Students wishing to apply for the scholarship must complete an application and submit it before the yearly deadline. Typically the application becomes available in January, and then is due by mid May; in 2010, the deadline for the scholarship application was May 14. The application requires students to write an essay and submit an academic transcript; these two elements are critical in the application, because leadership and academic performance are two of the most important criteria considered by the selection committee.
Students must be pursuing a degree in health or medicine. The scholarship interprets this broadly, so students pursuing degrees in medicine, nursing, pharmacology, as well as health education and administration are eligible for the scholarship. Students must be attending an accredited school as well, but the college can be either a four-year undergraduate school, graduate school or two-year college offering vocational degrees in the field of medicine (such as an associate's degree for medical technicians). Students must have already completed one year of their education, and they must have at least one more year to complete.
Students are allowed to win only one scholarship during the course of their education, so past winners of the Tylenol scholarship are not eligible to reapply, even if they did not win the top prize. Previous applicants who did not receive a scholarship may reapply. Tylenol company employees and their children are not eligible for the scholarship.