Counselor & support form provider FAQ

The Certification Form is an online form completed by the student’s high school counselor, to verify the student’s academic information (i.e. GPA, class ranking, coursework, etc.).

You will be requested to submit the following information:

• Unweighted GPA
• Expected graduation date (month/year)
• ACT/SAT scores (if available)
• Total number of AP/IB/Honors classes offered at your school
• Total number of AP/IB/Honors classes taken by applicant
• Applicant’s coursework rigor

The Support Form is an online form that is completed and individual that the applicant has selected as their Support Form provider and contains all of the information the the applicant submitted in the Adversity section of their application. The Support Form provider reviews and confirms the accuracy of the information submitted and can provide additional comments about the applicant’s ability to overcome their adversities.

A Support Form Provider must be an adult over the age of 21 who is not related to the applicant. This person will read all of the information provided by the application in the Adversity section of their application. Because the Support Form provider is asked to confirm the details regarding the applicant’s adversities, applicants are asked to choose an individual who is familiar with the adversities described in their application and who can provide additional information and insights about the applicant and their ability to overcome these challenges. Examples of a Support Form Providers include but are not limited to a neighbor, family friend, counselor, pastor, or teacher. If you feel that you are not qualified to serve as a Support Form provider, please notify the applicant immediately so that they may update their application and assign the role to a different individual. 

The Horatio Alger Association awards scholarships to students who are facing and overcoming significant adversities. The Adversity section provides an opportunity for applicants to share the types of adversities they have experienced in their life. We encourage applications to be as detailed as possible so that the selection committee has a clear picture of their individual circumstances.

Please notify the applicant so that they may log back into their application and resend the email to you. Please also verify with the student that they entered your correct email address, mark horatioalger.org as an accepted email domain, and verify that the emails are not ending up in your spam/junk folder. If the applicant has attempted to send the email to you more than twice and it has not been received, please advise them to contact us at [email protected].

There are two possible scenarios:

1. Information may be missing from your Certifications/Support Form. Please log into your account to verify the form status is noted as “Complete” in green text.  If you see that the form is noted as “Incomplete” please click “Edit,” complete any missing fields, and click “Save and Continue” to return to the main menu.
   
2. The applicant may have asked you to complete two separate forms, the Certifications Form AND the Support Form. Please reference the emails you received regarding the requested forms to confirm which form is incomplete.

Only applicants may upload a copy of their transcript. Please provide them with an electronic copy of their transcript so that they may upload the document through their online application.  We do not accept transcripts that are submitted by mail, email, or fax.  Transcripts do NOT have to be official.

We encourage you to also review the applicant FAQs to find answers to your questions. If you need additional help, please email [email protected] or call toll‐free at (844) HAA‐4200 (Monday‐Friday, 9:00 a.m.‐5:00 p.m. E.T.).