The Heritage Scholar Program

The Heritage Scholarships provide full tuition scholarships to highly qualified students with exceptional intellectual ability. Holders of the scholarship are expected to demonstrate both the qualities of mind and the qualities of person that will allow a student to flourish in The C of I's rigorous but community-oriented academic environment and in the challenging world beyond college. 

It is important for potential applicants to know that the Heritage Scholarship is about more than free tuition, maintaining a certain GPA, and completing 20 hours each month of activities or service. While these are important components of the Program, they fail to account for the fact that a successful applicant to the Heritage Scholar Program receives several benefits (in addition to full tuition) during his/her college education. This two-page document is intended to provide an introduction to the Program and to these benefits.

▪ Benefits of the Heritage Scholar Program:

1. Regular gatherings of the Scholars. Both social and academic in nature, these gatherings allow the Heritage Scholars to build a community, forge friendships, and participate together in campus events. At such gatherings, the Heritage Scholars learn about post-graduate fellowship opportunities, hear faculty members discuss their current research projects, and, during purely social occasions, play games or enjoy a meal together. Heritage Scholars are expected to attend these events.
2. Individual attention and advising. Throughout a Heritage Scholar’s four years here, the Heritage Scholar Program Director serves to guide, assist, and provide professional/career advice to all Heritage Scholars. During the first year, the Heritage Scholar Program Director is also each student’s First-Year Academic Advisor. In the following years, the Director remains available to assist with academic planning, internship and career guidance, and portfolio preparation (see below), in addition to overseeing each Scholar’s service/activity plan.
3. Individual assistance with portfolio preparation in the junior/senior years. During the junior and senior years, the Heritage Scholar Program Director works with each Scholar as he/she prepares a portfolio for use in applying for post- graduate fellowships, graduate/professional school, or career placement. In conjunction with the Center for Experiential Learning on campus, the Scholar develops an appropriate and complete application, leaving the Scholar well prepared for life beyond college.

▪ Admission’s requirements for applying for the Heritage Scholarship:

1. To be eligible to apply for the Heritage Scholar Program, a student will need to meet the following academic criteria: a. Have 3.85 GPA at the end of the sixth semester in high school; and* b. Have a minimum of a 31 ACT composite or a minimum of a 1380 on the SAT.** GPA’s are based on a 4.0 scale, and SAT scores are based on the critical reading and math sections of the SAT.
2. Each applicant for the Heritage Scholar program will need to complete an application for admission and be accepted at The College of Idaho prior to being invited to come to campus to interview with two faculty members from the Heritage Scholar Program Committee.
3. Each applicant will also need to complete an essay of 750-1000 words, describing how a specificexperience which he/she has had in the last few years was beneficial to the applicant and to his or her community.
4. Heritage Scholar applicants will be reviewed and evaluated based on the strength and content of the applicant’s curriculum in high school, extra-curricular involvement, service or community projects, and interviews.

▪ Requirements for keeping the Heritage Scholarship (once granted):

1. Maintain a GPA of 3.25. Because students are often frightened by this policy, it is important to emphasize its flexibility. Our policy allows for a bad semester or an illness: if a student falls below the required 3.25 GPA, he/she has until the end of the next 12-week semester (not Winter Term) to attain a TERM (not CUM) GPA of 3.25. (Attaining a CUM GPA of 3.25 would be much more difficult to do in one semester once the CUM GPA had fallen below 3.25.)
2. Complete 20 hours each month of campus activities/community service. Nearly any campus activity/service project “counts,” so long as the student is not paid. Current Heritage Scholars are on sports teams, sing in the choir or play in band, participate in campus clubs, tutor on campus and in the public schools, volunteer at the local hospital or humane society, work with faculty on research, etc. This requirement is intended to encourage the Heritage Scholar to pursue his/her passions and to develop as a whole person.
3. Participate in Heritage Scholar Program activities, including program gatherings and the completion of a portfolio in the junior/senior years. Heritage Scholars are expected to be active participants in campus life, take leadership roles on campus, and generally be positive influences in the College community.