<p>Don’t worry about hours; just make sure that you are doing what you enjoy doing, because that will drive your essays. It shows dedication and depth.</p>
<p>Does any of you know if Gates considers students with SAT scores lower than a 2000?</p>
<p>Already finished all my essays 
</p>
<p>Marrissa, my daughter was a Gates scholar back in 2008 and I don’t remember her having to have proof of community service hours, I think it was a self reported number. I could be wrong but that is my recollection.</p>
<p>Gates Millennium Scholarship Essay Questions
(responses from 600-1,000 words preferred)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Discuss the subjects in which you excel or have excelled. To what factors do you attribute your success? Use specific examples to illustrate how you succeeded.</p></li>
<li><p>Discuss the subjects with which you had difficulties. What factors do you believe contributed to your difficulties? How have you dealt with them so they will not cause problems for you again? In what areas have you experienced the greatest improvement? What problem areas remain? Explain how you identified your problems, and give examples of how you made or attempted to make improvements.</p></li>
<li><p>Briefly describe a situation in which you thought you or others were treated unfairly or were not given an opportunity you thought you deserved. Why do you think this happened? How did you respond? Did the situation improve as a result of your response? Explain why you thought the situation was unfair, why you thought your way of responding would make a difference and whether it did.</p></li>
<li><p>Discuss your short and long-term goals. Are some of them related? Which are priorities? Be specific in describing short and long-term goals you may have. Provide examples from any aspect of your life. In addition, if you have already accomplished some short or long-term goals you set for yourself in the past, you can discuss them. </p></li>
<li><p>Discuss a leadership experience you have had in any area of your life: school, work, athletics, family, church, community, etc. How and why did you become a leader in this area? How did this experience influence your goals? Do not simply repeat the listings you provided in the leadership section of this form. Instead, select the leadership experience you view as the most important, and provide more details about how it affected you.</p></li>
<li><p>Discuss your involvement in and contributions to a community near your home, school or elsewhere. Please select an experience different from the one you discussed in the previous question, even if this experience also involved leadership. What did you accomplish? How did this experience influence your goals? Be sure you explain how your involvement in these activities made a difference to others.</p></li>
<li><p>Other than through classes in school, in what areas (non-academic or academic) have you acquired knowledge or skills? How? If you have gained expertise in a non-academic skill (e.g., woodworking, sewing, automotive repair), explain how you became interested in and mastered that skill. If you have gained additional knowledge about an academic subject outside the classroom (e.g., internship at a lab, independent study, performance in a community orchestra), describe the experience(s).</p></li>
<li><p>Is there anything else you would like to tell us about personal characteristics, obstacles you have overcome, etc. that may help us evaluate your nomination? Please do not reiterate information you already have provided. This is your opportunity to state something about yourself that was not asked previously.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>These should be the right ones,no?</p>
<p>It makes me wonder how many people apply for this scholarship…I know quite a few that will be too lazy to apply due to the essays.</p>
<p>That’s gives us the upper hand @SammyxB !!!</p>
<p>Haha I know right @Marrissa 
Lol there are so many scholarships people don’t do because they are lazy.</p>
<p>Thankfully,</p>
<p>I recycled many of my essays I’ve done for years LOOOOL. And used it for many things .Just a few tweaking here and there</p>
<p>I have a job interview. Hopefully if I get the job I’ll be able to help my parents pay the bills and it will look good for gateess <em>crosses fingers</em></p>
<p>Maybe a dumb question but is there an income cutoff for applying for this scholarship? The website says you have to qualify for a Pell grant but what is the income cutoff for that?</p>
<p>@yoloyng there is and it depends on your FAFSA and how much your parents make a year/how many people live with you/ your parents assets (ex: own house/business)</p>
<p>so for a $60-80,000 combined income, 4 people, no assets (i don’t think?) I probably wouldn’t qualify right?</p>
<p>You might but its seems like it’s impossible to know without applying for the pell grant @yoloyng </p>
<p>@yoloyng - the FAFSA4Caster might be able to tell you [<a href=“https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1”>https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1</a>]</p>
<p>@ Jay2631, yes students with SAT scores lower than 2000 have received the award. My son is one of those students. ~roni</p>
<p>@ScubaMom9026 Thank you for responding! 
May I ask do you have any tips that I and other applicants could use? Thank you again</p>
<p>Hey guys! I was wondering if you could help me because I’m not sure if I would be a good candidate for the scholarship. </p>
<p>I have a 4.0 GPA and have been involved in several EC activities (two during the school year for the past two years, one during the school year just last year, and several over the last few summers), but I don’t know if they serve as “leadership” because I’ve never had any leadership positions in these programs. Also, I have not been able to do community service yet. What if I just started to do CS this year? Would that be enough? Should I report incorrect information (like say I’ve done more hours than I have done or that I have been doing it for longer than I actually have)??? </p>
<p>I really wouldn’t like to do the last one, even if I could…So, should I apply? Do I even have a shot? :(</p>
<p>@thestakesarehigh - Do you really think anyone here is going to encourage you to “report incorrect information”? That’s lying, so at least own up to it. The fact is that over 50,000 students apply each year, and only 1000 get the scholarship, so no one can really say if anyone “has a shot” or not. </p>
<p>@irlandaise Admittedly, that was a wrong/stupid question to ask, but what do you mean I should own up to it? I know it’s lying (when did I say it wasn’t?) and literally said I wouldn’t want to do that anyway lmao I was just wondering (btw, some people here encourage lying on the SAT essay, so…). </p>
<p>I understand that no one can ever really for certain if one is going to get accepted into something, but there is a general outline of what they’re looking for, right? So let me simplify my questions: Are my extracurricular activities suitable for the leadership section of the application even though I’ve never had any leadership positions? Would it look bad if I just started doing community service this year?</p>
<p>Using the phrasing “incorrect information” as a placeholder for lying was, imo, not owning up to the fact that it is precisely lying. And yes, people do encourage lying on many facets of the college application process, and I find it all equally despicable. But - if you “wouldn’t want to do that anyway”, why even ask? If someone had encouraged it, would you have reconsidered? I think it is a “wrong/stupid” thing to both ask and consider, and since you so obviously don’t want to, I don’t understand why you would even bring up that possibility.</p>
<p>But anyway.</p>
<p>To your other questions - well, it would look a lot worse if you never did any CS, as opposed to starting now, so there’s really nothing you can do about the past. And really, even if we all said you had no chance, would you really not apply? Of course not; you should apply regardless of what we think.</p>
<p>Also, I wouldn’t consider your ECs to be part of the leadership section if you only participated and did not have a title, because it specifically asks for that. If you didn’t have leadership positions, don’t fill that section out. The fact that it specifically asks for one to only include “leadership positions” and not ECs in general makes me think they don’t consider general ECs. Which I find odd, but anyway.</p>
<p>I think you have as much a shot as any of us, especially since we don’t know, for example, your essay writing skill or academics. Although, it’s note-worthy that scholars are selected " based upon the following three major areas - academic achievement, community service and leadership", the latter two of which are not particularly strong for you.</p>
<p>Just to make sure, you meet the other eligibility reqs, right?</p>