The James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence

All USA Academic Team

Application Deadline: November 3, 2008

USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team honors 60 undergraduates, as representatives of all outstanding students, at the nation’s colleges and universities. The 20 members of the First Team will have their photographs and accomplishments published in USA Today in February and will receive a $2,500 cash award.

The criteria are designed to find students who excel not only in scholarship but also in leadership roles on and off campus. The element given the most weight by the judges is the nominee's outstanding original academic or intellectual product. The judges will be influenced by the student's ability to describe that outstanding endeavor in his/her own words. They will not read an author's work, see an artist's painting or hear a composer's music. They will rely solely on the student's ability to describe the effort in writing, supplemented by recommendations from the nominating professor and two other persons of the nominee's choice.

Please visit the web site for more information: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/college-team-advice.htm

Eligibility

Any full-time undergraduate of at least sophomore standing at a four-year institution in the United States or its territories is eligible. U.S. citizenship is not required. A full-time undergraduate is one carrying at least 12 credits in pursuit of an undergraduate degree or one who anticipates earning an undergraduate degree at the end of the current semester. Students in five-year programs who have not received a baccalaureate are eligible.

Application Procedure

The UNC campus deadline is November 3, 2008 (applications must be submitted to the Distinguished Scholarships office in 225 Graham Memorial.) The application is online: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/college-form.pdf. This scholarship requires a UNC endorsement.

For further information about the application process, please contact Trent Johnson (843-7757, trentjohnson@unc.edu) or Professor George Lensing (962-4053 lensing@email.unc.edu).