Apple’s criteria for their WWDC Scholarship were quite similar in 2015 and 2016. Both required the applicant to create and submit a fully functioning app that demonstrated their technical ability and told the user about themselves. They also required the user to submit an essay that described the technology they used in their app. Exclusive to 2016, the applicant was required to use at least some Swift in their app. In addition, the applicant could optionally link to an App Store app they made and write an additional essay about what they’d done to spread their knowledge of computer science.
For my WWDC 2015 & 2016 Scholarship applications, I created an “infinite runner” game featuring myself as the runner. As the user racks up points, the game tells them about me. When the user gets power ups, additional small text snippets appear on screen.
In 2016, I also submitted a link to my iOS app Politica, which focused on delivering results and news about the 2016 primaries. For the essay regarding computer science, I talked about publishing iOS App Development for Teens by Teens in 2014, and subsequently teaching a community college course on it.
You can find my scholarship application app on Github here, and read more about my book here.