<p>Please stay encouraged and pursue your dreams with or without the Gates scholarship.</p>
<p>I am the parent of a current Freshman who is excelling and very happy at a top 10 public university in the US. At a very difficult point in our family life, she started but did not complete the Gates application. She was offered a very good financial package which included merit based scholarships, a need based grant and a few loans. This was her 1st choice out of several very selective colleges where she had been accepted. </p>
<p>There are many among us who have experienced economic downturn during this current recession and were previously upper middle income families. In the end, hard work and motivation will always pay off and you will achieve your goals, regardless of your current financial circumstances, your parent’s EFC, your race or your socioeconomic status. Being poor is a state of mind. Technically most college students are financially poor, but do not consider themselves poor. </p>
<p>This opportunity from the Gates Foundation is intended to “lift” the Scholars, many who could easily compete with the brightest students in our colleges in the U.S., including top 10 public universities, semi-ivies and ivies. It is a “hand up, not a hand out”.</p>
<p>As of today at 12:30 EST in Georgia, I am also the parent of a Gates Scholar for the class of 2012, who will be attending Emory University and Georgia Tech for the 3/2 Premedicine/Biomedical Engineering program. She is the 1st Gates Scholar at her high school, which is in an upper middle income neighborhood. And actually she was fully funded through Emory and outside scholarships without Gates. This should allow others to have more funds in this program. She plans to use the Gates sship for GA Tech and grad school. </p>
<p>I am equally proud of both of my daughters. I am also proud of each of you and cannot wait to see what each of you accomplishes in the future. </p>
<p>Thank you so much, Bill and Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation for this incredible “Pay it Forward” opportunity!</p>
<p>This thread is getting a little too serious so I thought I’d share how I found out that my daughter was a Gates Scholar today…</p>
<p>Yesterday I cornered the Postwoman and shared that I was looking for a large white, magazine size envelope. She instead handed me a small white envelope and my heart sank. I had a ray of hope since it was from The University of Kentucky and not the Gates Foundation. </p>
<p>So at lunch time again today, I staked out our mailbox. As the Postwoman drove up she handed me a large white envelope and said " Is this what you are looking for?" I screamed “Yes” and hugged her so tightly that she almost fell out of the postal truck. I called our school Principal and Guidance Counselors to surprise my daughter. But she caught me entering the school with the “Congrats” balloons at the end of her lunch. She and I both jumped up and down way too many times. And yes I cried seeing how much this meant to my daughter, her friends, teachers and especially the Guidance Counselors who assisted us with no prior Gates workshop training. </p>
<p>( I meant to mention that we are multicultural, Black/Indian/White and live just outside of Atlanta.)</p>
<p>Gates Millennium Scholar: African American in Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve been praising God and calling everyone who’s leant their prayers since I found out about half an hour ago.</p>
<p>-States in Gates Scholars package on “Accessing Your Gates Scholarship” page that “On Friday, April 20, 2012 you will receive two emails from your GMS Administrative office”.
one email is an electronic copy of your Scholar notification memorandum
the second email provides you with your GMS ID and will ask you to fill out an on-line GMS College/University Verification Form by the priority deadline of May 31, 2012. </p>
<p>I am so sorry that no one shared this earlier. No time is mentioned for the two emails, however the Gates Fdn HQ is in VA on EST so I would expect that you will receive the email by 5pm to notify you that you are a Gates Scholar.</p>
<p>if you guys find yourself getting irritated with Jeffth remember everyone is entitled to their opinions and you cannot combat ignorance with more ignorance. people like him/her thrive off attention and confrontation, who else has time to sit and make people feel low about themselves? We all Worked hard and no one has the right to try and make you feel unworthy. in other words, @jeffth go eat some ice cream and maybe itll make you feel better about whatever circumstance is bringing you down. I will pray for you.</p>
<p>jeffth, after reading through previous posts, not once have I seen someone explicitly mention they plan to use the scholarship toward medical school. Implied, maybe, but does that entitle you to make such assumptions? And GMS does cover graduate school, just not all programs (especially law and medical).</p>
<p>That’s pretty damn close to explicit. And notice how I said professional school, and not graduate school. My sibling chose to forgo this opportunity and pursued dentistry at a top 5 program (Ivy League).</p>
<p>@jeffth you do not know anyones full story at all so dont pretend u know them! Everyone is right your sulking about getting rejected and you can only blame yourself for not trying hard enough. And for your information i applied to Yale & UC Berkeley!!! Unfortunately I wasnt able to apply to UCLA bcuz they werent accepted applications anymore! So yah i aimed big n got rejected but you dont see me crying around!!! I make the best with what i have!!!</p>
<p>Hey guys, for those of you that are worrying about your GPA, don’t sweat it! The GMS evaluates far more things than just GPA. Unfortunately, I was rejected even though I had a pretty good GPA and was accepted to UC Berkeley and UCLA. So you guys should keep your head up!</p>
<p>yeah seriously! I had a 3.96 GPA, and took a lot of AP courses, but I was rejected. </p>
<p>Dunno what their formula is, but someone I know that got it had a 3.7 GPA, and didn’t take nearly as much. She did have a very hard lifestory though compared to mine.</p>