Frequently Asked Questions for Advisors

You may nominate no more than four candidates in any cycle. You may nominate up to three additional candidates who are transfers to your institution.

Any student who did a semester or more of coursework at another institution would qualify as a transfer student. We would not consider a student a transfer if they took college course while in high school.

If your student is graduating in three years or less, they would apply in their final year.  If they are graduating in five years or more, they would apply in their penultimate year.

No. Students can only apply once.

If your student is not enrolled during the deadline, we will still accept the application so long as you are willing to nominate them. It is up to you to consider whether the student is likely to return to campus in making your decision to nominate them.

If your applicant is not registered due to a technical matter (e.g. they are doing a full time internship or have dropped below full time for financial reasons), we are also happy to accept the application if you are willing to nominate them.

No. Most students who apply have more credits than necessary. We do not consider the number of credit hours relevant to eligibility. We ask for credit hours in the application only to determine when the student is likely on track to graduate.

Most good Truman candidates are the sort who are unlikely to sing their own praises - you will need to find them in their natural habitat.  Service-learning initiatives, campus religious groups, student government, advocacy groups and community outreach groups are often good audiences for the Truman message.

If you feel comfortable nominating the student, we are happy to accept the application.  We understand that a variety of factors may influence a school's decision to nominate an individual candidate - we would never allow our perception of an individual candidate to color our evaluation of other candidates from an institution.  If you feel the experience will be valuable to the student, please feel free to nominate them.

That depends on the student's interests.  While politics or policy touches most aspects of public service, students who plan careers removed from this sphere might be successful even without government experience.  Students who plan to run for elected office or plan careers on the Hill should have commensurate government experience in order to be successful.

A copy of our rating form is available. The form does not change from year to year.