Scholarships

To increase access to our programs, Empire launched a scholarship program in 2016 for our in-person competitions. The program began small, with the organization offering three teams free entry to our competitions; selected teams would enjoy four trials, four meals, t-shirts, photographs and souvenirs. Over the years, the program has slowly expanded, with more and more financial aid becoming available.

We’re excited to offer financial aid for Empire Online programs in 2024.

Keep reading to find out if your school might qualify for financial aid from Empire.

Empire Online Scholarships

Background

Given our resources are finite, we intend to direct funding to schools that are experiencing significant financial hardship.

There is no perfect way to make this determination. Because we won’t ask a school to disclose financial information for individual students, our scholarship questions focus on the socioeconomic status of an applicant’s school district and whether there is funding available to the applicant’s mock trial team.

Scholarship Terms

We’re offering both partial and full scholarships that cover our Empire Online registration fees. To find out what that fee includes, visit the Costs page of the site.

Deadline 

The priority scholarship application deadline is June 23; however, we are awarding aid on a rolling basis.

If there are still resources available after the deadline, then we will consider additional financial aid requests.

How to Apply

Schools are required to complete a scholarship application, in addition to the Team Application.

To learn more about the general application requirements, please review our Apply Now page.

NEED-BASED SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION QUESTIONS

School Information

  1. Please introduce us to your school! Where is it located? Is it public or private? How many students attend? Is the surrounding area urban, suburban, or rural? What are its demographics?

  2. What is your teacher to student ratio?

  3. What percentage of your school’s students receive free and reduced price lunch?

  4. Is it classified as a Title I school?

  5. What is the median household income in the city / town where your school is based?

Mock Trial Team

  1. You described the demographics of the city / town where your school is located above. Is your mock trial team reflective of those demographics? If not, please explain how it differs, and why you believe it does (e.g. is it because cost or recruitment strategy).

  2. What is your team’s annual budget? What are your biggest expenditures? Who makes the budgeting decisions for your team? Is it the school, parents, coach or an advisory board?

  3. What, if any, funding does your mock trial team receive from the school? Please be as specific as possible.

  4. What are your team’s sources of revenue? Please include approximate percentages for self-funding, community support, donations, etc.

  5. Has your school ever attended a private invitational or training seminar before (i.e. an Empire competition, Harvard Seminar or Yale’s Bulldog Invitational)? If so, when? How did you raise the funds to attend?

Conclusion

  1. Depending upon the number of scholarship applicants, not all who apply will be granted an award. If you are not granted an award, how do you anticipate covering the costs of participation?

  2. Finally, please provide any additional details that will be helpful to our Scholarship Awards Committee in evaluating your application.