Gates Millenium Scholarship 2011-2012

Archive The Gates Scholarship
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<p>wait, just to make things clear, i didnt actually apply for these things like Questbridge or NHS, so im wondering if just getting nominated is an example of an honor? do certificates of completion of religious courses such as Confirmation count as something to list in awards/honors? i know quantity doesnt matter as much as quality, but does not completing all of the spaces to list activities / awards dramatically hurt the nominee or should i find things to fill in things that do not really fit in the categories?</p>

<p>and thanks u guys for replying :smiley:
good luck to yall</p>

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<p>I feel better knowing alot of us are in the same boat :slight_smile: in a perfect world, we’d all be done by now LOLLL.</p>

<p>just for peace of mind…someone who I know that won last year had 4 “excellent” essays and she said the other 4 ranged were more “ordinary” and what she described as “good enough to be acceptable” she said the real thing was making sure all the essays were TECHINCALLY perfect in terms of spelling, puncuation, cause if the content isn’t amazing that’ll drag you down.</p>

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<p>ZhengMaster: All of that counts as honors snd sctivities…you are on good track</p>

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<p>Yea… my nominators are making me wanna commit suicide…</p>

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<p>@LocoArts: Thank you for the suggestions! I guess I can get super creative with it.</p>

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<p>hahaha locoarts, im sure u’ll be fine
my recommender still hasnt turned her part in either so ur not the only one :)</p>

<p>@skhaer: do u mean that if my essays arent grammatically correct or great, it will affect my chances of winning???</p>

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<p>These essays make me want to commit suicide. I trust my nominator I think she will turn it in on time. Think…</p>

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<p>JSea11: how many essays do u still have left??</p>

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<p>I have 2 more. Number 4 the one that talks about long and short term goals and number 7 the on that talks about where else have I acquired knowledge. I’m trying to get them all done now so my Ap lit teacher can check them tomorrow. She’s amazing at editing and revising. She’s also the only teacher at my school I trust reading over my essays because 3 of them are really personal.</p>

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<p>Hey there class of 2011! =]
Just another hopeful.
Been stalking this thread for awhile, but decided to make an account. ^^;</p>

<p>I have a few questions for anyone to answer.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I know that many of the past scholars have said that there are past winners that wrote essays with 3000 characters. I’m only averaging at around 2500 or less on the 7 essays that I have wrote. Should I go back and re-re-edit it?</p></li>
<li><p>I’m not from a very well off family, and because of that I have a part-time job to help support the family (The only money I spend is for gas). I work about 15-20 hours a week. Because of my job, I don’t have many leadership positions or many service hours (a little under 100). Will this affect me negatively?</p></li>
<li><p>On another note, how important are the “Paid Employment” hours? I have almost 1000 hours from working at my job for over a year now.</p></li>
<li><p>I already gotten my nominator/recommendation letters from two of my closest teachers. I’m just curious as to how important are these letters?</p></li>
<li><p>Will a GPA of about 3.74-ish be considered? My GPA plummeted last year from 3.89 because of job and AP classes.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m in about 8 clubs (one of them is really inactive)… I’m wondering where do I list them?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thats all I have for now, back to my last essay. Sorry for any bad grammar, I’m very tired. ^^;</p>

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<p>" @skhaer: do u mean that if my essays arent grammatically correct or great, it will affect my chances of winning??? "</p>

<p>YES. while content is say, 70% of what they will look at in your essay, 15% is style and organization and the other 15% is grammer, spelling, etc.</p>

<p>now, realize those are NOT numbers they put out there, but believe it or not, i took a class about just scholarships and they stressed this…(and the students that take this class are highly successful and many of them have won the Gates so I believe them)</p>

<p>so make sure to edit, edit, edit, fairly easy these days with Word to get spelling and puncuation, but work on grammar as well.</p>

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<p>^Wow. I had no idea. Well, my organization kinda sucks. I mean like i don’t introduce everything I’m gonna talk about in the intro. what do you think locoarts?</p>

