure, and thoughtfulness in addressing the prompt. (12-point font, double-spaced.)

Letters of Recommendation

In the “letters of recommendation” category, students have an email sent to the person he/she inputs into the application site and an email is sent to the recommender. That person clicks on a link that takes them to the application site where they can upload their letter of recommendation. Parents cannot submit a letter of recommendation on their child.

Special Circumstances

Under the “special circumstances” area, students may receive points for conditions/circumstances which have affected the student’s life in their high school years. Points can be awarded for post evacuation, a disability, a traumatic illness, rigorous high school the student has attended, chronic health problem, divorce or death in the immediate family, numerous high school transfers, etc. It is totally up to the judges to allocate any points in this area.

IV. Selecting Academic Merit Winners

In 2025, AFSA will award 34 Academic Merit scholarships. The Academic Merit applicants are divided randomly between the four panels (20-25 applicants per panel). After the students are individually scored by each judge, the five-person judging panel meets. The judges’ scores for each student are then summed and each panel meets to select six winners (producing 24 winners from the four panels). Each panel also identifies the five students in the next highest scoring positions who then become finalists (producing 20 finalists) and a finalist for best essay. The AFSA Scholarship Committee then meets to select 10 winners from the 20 finalists and to select the best essay winner.

V. Art Merit Scoring

In 2025, AFSA will award six Art Merit scholarships The Art Merit scoring follows the same general format of the Academic Merit scoring. However, standardized test scores and GPA's are not factored into the Art Merit scoring (other than to verify a 2.75 GPA). The Art Merit panel judges review each student's application and submitted art. Then the judging panel meets as a group to review their scores. The scoring criteria used in 2025 will be:

With funds for only one Art Award and up to three Art Honorable Mention Awards, AFSA understands it is a difficult task to compare the different art forms.

VI. Community Service Award Scoring

In 2025, AFSA will award six Community Service scholarships. Judges on the Community Service panel review the applicants’ resume and up to three 400-word reflections describing an activity, their role, and why it was important. They consider the duration of the activity, longevity of the activity, leadership level the student has taken in the activity, level of interaction with any recipient(s), and impact on student.

VII. Feedback

After the scoring is finished, all judges are asked to complete an evaluation of the Merit Award competition and make suggestions on how to improve the program. Since 2011, AFSA has also surveyed merit applicants for their feedback. Each year, the AFSA Scholarship Committee reviews and tweaks the application process and scoring system based on input from the merit judges and applicants. The AFSA Scholarship Committee welcomes suggestions on how to improve this competition.

Contact Us!

• Please email scholar@afsa.org.