Yes. The West Orange Scholarship Fund seeks the most accurate and the most recent reflection of your family’s financial situation. This year student applicants must use the family's 2026 tax return (IRS-1099), but if your parent(s) / guardian(s) have not yet filed for the current tax year, there are two options. A student may either: 1) use the best estimate of what your family's 2026 Total Income will be OR 2) use your parent(s)/guardian(s) 2025 Total Income tax filing records to fill out the financial section of the application. An accurate income must be reported for your application to be considered, as it is a key component of our scoring process. Applications submitted without this information are purged from our system and are not eligible for scholarship consideration.

Our Awards Committee, comprised of trustees who are former and current educators, school counselors or business people from the West Orange community, read the completed applications submitted by our deadline. No member of the Awards Committee may have a child attending West Orange High School.

Our scoring process:

We give two separate scores: one for the greatest financial need, based on income and reported hardships, the second for the highest academic achievement gauged by your accumulated grade point average. Students with the highest combined scores (greatest financial need plus highest academic achievement, plus those who had extracurricular involvements, community service or employment were analyzed), receive our largest scholarship awards.

Many of our scholarships have specific criteria to be met for awarding, depending on the wishes of our benefactors. These specifics are often driven by the people whose memory the scholarships honor. Your intended major, which college you plan to attend, the extracurricular activities you participated in during high school, sometimes even the elementary school you attended, can determine your eligibility to receive a specific scholarship.

Our Award's Committee’s task is to match the student application to the best match available among our WOSF scholarships, and to satisfy each benefactor’s wishes.

Seemingly random questions are asked because many of the scholarships that West Orange Scholarship Fund oversees have additional criteria specified by the benefactor. The questions are relevant to the readers of your applications, who do their best to match the right student to the right scholarship for which they qualify.

Yes. Awarded amounts depend on the endowment of In some cases students receive two or three award letters, while others receive one. Scholarship distributions vary in dollar amounts and the number of envelopes is no indication of the total scholarship dollars a student receives. Three award letters might total the same amount or less than one scholarship awarded in another envelope. The amount awarded is based on a combination of hardship and academics, plus the scholarship’s restrictions.

Recipients of a West Orange Scholarship Fund Scholarship are announced at West Orange High School’s Senior Awards Night, typically held on the last Thursday of every May.

No checks are issued on Senior Awards Night. Our bylaws require that a student receiving a West Orange Scholarship Fund Scholarship must provide proof of enrollment (proof of acceptance is not sufficient). Enrollment proof must be submitted to the WOSF before a check can be released in the name of a student.

Enrollment proof is either:

Your Fall schedule as issued from your school with your school’s name and your name included in the screenshot.

OR

A receipt of payment for a portion of your Fall tuition bill, with your school’s name and information and your name included.

Only after receiving this verification will a check be sent to you for your awarded amount. This is why a correct mailing address and a correct email address are critical in your application. We cannot do direct deposits to your schools or to you.

The West Orange Scholarship Fund is a one-time award that will help you defray costs for the first year of your post-secondary education, wherever that is. We wish we could fund you for longer, but once you’re in school, there may be other paths to financial assistance from your school.

The WOSF can defer your award for a semester or for one year as long as you contact us. We understand that plans change. But even if you take one course at a licensed school, we can issue you your check as long as you provide us the Proof of Enrollment described in the How is the money paid to my school? question.

Let us know about your change in plans and we can assist, at least for one year. After a year, we return the funds to our bank account.

An accurate mailing address (complete with apartment number and zip code) is critical, because we MAIL your checks after receiving your proof of enrollment. You must check your mailbox. You must check your emails. If, your address OR email address changes, or you move you must contact the West Orange Scholarship Fund at: woscholarshipfund@gmail.com.