Montaigne scholarship deadline approaches

Less than a week now separates us from February 1, which is the cutoff date for applications for the Montaigne scholarship contest.

If you're an alum, you can refer a student. Students referred by an alum have their application fee waived.

Montaigne scholarship winners announced

Announced today (PDF):

Shimer College, the Great Books College of Chicago, is pleased to announce the three winners of its Montaigne Scholar’s Competition. Mark Surya, of Morganville, New Jersey, won a full-tuition scholarship; Kelsey Crick, of Louisville, Kentucky, and Edward Vlcek, of Chicago, won half-tuition scholarships. All scholarships are renewable for four years, with a full-tuition prize worth over $100,000.

Congratulations and welcome to all!

Those who aren't familiar with Shimer's annual Montaigne scholarship competition can learn more here:

The Michel de Montaigne Scholarship will be awarded to students new to Shimer on the basis of students' merit in writing and discussion--the kind that Shimer students undertake every day. The scholarship honors Michel de Montaigne, the French Renaissance author and essayist.

This seems like a good time to mention that the Montaigne scholarship is currently unfunded, due to Shimer's lack of endowment or other funds to support scholarships. If that seems less than ideal, there's no better day than today to Support the Great Books!

Montaigne scholarship now open

If you know any prospective or potential Shimerians, make sure they know about this opportunity: Shimer's Montaigne scholarship competition for 2011 is now accepting applications. The Montaigne is an essay and discussion scholarship; one full tuition and two half tuition scholarships are provided.

You can read an interview with Naomi Neal, a previous winner of this scholarship competition, on the Shimer blog. Here is an account of the scholarship weekend last February, and a spectator and participant's account of the Montaigne competition by Adrian Nelson.

The contest is open to all prospective Shimer students, including those who wish to attend Shimer's early entrance program, its Weekend College program, or its BA to JD prelaw program.