How to Apply

On your dashboard you will find all of the opportunities you are eligible for that have additional requirements. What’s great about AwardSpring is that you can share the same requirements (i.e. a reference letter or statement of interest) across all applications with the same criteria!

You’ll be able to view all the awards you’ve been automatically applied to or completed the follow up requirements for, listed under the Scholarships Tab with an “Applied” status.

Application Statuses:

• Applied: Your application is complete and submitted.
• Denied: You no longer meet the eligibility requirements (i.e. if you withdraw prior to the application deadline, you will be removed from the applicant pool, or if you have a significant change in financial status)
• Approved: If you continue to meet all eligibility requirements when the application period closes your application status will appear as Awarded ($1).  For the general bursary this does not mean that you are guaranteed bursary funding but that your application is undergoing a final assessment in Mosaic.

If you receive an award, the value will not be listed in AwardSpring, but in your Mosaic Student Center.

Monitor your dashboard regularly and be sure to add awardspring.ca to your ‘safe senders’ list to receive status updates via email.

Payments

Bursaries and most scholarships are paid directly to your McMaster student account and can be viewed in your Mosaic Student Centre. If there is a credit on your account after it is applied to your tuition and certain fees, the amount with be refunded to your personal bank account.

Learn more about refunds

Have questions about AwardSpring? Ask us here!

McMaster encourages award recipients to take the time to express appreciation to your award donor(s), by writing a personal thank you letter. Your letter is important – the individuals and organizations who fund student awards truly appreciate hearing about your accomplishments, goals, and plans for the future.

Letter template

Use the following template should be used to structure your thank you letter:

Thank you letter template (pdf)

Save the pdf to your computer, and then edit it using your preferred pdf editor (Adobe, Preview, etc).

Please note that inserting a photo into your letter is optional. If you do not want to include a photo, leave the photo box on the upper right blank.

Uploading your letter

How to upload your letter to AwardSpring (awards by application): 

• Once you have been awarded a scholarship, log in to AwardSpring and access your Dashboard.
• Under the items requiring completion, find your award and click “Complete follow up.” If your award requires a thank you letter, you’ll be asked to submit one.
• Write your thank you letter using our downloadable template.
• Click “Upload File” to upload your letter.
• Once uploaded, select “Submit Follow-up” and you’ll be re-directed to your Dashboard.

How to upload your letter to MacDrive (all other awards):

McMaster’s Virtual drop box, MacDrive, allows you to easily and securely submit documents like your donor thank you letter.

• Write your thank you letter using the downloadable template above.
• Save your PDF as Firstname_Lastname_awardname.pdf
• Select ‘Add Files’, and then browse for your document
• Select the file and click OK. A successful upload has an ‘uploaded’ notification displayed on the screen.

Important:

• Please do not upload photos of your letter
• Only upload your document once
• Need confirmation the upload was successful? You can email sdintern@mcmaster.ca.

By submitting your thank you letter you are authorizing your student information, your photo, as well as any quotes taken from your thank you letter to be used in future stewardship materials and university communications such as McMaster newsletters. You are acknowledging that your letter may be edited before delivery to a donor, and you are releasing McMaster from any responsibility regarding how a donor may choose to use or publish your letter. If you choose to include your address, phone number and/or e-mail address you should be aware that the university will have no control over the donor’s use of this information.

Applying to medical/law/professional school?

If your application asks you for a verifier for any McMaster-based scholarships you’ve won during your time as an undergrad, you can list:

• Nancy Solano, Awards Officer, McMaster University 1280 Main St. W. Gilmour Hall, Room 120 Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8 (905) 525-9140 ext 23145 solanon@mcmaster.ca

The following general information may also be useful to your application:

To determine your competition for any of the scholarships you received, you can refer to the Undergraduate Calendar and the online University statistics for the year in which you received the award.

• Applicants to McMaster University need admission average of 80% or higher are eligible for Entrance Scholarships.
• Reference the specific award descriptions and terms in the Undergraduate Calendar to determine how scholarship decisions were made. The Undergraduate Calendar also outline the criteria and competition (typically available) for an award. Past copies of calendars are available at Mills Memorial Library and in PDF documents.
• Reference the University Statistics for the number of students in a level, faculty, program or course. Search for statistics according to the criteria for a specific award.

Find the online version of the most recent McMaster University Fact Book: