Image Credit: Taco Bell Foundation Each year, thousands of high school students around the world apply for the few spots offered by highly coveted merit scholarships.

The Taco Bell Live Más Scholarship is one of the most popular high school scholarships in the United States.

In this post, we provide a comprehensive overview of the Live Más Scholarship including key dates, application requirements, and tips and tricks for how to win.

What is the Live Más Scholarship?

The Live Más Scholarship is sponsored by the Taco Bell Foundation.

Since 1992, the foundation has awarded almost $110 million in scholarships to 4 million students across the country.

Each year, around 350 Live Más Scholars are chosen to receive scholarships in $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000 amounts.

An additional 400 are chosen to renew their scholarship they received in the past.

Image Credit: Taco Bell Foundation The program awards $10 million in Live Mas Scholarships and reserves $2 million for the Live Mas Scholarship Resturant Employee Program.

To qualify for the latter, the student must have been employed at a Taco Bell establishment for at least 30 continuous days.

Otherwise, they would fall in the criteria for the general scholarship program.

This program is more than a scholarship.

We’re not merely a one-off check writer – we’re a continued partner and collaborator who’ll be there with connections and opportunities throughout your journey to help your passion shine so brightly, it changes the world.

Taco Bell Foundation The program describes themselves as not being “needs or achievement based,” but being “a passion-based scholarship program. ” Selection of Live Mas scholars is based on demonstrated passion, social impact, personal presentation, and educational goals.

What’s the Eligibility for the Live Más Scholarship?

To apply for this highly competitive program, make sure you meet all the eligibility requirements below: Legal resident of U.

S.

At least 16 but not yet 26 years of age  Currently enrolled in an accredited post-secondary education program in the U.

S.

Be in good academic standing There’s no application fee to apply.

There’s also no requirement in regards to the major or field of study that the applicant is studying in.

What are the Requirements to Apply?

To be considered for the scholarship, applicants must submit a 30-second to 2-minute video (that’s less than 500 MB) that answers the following questions:  What is your passion and how are you currently pursuing it or planning to pursue it?

How do you plan to use your passion to make your community, country, and/or world, etc. a better place?

What is your education plan (education program, college, or certificate/degree program) and how will it help you pursue your passion and create positive impact?

The video can be in the form of a short film, animation, or simple testimonial.

For applicants to the Live Mas renewal program, the video submission requires them to show how they have furthered pursuit of their passion since winning the scholarship.

Applicants will submit their video online on the Live Mas scholarship website.

Live Más Scholarship Acceptance Rate In 2022, the scholarship program received 8,000 applications, out of which 200 students received the Live Mas scholarship and 150 received the Taco Bell scholarship. 430 students renewed their scholarship.

Although it’s not known whether the 8,000 applicants included those applying to the Live Mas Taxo Employees program and teh renewal, it’s safe to assume that the acceptance rate is less than 10% (780 total winners/8000 applicants).

This is highly competitive.

To ensure your application is received favorably by the selection committee, make sure to follow the tips below.

How Do I Win the Live Más Scholarship?

Now that we’ve established that the Live Más Scholarship is a highly competitive program, you need to have an exceptional application to distinguish yourself in the applicant pool.

If you’re a Live Más hopeful, make sure you follow these steps to win.

Start early.

Giving yourself ample time to prepare your application will reflect on the overall quality of your application.

Because selection of scholarship winners relies solely on the short video, you need to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward to create a lasting impression on the application reviewers.

Creating an authentic and attention-grabbing video that encompasses you as a person is undoubtedly a time-consuming task.

It’s advised that you start working on putting together your video at least two weeks in advance.

See the Live Más scholarship application timeline below for the most recent year.

November 1, 2023: Applications open.

January 3, 2024: Application deadline.

April 23, 2024: Winners announced.

March 2024: Scholarship winners announced via email.

Challenge yourself and excel in school.

Although academic achievement is not a listed selection criteria of the scholarship, you should be actively challenging yourself with a rigorous workload at school to show the Live Más selection committee that you regularly seek challenges and work to overcome them.

Think of it this way: having excellent grades can’t hurt you in any way.

It’s better to play it safe this way.

Highlight your personality and achievements.

Utilize your application to your advantage.

Make sure to personalize your video as much as possible in order to hammer home who you are as a person and why you deserve a spot in the Live Más program over everyone else.

Don’t be afraid to use vivid visuals in your video.

Do you have a passion in Chinese ink painting or like refurbishing used furniture?

Then show them!

Be sure to also include elements of community service and tie in your passion to civil engagement, whether through existing projects you’ve participated/initiated or future plans.

Create a technically-sound video.

Since your application consists solely of a video, make sure its format, visual presentation, and sound are at the same caliber as the content.

Think of it as a chef crafting a meal.

The final deliverable is how he chooses to plate it for the customer, and is arguably just as important as the taste.

Your video needs to be easily digestible and successful in presenting your life story to the selection committee.

Take advantage of visuals, as mentioned above.

It’ll also be helpful to pair images with a compelling voiceover that you wrote the script for beforehand.

In addition, if you’re apt in editing (or know a friend who can help), use those skills for the video.

Keep the viewer engaged and leave them wanting to support you on your intellectual journey, and ultimately, award you the scholarship.

Fulfill all application criteria.

Make sure that you’ve fulfilled all requirements prior to the deadline.

Ensure that your video was successfully uploaded and is in the exact format that you intended.

Concluding Remarks In conclusion, we provided a comprehensive overview of the Live Más Scholarship as well as how to maximize your chances at winning.

Undergraduate scholarships not only do a great deal in alleviating financial burden but are overall great opportunities to socialize with other bright scholars and gain a supportive community.

However, each scholarship can only accommodate so many recipients—the key lies in applying to multiple to increase your odds at obtaining one.

Check out Rishab’s ultimate scholarship guide that contains 90+ vouched scholarships that are absolutely worth the time applying for.

Best of luck!.