High School Awards Program
Recognize your outstanding high school students for their leadership, service, and achievements by nominating them for a High School Award.
New for 2023: We've added more categories to nominate students and increased scholarship amounts.
They could receive:

Six Award Categories
Six categories create six opportunities to recognize outstanding juniors from your school in their areas of achievement.
How to Nominate a Student
- For each award, schools may nominate one student from the junior class who meets the award criteria.
- All nominations need to be submitted using the online nomination form by May 1, 2023.
- Nominators should include as much information as possible about nominees. Birthdates are mandatory. View more nomination guidelines
Award Criteria
Student nominee must meet all general criteria and all criteria from the category in which they are nominated.
General Criteria
Student nominees must:
- Be a high school junior,
- Be pursuing a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum,
- Have a cumulative grade point average of 3.7 or higher (4.0 scale), 93 or higher (100 point scale),
- Rank in the top 10 percent of their junior class, if their school has an official rank. Schools without an official rank should estimate rank and provide a copy of the student nominee's transcripts,
- Be active and involved members of their school and/or community
Category-Specific Criteria
Program Details
Scholarship Terms
- Each approved nominee will have their application fee waived and receive an undergraduate scholarship valued at $76,000 ($19,000 per year), if they are accepted for admission to an RIT BS/BFA program.
- Students must enroll full-time in the fall immediately following their high school graduation.
- Students may use this scholarship to pursue any of the baccalaureate degree programs available in our nine colleges.
- Award recipients who qualify for an additional merit-based scholarship will be awarded the scholarship with the highest value.
- Scholarships are non-stackable.
- Scholarships are for undergraduate study only and do not carry through to the graduate study level.
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing students accepted to RIT and students accepted into the ASL-English Interpretation and Community Development and Inclusive Leadership programs will receive a prorated amount to reflect the lower tuition rate these students pay.
Nomination Guidelines
- For each award, schools may nominate one student from the junior class who meets the award criteria for each award. Please pay careful attention and adhere closely to the award criteria.
- All nominations need to be submitted online. The submission deadline is May 1, 2023.
- Please include as much information as possible about your nominees, as this will expedite the review process. Birthdates are mandatory in order to accurately submit and track recipients in our database.
Award Certificate Process
Nominations will be reviewed and, if approved, awards will be mailed to each school. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us.