What time last year did finalist notifications go out? I’m so nervous 
March 5th @liz1497
I want to say that it was like March 14 in 2013. I know it was right before spring break.
I know it’s a long time from now but…for pell grant, is it that the higher your pell grant the better chance you are at becoming a finalist? Or is it that if you are pell grant eligible you have an equal chance of being a finalist?
Oh gosh, I really hope we all win. It would just be reassuring to know that we have a scholarship that will pay for everything. (Provided if your efc is 0)
At allthingsamanda, as long as you are pell grant eligible you qualify for the scholarship. Generally speaking, when the finalists are named, the applications have already been graded. The 2nd round is a verification (ladder) round, as students don’t meet the eligibility requirements, they begin to fall off the ladder while those that do qualify move up the ladder. Hope this analogy helps you.
@ScubaMom9026 Thank you for the information, I have a clearer understanding of it now.
It feels so close but yet so far! I was looking at past dates and I saw that it was like the beginning of March, but ScubaMom said it was before Spring Break; however, my spring break is the last week of March. The entire month of March is just a waiting game. I’m so nervous! Regular decision for schools are in March too! SO double the worry!!
Follow up questions for ScubaMom9026: how do the Gates folks know the Pell Grant award levels before the candidates submit their 2015-2016 FAFSAs? Is it not possible that a finalist with a $5,730 award would be given preference over a finalist who only qualified for the minimum Pell award, $573? If there are say 1,500 finalists left after the non-eligible finalists are eliminated, do you have any inside knowledge of how the 1,000 winners are selected? I realize that candidates and finalists are only competing against other individuals in their respective ethnic groups. Any additional insight from your experience would be appreciated.
I was looking at past threads and it always seems to be from March 5-10. The anxiety is real :((
@ northernAZ, remember they don’t know your pell eligibility at this point. If you are name a finalist, then the verification process begins, but by this point your application has already been graded. We were worried about the PELL eligibility the year my son applied as well because we are considered “working class”. It didn’t matter. 
On a side-note, you did have to report if you were dependent or independent student in Income Section, so that could possibly have an impact if one were to be independent in my opinion.
I just saw this forum and decided to join. I wish you all luck in this scholarship! Semi Finalists are so close based on previous forums. I’m a nervous wreck .
@ carlsandburgsr, to be honest, I never saw the application itself. I just told my son you better apply by this deadline if you want to go to your top pick school because that is the only way it is going to happen. lol.
@ScubaMom9026 Thanks for your earlier response. Let me rephrase my question. Do you know for sure that there is no “re-ranking” of finalists after the non-eligible candidates have been eliminated? Do the originally ranked candidates simply move up the ladder until all of the vacated rungs have been filled? No “leap frogging” based on amount of Pell Grant, for instance? Last year, the high school where I volunteer had five Native American finalists competing for the 150 slots reserved for Native Americans. Two of those five finalists became Gates Scholars. None of the non-winning finalists had been disqualified, and I’ve wondered whether the committee just moved finalists up the ladder, as you described, or whether there was a “second round” of deliberations followed by a reordering of the remaining finalists.
@northernAZ, I think it was in this video that I found it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ecnrbQLy6M. The only people that know for a fact how the selection process works are those who are on the committees themselves. Everything else is speculation.
I have a question about how the money is distributed @ScubaMom9026 If you are admitted to a school and they offer you financial aid (the total amount you need to pay at the end is 0) but the award offers like $7000 in loans and Work Study. Can you use Gates to remove the $7000 in loans? Or can you not use it? I have always been confused with how Gates is actually applied.
Does anyone know if decisions be released next week?
@liz1497, gates is a gap scholarship. It covers the gap after grants and institution scholarships but only up to you EFC. In our case we are responsible for approximately $3000/year. If we couldn’t afford to cover this expense, our son would have to take out a loan. We haven’t had to do that yet though.
@liz1497 To supplement ScubaMom’s answer, Perkins Loans, subsidized Stafford loans, and Federal Work Study are called “self-help” aid. The Gates Foundation does not penalize you for turning down the “self-help” aid portion of the amount listed in your Award Letter from your college’s financial aid office. However, as ScubaMom pointed out, Gates does not cover your Expected Family Contribution (EFC or sometimes FC). Therefore, if you or your family have to take out a loan to cover the EFC, Gates will not substitute their money for that loan. This is a very important point, as some Gates Scholars and their parents make the false assumption that the Gates Millennium Scholarship is automatically a “full-ride” scholarship. Of course, some families have incomes so low that their EFC is zero, but that is not always the case. There is an excellent 13-page document entitled “Understanding the GMS Awarding Process: A Resource Guide for Gates Millennium Scholars” that answers your question in great detail with examples showing the math. Here’s the link: http://www.gmsmentoring.org/uploads/2/1/9/5/2195645/gms_resource_guide_for_scholars.pdf