For Making Waves Academy
Making Waves Education Foundation partners with Making Waves Academy to make college affordable and graduation attainable. Our college and career success program provides need-based scholarship funding, one-to-one college and career coaching, and financial planning to support students on their path to graduating college with minimal to no debt and set up for their first job.
What’s the program all about? Making Waves’ college and career success program offers scholarships, coaching, and financial planning to support you on your path to getting your college degree with minimal debt and landing a college-level job.
Our college coaching is all about you. We’re here to help you navigate college life, from picking the right major and planning your path to graduation to forming meaningful connections.
With Making Waves, you’re in control of your college finances, with financial aid and budgeting support from our team. Earn $2,000 (community college) or $4,000–$6,000 (four-year college) in annual scholarships that go directly to you to spend when you need it.
Dreaming of a future career but unsure where to start? Partner with our career team to explore career paths, pursue internships, expand your network, and find a job that matches your degree.
All Making Waves Academy students with a minimum 2.0 GPA – including undocumented students – who are interested in attending four-year college or community college after high school can apply to join the program during their senior year of high school.
We want you to feel prepared to fully commit to engaging with the support we provide on your path to earning a college degree.
The application process is designed to support your college and career goals by:
Your scholarship is about who you are and your aspirations for the future. Our program application includes written and verbal responses, a recommender evaluation, and information from your high school transcript and the FAFSA.
Four-year college goers: Your annual scholarship award will be $4,000; $5,000; or $6,000. The amount is determined based on the strength of your program application. The top 30% of accepted applicants will be awarded $6,000, the middle 40% will be awarded $5,000; and the next 30% will be awarded $4,000.
Community college goers: Your annual scholarship award will be $2,000 because the cost of attendance at community colleges is lower.
When you apply to our program, we review:
Through a combination of financial aid, grants, and other scholarships, 85% of Making Waves’ college graduates earn their degree with $0 debt. And, for Making Waves college graduates with some debt, their average debt load is less than $10,000 (compared to $30,000 nationally).
While the Making Waves scholarship won’t cover your full cost of attendance, our team will work with you to create a college budget that minimizes debt. We always encourage students to pursue additional scholarship opportunities to supplement their college income.
Once you’ve accepted your place and registered to join our Making Waves college and career success program, you can unlock your scholarship funds in three steps:
Meet with your Making Waves financial services coordinator to help you with this! They’ll help you make sense of your financial aid, scholarship, and cost of attendance.
We’re committed to helping you get your degree on time. To do that, you must enroll in and provide proof that you are registered for full-time units (typically a minimum of 12 units per term).
Once you’ve completed your college budget and we have verified your college enrollment, you’ll be invited to sign-up for your virtual scholarship card. Your scholarship funds will be loaded onto your card each academic term, so you can spend them when you need them.
The new scholarship award puts you in control of your college finances, with more flexible scholarship funding disbursed directly to you, so you can spend it when you need it.
With the previous scholarship we observed about a $2,000 difference in scholarship dollars awarded compared to actual spending. In other words, students weren’t spending their full scholarship allowance, partially due to restrictions with the scholarship process and guidelines. The new scholarship is more streamlined for easier spending on college costs.
Then… Wave MWA-21 | Now… Wave MWA-22 and beyond | |
|---|---|---|
Scholarship award went from variable and need-based to predictable and a set amount | Up to $5,000 need-based scholarship that covers only gaps in your cost of attendance i.e. amounts not paid for by financial aid or other scholarships. Scholarship amount changes year to year based on need. | Set amount: Community college: $2,000 ; Four-year college: $4,000 / $5,000 / or $6,000. Scholarship awarded based on who you are and your aspirations for the future – evaluated based on the strength of your program application. Scholarship amount is set for two years and then reevaluated to keep your award aligned with your progress and commitment. |
Scholarship fund spending went from restrictive to flexible | Restricted spending: Tuition and fees; Required books and supplies; Housing and campus meal plans; Travel related to attendance at the school | Flexible spending: Any costs related to going to college, including: Tuition and fees; Books and supplies; Housing, utilities, and food; Transportation, gas, parking; Other personal costs |
Scholarship fund disbursement went from three week payment requests to fast and easy payments | Students submit a payment request to Making Waves and a staff member makes the payment on their behalf. This process can take up to 3 weeks. | Students receive a virtual prepaid card loaded with their scholarship award for the academic term, so they can make their own payments when they need to. |
This scholarship is about you and your aspirations for the future! The change was driven primarily by college student feedback and a commitment to awarding more scholarship funding to more students.
Making Waves Education Foundation communicated with students and families about the decision to change the need-based scholarship amount in 2021. This decision was based on:
The most recent change is designed to award more scholarship funding to more students; and provide more flexibility with spending. With the previous scholarship we observed about a $2,000 difference in scholarship dollars awarded compared to actual spending. In other words, students weren’t spending their full scholarship allowance, partially due to restrictions with the scholarship process and guidelines.
We have found that students who demonstrate a commitment to college and characteristics like self-awareness, interdependence, passion, and perseverance are more engaged in our programming in support of their college and career goals.
To remain eligible for scholarship funds, you must meet the following criteria on an ongoing basis:
We are here to support your journey! Your college coach and financial services coordinator will support you in navigating college life, including program-specific requirements.
With more agency comes more responsibility, but not to worry – our team of college financial experts will help you create a financial plan that minimizes debt at the start of every year. They will help you make sense of your financial aid, grants, and other scholarships; and allocate funding to key components of your cost of attendance like tuition, housing and meals, transportation, books and supplies, and personal costs. In fact, this is one of our annual requirements before your scholarship funds are disbursed.
Additionally, your scholarship will be disbursed in equal amounts by academic term, so your spending will be spaced out throughout the year in-line with your financial plan. You are fully in control of your college finances, and our team will check-in with you periodically to help you monitor your budget.
This depends on what you spend your scholarship on and your annual income. In general, funds spent on tuition and required fees are not taxable. However, funds spend on housing, meals, transportation, medical expenses, and other personal costs are taxable. For more information, visit this IRS webpage.
Current college students in our Making Waves program do not need to reapply for their scholarship. At this time, we are not changing the scholarship for current college students, though we are considering applying a set scholarship award for AY23-24 high school graduates – only if our budget allows us to maintain or increase students’ current scholarship award.
Making Waves Education Foundation relies 100% on generous donations to provide programming and scholarships for students. While unlikely, it is possible that forces beyond our control may cause a change in the scholarship provided to Wave-Makers in the future. We will always prioritize funding for students and if changes are needed, communicate them in a timely manner so students and families can plan accordingly.
At Making Waves, we are committed to educational equity. Making Waves Education Foundation is a Bay Area nonprofit that supports Making Waves Academy – a public charter school with more than 1,000 5th through 12th grade students – and leads college and career programming with more than 430 college students.
Knowing the opportunities that come with a college degree, we partner with historically underrepresented and underserved students to help make college affordable and graduation attainable. Centering the journeys of our students, our personalized approach includes college and career coaching, scholarships, and financial planning.
Our alumni network includes more than 750 college graduates, who earn their degrees and land jobs at more than twice the rate of their first-generation, low-income peers, with 86% graduating debt-free.