<p>Errr… I still need to get in 2 recs and a nomination…</p>

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<p>Does anyone know if it’s ok to have the same text in the Position/Description of Activities box under Paid Employment? I’m asking b/c I’ve had the same job and done the same things for 2.5 years now which covers the majority of the different time periods on the app.</p>

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<p>I wonder why they dont ask us to list the clubs and sports we are apart of?</p>

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<p>my cousin was valedictorian for her school, won tons of awards, had an internship at GRADY and did not win. Her friend who had C’s and F’s but still graduated got it</p>

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<p>I guess they want that well rounded quality.</p>

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<p>Wabash College, Western Michigan University, Oakland University, University of Michigan, Grand Valley State University, Hope College. I got accepted to all, except University of Michigan deferred me.</p>

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<p>LocoArts, and Borkborkbork and Aziangirl: You better hound your nominator. Last year, I had to awkwardly text and call my nominator (who was my AP Spanish Teacher) the day before the deadline and it was so awkward and weird, but it ended up being worth it (yay for scholarship money!). It’s just, you don’t want to get stuck scrambling when the website crashes and your nominator still hasn’t turned it in and all (that is not fun, let me tell you). I don’t know if I said that all earlier, sorry :frowning: I know I told someone this but i can’t remember if it’s in this thread or a PM with someone. Sorry if I’m being repetitive.</p>

<p>JSea11: Haha, well, I felt like none of my essays were amazing, but I always tell that to myself so I don’t get my hopes up. You should have someone read your essays (like an English teacher or counselor or something) and tell you how they are.</p>

<p>ZhengMaster: Confirmation isn’t really an honor, in terms of scholarship applications (unless you’re applying to a Catholic school I guess. Still, then it’s more of a “you should do it if you believe in it” thing rather than an honor). I think if it’s really far off like that, don’t put it in because then it looks very obvious you have nothing. I think I didn’t have a bunch of real meaningful awards either (just your regular, community service, principal’s honor roll thing for the most part…my only meaningful award was State Fair Industrial Design 3rd Place). NHS and Confirmation do count as activities though :D</p>

<p>SleepyV: 1. Again, quality not quantity. As long as you’re thorough enough to show your point and get it across, who cares about character count?
2. From the impression I get, most places understand that when you work, you don’t have tons of time for other things. Is there anyway you took leadership in your job (not even in a formal position, just somehow directing or guiding others or leading in any way?) Put this into your essay.
3. That is a lot. This will probably help them understand your lesser service hours.
4. They are important to show your character. IMO, they are pretty important.
5. That GPA is fine. As said before, GMS is not gpa-crazy.
6. Activities</p>

<p>LCB334: I’m not sure what you mean…?</p>

<p>JSea11: Isn’t that activities?</p>

<p>essotelou: It’s more about showing your character, dedication, service, and leadership. I’m sure she had some explanation for that F or showed that she worked hard after that and made up for it. Whereas the valedictorian probably did not explain her character/service/etc as well in a way that GMS wanted to see. That is my guess.</p>

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<p>borkborkbork: Ok; he is actually right (skhaer). essay grammer is very important. It’s like the ACT, SAT or AP exam though. The WILL excuses minor errors but to a limit. I believe this limit is 2 big errors(bad use of hyphens and rare symbols) and 5 smaller ones(misspell a word). I can’t remember actually. Also, there are two errors(comma splicing and sentence run-ons) that will get your essay into the trash immediately depending on your reader. My best advice: Don’t focus on quantity… keep up with quality.
Everyone: Help- on essays–contrary to popular belief–“big words” don’t make you sound smart. Always remember that. There is a certain way each word is to be used. They are tools so you have to be careful. Reason I say this is because if you use an “incorrect synonym”, your essay will suck.</p>

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<p>Anyone know approximately how many applicants there are this year?</p>