Scholarships awarded by the Association are based exclusively on academic and educational criteria—namely, the excellence of the candidate’s school, academic, or training record and the quality, coherence, and seriousness of their proposed further studies—to the exclusion of any criteria based on the candidates' social, economic, family, or personal circumstances, and without any priority, preference, or advantage being granted to candidates with a personal, family, or professional connection to a donor, member, officer, or founder of the Association.