AXA Achievement Scholarships are a well-publicized and well-founded program awarded to high school seniors who have documented excellence in academics, community endeavors, and/or the workplace. A different program is the AXA Achievement Community Scholarship Program, which is also for high school seniors but will not be discussed below.

AXA Achievement Scholarships carry impressive monetary rewards. 52 state winners from the 50 states and D.C. and Puerto Rico receive $10,000. From these state winners, 10 are selected as national winners who receive an additional $15,000 to total $25,000. National winners also receive a laptop computer and an internship opportunity with AXA. The monetary rewards are accompanied by publicity in U.S. News and World Report, which publishes an insert dedicated to the AXA Achievement Scholarship winners.

Applications for the scholarship are due by December 15, 2006 although it is prudent to send in the application earlier. This is because it is possible that only the first 15,000 applications will be notified (in Mid-March). The preliminary application is of moderate length, requiring the necessary biographical information in addition to college data, extracurricular activities, work experience, and transcripts. The most important parts of the application, however, may be the essay about some non-academic outstanding achievement and the "applicant appraisal" or recommendation letter. The catch is that the applicant appraisal must relate back to your outstanding achievement so more often than not, the writer of the recommendation is determined by what you chose as your outstanding achievement.