Bad thread. I was on the SU Involvement Awards Committee last summer. You're woefully misinformed. I can't share details since I signed an confidentiality agreement, and they asked us to direct people to them for questions.

What I can say is that the SU Involvement Awards is mostly fair and equitable, in my eyes. In fact, it's one of the few things I think the SU does right. They pride themselves on how much cash they can give away and we worked with them to try and maximize the amount given out (the final awards selection spreadsheet keeps track of the dollar amount awarded and the SU staff we work with seemed really stoked by how big that number was getting). I did notice that there were certain themes that the SU focused on in whittling down the larger application pool into the smaller one (i.e. diversity/equity), which I thought was a bit biased. But other than that, it's very straight forward.

I posted a thread on r/ualberta a couple of nights ago about how the students here suck at writing, and all I got was someone being a jerk going "lol guess whatever you're a part of must not be important so students don't give a shit, ya loser".

Here's some advice from someone who read 200 of your applications:

1. Don't apply for the Hilda Swinson Volunteering one unless you've done something literally amazing. Everyone applies for it because it's low hanging fruit. "Just volunteer" --> 95% of students can apply. You're wasting your time.
2. Do something that isn't generic. A part of the problem is that if you do what everyone else does you don't stand out. Refer to the Hilda Swinson again. Lots of applications; all with minimal volunteering (because that's what the award allows for). It's a competition. Be competitive. It's not about, nor should it be about, making sure everyone gets an award. I like that it's an upward trend towards accomplishing more. You did a bottle drive one weekend? Tough luck dude, because that girl started her own charity and raised $25k in a year. git gud.
3. Learn to write. Do not write overblown, melodramatic pieces about how you're practically a saint. We can see right through it. Do not beg for the scholarship. Tell me, explicitly, what you did. Talk about what you did, not what you were a part of. "I was the president of x club where we focus on saving the world" = I don't care. "I was in x club and we accomplished new goals z and y causing abc and personally spent 500 hours reviewing the work of my teammates and in meetings with qrstuvwxyz" = now we're talking. Notice that the first example was the president and the second example was not an executive.
4. Get relevant, current to that year references. No references from last year. No references from your high school teacher unless it's directly relevant to your application. No references from your job. Random references = into the trash it goes.
5. Can't stress this enough: do not write melodramatic pieces to try and make your accomplishments look better. Many students did insignificant things but tried to write their way into making it seem like you did more. Guess what? The adjudicators are all accomplished students too. We have a pretty good idea of what you did/did not do. You aren't going to fool us. Either ground your application in reality or you're wasting your time applying for that award.
6. That said, DO NOT LIE. Yes, some people lied on their applications. Don't ask how we know. Your shit goes straight into the trash and if I ever see your name on a resume at a workplace or grad school or admissions committee or whatever --> into the trash it goes with a vengeance.
7. Remember when I said I thought the SU focused more on diversity/equity? Please don't shoe horn that into your application. A lot of applications were very, very, verrrrryyyyy tenuously related to that topic and very obviously tried to make what little they had done seem more meaningful by throwing in a "with the goal of improving diversity/equitable outcomes". Shut up. No you didn't. You're just trying to capitalize on a trend. And besides, there are people who applied who actually did that who are going to scoop you anyways so you're wasting your time :).
8. Try not to split your application up too much. Often times I felt like 1 paragraph wasn't enough to able to fill up my desire for giving you the award. So either "lern 2 rite" and make that 1 paragraph amazing, or drop one of the more half-hearted sections and further flesh out that good stuff.
9. Again, some of you do really amazing work and I loved reading your applications. Sadly, that was mostly a lesser part of the student body. Most of you really phoned it in. It's not my fault. I want to give you the award. It's your fault for either not giving me enough information or for doing too little throughout the year.

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