Field notes · 2026-01-18
Scholarship criteria maps: turning funder language into revision checklists
A simple table that converts vague award criteria into concrete revision tasks for your brief.
Scholarship calls often speak in broad values—leadership, community impact, academic promise—without telling you where those values should appear in the brief. A criteria map closes that gap.
Create a two-column table. Left side: each criterion in the funder’s own wording. Right side: the paragraph or bullet in your draft that addresses it, or a blank cell if nothing yet covers it. Blank cells become your revision list; overloaded cells show where you are repeating yourself.
When a criterion mentions “regional contribution,” name the place and the people served. When it asks for academic promise, cite a concrete academic action—methods coursework, a poster, a supervised paper—not only a grade average.
We use criteria maps in every scholarship alignment check. Applicants who arrive with a filled map receive sharper comments because the conversation stays on evidence, not on guessing what the funder meant.