Criteria for Applying for Scholarships

APPLICATIONS WILL BE OPEN STARTING JANUARY 1ST, 2012.

Any citizen or permanent resident of the United States with a significant bilateral hearing loss is eligible for consideration by the Foundation, regardless of age, sex, race, geographic location or ethnicity. We generally require at least a 50 dB unaided hearing loss in both ears, and do consider applicants who have a cochlear implant. If there are extenuating circumstances documented in the application, we may consider applicants with less hearing loss. Criteria used for selection of scholarship recipients ensure that the mission of the Foundation is supported. Financial need will increase the possibility of being awarded funds but is only one of many criteria that are taken into account.

Scholarships will be considered only at accredited non-profit schools physically located in the United States, and all funds awarded by the Louise Tumarkin Zazove Foundation will be paid directly to schools on a semester or quarterly basis (depending on the school). Funds will be awarded only for tuition expenses. Although undergraduate level of study will be strongly favored, the Foundation may on occasion consider applications for graduate or high school tuition or other appropriate situations. Let us be clear about privacy: No personal information received by us on an application form--or otherwise--is ever rented, sold, or otherwise distributed by the Foundation.

The final selection of scholarship recipients will be made by the Foundation's board of directors or by designees as directed by the board. When scholarship funds are provided by other organizations, such as the T.A.F.F.Y. Foundation which is supporting a dedicated scholarship for Michigan residents, the specific organization may have input in the decision as well.

A completed application form (which is accessed on-line by clicking on the application form icon - this is on the left bar of the home page, the top of this page, or below), together with all other documents listed below, is required for the application to be considered. We ask that the items in #4, #5 and #6 below be scanned and directly uploaded onto your application site (using the Upload Function on your application site that will be established when you submit an application). Transcripts and Letters of Recommendation should be mailed to:

The Louise Tumarkin Zazove Foundation
c/o Philip Zazove
2903 Craig Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Scholarship applications and all supporting documents are accepted between January 1 and May 26. To apply for a scholarship, you must establish your own application site on our internal application page. This is easily done by clicking on the following icon: scholarship application. This icon is also on the homepage, on the left hand bar; clicking on it there will also take you to the application site. The first time you enter an application, you will be guided in a few simple steps as to how to establish your own application site. Then you can fill out an application and modify it at your discretion until the closure date (May 26). You can also upload all supporting documents listed in #3, #4, #5, and #6 below, as well as see the status of your application at any time, including who has sent in letters of recommendation. Please be aware that it may take several days (even a week or more) after receiving transcripts and letters of recommendation for us to upload them to your application.

Documents required for an applicant to be considered include, but may not be limited to:

A completed scholarship application form. This can be accessed by establishing your own application page on our internal application site by clicking on scholarship application.
A copy of the applicant's high school and/or college transcript (showing their grades) should be uploaded directly onto your application site, in the appropriate section for transcripts, by either the school or applicant. If you are currently in your third year of college or beyond, you will not need to send your high school transcripts. We are unable to upload these, so please don't send them to us to upload. If there are multiple pages, please upload as one .pdf or .jpeg document. Please do NOT include test scores you may wish to send in this section, but rather upload those in the Test Scores section of the application site.
At least three letters of recommendation by teachers or others qualified to comment on the educational potential of the applicant, written on the letterhead of the person making the recommendation, and mailed by the letter writer directly to the Foundation. If the applicant knows others in a position to write you a recommendation, such a letter would also be of interest to our committee. Those letters must be mailed directly to us too and cannot be uploaded onto your application site. Each letter must inform the Foundation as to whether the letter is confidential (i.e. has not and will not be shared with the applicant/applicant's family) or not. Please note that before you have anyone send us a letter of recommendation, you must fill out the application form. If you have not yet done your application and we get a letter of recommendation, we will be unable to upload the letter.
Documentation of the severity of the hearing loss (an audiogram or other verification by a qualified professional) including the specific decibel loss for each ear in the speech frequencies. This should be uploaded directly onto your application site, in the Audiogram section. We're unable to upload these, so please don't send them to us to upload. If there are multiple pages, please upload as one .pdf or .jpeg document. Please also keep this as a separate file, i.e., do NOT combine this file with your audiogram or other information..
The first two pages of the previous year's federal income tax form of the applicant's family. Please send both parents' income forms if they are separated or divorced. If you are financially independent of your parents, please upload the first two pages of your own tax form. This should be uploaded directly onto your application site, in the Tax Forms section. The two pages should be combined in one .pdf file or .jpeg document. Please also keep this as a separate file, i.e., do NOT combine this file with your audiogram or other information. We're unable to upload these, so please don't send them to us to upload.
Any special circumstances by or about the family. This can be either directly input at the end of your application in the "Special Circumstances" section, or can be uploaded onto your application site in the "Other" section. We're unable to upload these, so please don't send them to us to upload.

The above materials should be submitted no later than May 26th for the upcoming school year, whether uploaded or sent by the United States mail. Any material sent by U.S. mail must be postmarked no later than May 26th. All materials received after May 26th but postmarked by May 26th or sooner will be accepted. The May 26th deadline is strictly adhered to. ANY INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Thus, if you apply for a scholarship, please make it clear to all persons writing recommendation letters, and to any person or organization (such as scholarship.com) that may be uploading information for you, that there are no extensions of the deadline.

Your application site allows you to see everything that's been received in support of your application - including whether we've received your transcript and/or your letters of recommendation (as well as who they're from). Therefore you can know whether we've received a letter from a specific person, or if we we have the transcript. We strongly suggest that you have everyone send your materials in by May 10, if possible. That way, you can check your application site regularly to see whether anything is missing; if one or more are, you can contact the appropriate person/entity so they can upload the material by May 26th. Remember, it may take a few days even a week or more, for materials sent via U.S. mail to appear on your application site. If it's the last few days before May 26th and you have any questions, please contact philip@ltzfoundation.org. Of course, if you have any questions not answered by the information on this page or your application site, feel free to contact us at any time. Should your address, email, or telephone number change after you've replied, please make the appropriate changes in your application so we can contact you if necessary; this is very important as we use the information in your application to contact you about our decisions.

All applicants will be notified of the Foundation's decisions by July 31, and funds will be dispersed to the appropriate institution before the school year starts.

PRIVACY NOTICE: The Foundation takes very seriously the privacy of its donors, supporters and applicants. Therefore, we never rent, sell, or otherwise make available any information about anyone to outside parties.

CRITERIA FOR ONGOING SCHOLARSHIP PAYMENT

Once we select a grantee, we hope to extend that person's scholarship throughout four years of college, provided two things occur:

The Foundation receives a copy of the student's grades every quarter or semester to verify the grantee is doing well in school.
The Foundation receives a copy of the student's tuition statement every semester or quarter, plus a copy of the first two pages of their family/individual tax form every year.

The Above information should be sent to:

Louise Tumarkin Zazove Foundation
c/o Barbara Reed
2903 Craig Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Providing the scholarship for four years is not a guaranteed commitment, however, and will be the sole discretion of the Foundation. A decision will be made on a year-to-year basis for each student, and will include an evaluation of availability of Foundation funds.