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<p>Not sure if you live in the India or the US, but just a FYI - you have to be a US citizen to get the scholarship.</p>
<p>Hello, I’m a GMS class of 2010 and I just wanted to add:</p>
<ul>
<li>community service is a very important to have when applying</li>
<li>some of my essays </li>
<li>You don’t have to be a PACIFIC Islander only. All Asians are included such as Indians, Cambodians, Phillipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, etc. As long as you’re a minority = not white.</li>
<li>My recommender/ nominator was one person. It was my teacher from 9th grade who knows my leadership qualities really well.</li>
<li>This is for seniors and the deadline is January every year. </li>
<li>The scholarship is very competitive. Everyone I met at the conference was either at the top of their class or close to it.</li>
</ul>
<p>Also, just adding that my shortest response was 122 words and longest was 559 words (like a regular personal statement).</p>
<p>But the quality of my responses were focused on showing my leadership abilities, my compassion, dedication and family history (what drives me).</p>
<p>I don’t think its quite simple as it seems… Need a hard preparation to write in 7800 characters…</p>
<p>Quality over quantity. If you can be concise and write it in just a few hundred words and show great character, then great. But it’s hard to be that concise yet also get your point across. So just make sure if you write short, it’s good quality.</p>
<p>Also, though it’s a very competitive scholarship, I think the focus is much more on community service and leadership than GPA. Of course, it is good to have a high GPA/that helps, but I have heard of a few scholars that aren’t top top top GPA.</p>
<p>If you’ve always been an A student (~4.0 GPA), but senior year you have like half A’s/half B’s for six classes, would that significantly reduce your chances?</p>
<p>borkborkbork, not at all! they won’t even see your transcript until you become a finalist (when you report your senior year courses on the app, you’ll just put NR [not reported] because most of the classes you’re currently taking are full year, right?) </p>
<p>much consideration is given to community service and leadership, the two aspects of the application you should spend the MOST amount of time on. make sure that you really emphasize through your essays your service and leadership experiences, even if don’t have much. but still, it’s always quality over quantity.</p>
<p>^ Oh. Thank God. You just made my day. I’ve always been a 94+ avg (uw) student but this year… I’m likely to get an 85-87. I feel that I’ll be fine as long as I get the gist of all the material this year, get 5’s on my AP’s, and then study over the summer to refresh the material.</p>
<p>Hi, I was just wondering… for nominator/recommender… how does that process work? Do I ask them to do it, they go on gmsp, and make their own account? I’m so confused…</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, you give them your number as an applicant, and then they use that number and log onto gmsp and put in your number to link their form with you. I believe that they’d have to make an account then.</p>
<p>does anybody know about how long the recommender/nominator essays are? I know they have to answer about 4-5 questions but if its 7800 characters like ours i need to choose my teachers wisely, some are more busier than others.</p>
<p>I remember looking through the application last year, they definitely didn’t have to write out essays of 7800 characters. My nominator I recall did my nomination in about half a day (the day before the deadline because he procrastinated -_-) so it can’t be too lengthy. My recommendation is that you go on their website, click application, click paper application forms, click nominator forms and nominator instructions (two separate links) and look through it. Good luck!</p>
<p>ah. good idea. why didn’t i think of that. LOL. thank you very mucho NYSP!!</p>
<p>Am I allowed to submit my portion (nominee) of the application online, but get my nominator and recommender part submitted by mail?</p>
<p>Also, I’m in Key Club and NHS…but I don’t think any of the community service leaders know me well enough to write me a recommendation. Can I get a work reference? Or a coworker to reference my leadership skills since I have a job?</p>
<p>^ I have the same question as above. Do we mail in the Nominee, Nomiator and Recommendor (do we get the forms back from the people we chose and mail it together in one package or is everything mailed individualy by each selected person?) and submit the online portion online?</p>
<p>also, for the nominator and recommendor forms…do they just fill in the boxes/write in the lines or do they attach a formal recommendation letter as well?</p>
<p>Anyone that knows your leadership or community service or character can fill it out. So no it doesn’t have to be Key Club or NHS leaders.</p>
<p>They do not attach a formal letter of recommendation.</p>
<p>Hi Class of 2011, I’m in the process of applying for the Gates scholarship too :D. I have a question. When you talk about your awards. What should you mention?</p>
<p>imagine18, hey! I’m applying as well.</p>
<p>I’m basically mentioning every award I’ve ever gotten since 9th grade.</p>
<p>Which includes Honor Roll, community awards, job awards. Make a list!</p>
<p>Oh okay, I see what you mean :). For the description section. Should I describe what the award was for or should i go deeper into it. Do they thoroughly read this section?</p>
<p>This might be a dumb question but do the responses to the questions have to be fully developed essays or can they be short answers? Everyone seems to be saying that they should be essays.</p>