SELECTION OF SCHOLARS

Like the universities to which its students apply, KenSAP employs a holistic selection process that considers the candidates’ academic attainments, family and regional background, extracurricular accomplishments and demonstrated leadership, among other criteria. From hundreds of qualified applicants each year, KenSAP selects about 20 students per year.

The process starts with the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), Kenya’s national high school leaving exam. As soon as the exam results come out, KenSAP starts receiving queries from students who have met the program’s baseline requirement – a “mean grade” that places them among the top ½ of 1% of the country’s more than 600,000 test takers or a “mean grade” that places them at the top of their school or region.

Students who show proof of having met the requirement are sent a detailed application form that includes biographical information and several essays. On the basis of the application and the KCSE result, KenSAP’s selection panel narrows the field to a shortlist of 200 to 250 candidates, who are invited for an informational phone interview. After the interview and follow up assignments, a shortlist of 40-50 candidates are invited for a final interview and diagnostic testing day in Nairobi, all travel and accommodation expenses paid for by KenSAP. The selection panel then reviews the shortlisted candidates in the light of the criteria noted above and chooses the class. All shortlisted applicants are informed of the panel’s decision by phone, and the selected students are asked to report for residential training in the following days.