<p>Is anyone else worried about becoming a finalist...but then, not being Pell Grant eligible after all?!?!</p>
<p>cause i freakin am.</p>
<p>what income bracket are they looking for...? i know this isn't like a for sure number, but just a guess...? any ideas?</p>
<p>I'm not sure if getting into MIT will hurt/help you. </p>
<p>On my weakest subject I wrote about sucking at Math & raising my grade, so I don't think it should matter too much. I actually think, in your case, it would be VERY beneficial. Especially since it shows you worked hard to get a better SAT score. </p>
<p>Woops, I was the one who wrote that about the scholarship. I'm actually meaning it could change any of our lives, really. Wowww, so weird to think about. I have finally calmed down & quit stressing over the scholarship, thank goodness! Ha. :)</p>
<p>You know, I don't think they would discriminate against you for being gay or heavily involved in LGBT activism. I think that is very courageous of you, & I think it sounds like a good idea. It will make your essay stand out, you know? </p>
<p>Never noticed the reverse gender gap, although you've got me curious. Even though I don't really understand what you mean... Ha!</p>
<p>Anyway, best of luck, best of luck! :D</p>
<p>I think it really depends on how many people are in your household and the total income. Do you know your AGI from last year? If so, I'm sure it will be around the same range this coming year, which can give you a better perspective on if you are eligible for the Pell Grant.</p>
<p>the pell grant generally goes to families who make less than 40k a year</p>
<p>if you have an EFC of 0, you're sure to get the pell grant</p>
<p>my family, for example, has regular assets (a car, rented apartment, no big bank accounts) and made less than 25,000 last year. i know that i will get the pell grant.</p>
<p>The reverse gender gap is shown here:</p>
<p>(scroll down a lot)</p>
<p>more than 70% of those who become scholars are female. The most successful male minority ethnic group are Hispanic males (which, i think, gives me a bit of comfort). But trying to predict any single person's success in becoming GMS Scholars, however, is a fallacy because those statistics aren't supposed to be used like that but o well...</p>
<p>They stated on there that they were starting to implement an outreach programs for minority, low-income males but i don't if this translates to being given preference for being a guy in the selection process.</p>
<p>MIT, for example, seems like they practiced heavy affirmative action in the EA round. This year they participated in the "outreach" program of QuestBridge (which, in my opinion, speaks for itself about the institute's priorities) for the first time ever. It don't believe it's coincidence that (1) EA admit % hit an all-time record low and (2) of those admitted 18% were Hispanics (which is an astronomical # by anyone's account). An astonishing 29% of those admitted were underrepresented minorities. </p>
<p>anyways, where am i going w/ this?</p>
<p>I mentioned it because the GMS "outreach" program for male minorities might turn into a more extensive AF program when February comes around..</p>
<p>but then again, this is just my groundless speculation.</p>
<p>o.o i also wrote about readin being my weakest spot, SAT reading hehe. wat else did u guys write about?
any quirky ones?? i wrote about fixing a flat tire lol...</p>
<p>I wrote that essay about my lack of artistic ability and how hard it is for me to take the images i see in my head and actually put them down on paper</p>
<p>I after I submitted I was looking at the status page, and none of my honors and awards showed up that I put in, I wonder how much that is going to hurt me?
I see that many of you put a lot of time in to your essays, I did not, once I start rethinking what I write it comes out worse, so I just wrote everything I wanted to say and submitted.
Did anyone else have problems with the nominator and recommender part? Both my recommender and nominator forgot to hit the submit butting and at 9pm someone from Gates called them and told them what they needed to do, which I find really cool, no one else would do that, that I know of.</p>
<p>mmm... well i hate to be the bearer of bad news but if your writings are riddled with grammatical and/or spelling mistakes, chances are you're not going to do very well.</p>
<p>i know that colleges reject students who were careless enough not to revise their applications.</p>
<p>Carlos: I’m not sure weather or not telling them you got into MIT is helping or hurting you. If you get selected as a finalist, they’re going to ask for your admissions letter anyway. </p>
<p>I don’t think they’re going to penalize you for writing about your SAT. </p>
<p>Yeah, I noticed the reverse gender gap too. In fact, I think I'm the only male who applied for the scholarship at my school, but I don’t think they are necessarily going to practice affirmative action. I just think that they are going to try to get as many males to apply for the scholarship as possible and see where that leads. </p>
<p>As far as discussing LGBT issues, I would like to say that it wouldn’t hurt you, but there is always that possibility. I think the Gates people are really open minded about that kinda stuff. </p>
<p>As for me, I started off writing about my struggle with certain academic subjects, but I decided to switch it up. I picked two non-academic subjects as my essay topics. I keep telling everybody that their essays will be fine, but I’m not sure weather or not discussing non-academic subjects in my essays would be fine. lol</p>
<p>Carlos is somewhat right, if your essay has a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, it’s probably going to hurt you, but I think the Gates people will understand that we are all human and might let one or two mistakes slide. </p>
<p>Good luck to you Carlos and good luck to everyone else!</p>
<p>bleh. I sent in mine about a month ago. I sort of regret that now =</p>
<p>^ why do you regret it?</p>
<p>I wrote about my adoption, what my dad meant to me, volunteering at this place, how i viewed life, taking college math, and overcoming people doubting me when I was younger</p>
<p>You think it's good...and then you just don't know. lol</p>
<p>You know, i have always urged people to simply write about what affects them personally. In other words, don't try to portray yourself as the person they want. Rather, just write about yourself. Many people forget this fact.</p>
<p>I always just try to puke my soul out and hope for the best. So far, everything has gone well.</p>
<p>@supernova.star, if you feel like you wrote about themes that were deeply personal to you then you have nothing to worry about :-)</p>
<p>How i approached LGBT issues was through the lens of anti-homophobia. I never expressed my opinion about same sex marriage, hate crime laws, etcetera. Now that i think about it, if GMS wants to reject me because i spoke out against discrimination, then perhaps i don't even want to carry the label of Gates Scholar anyways. :-)</p>
<p>good luck to all!</p>
<p>and @dubblyu91 good luck to you too! (thanks for the advice)</p>
<p>I wrote everything from the bottom of my heart, but it wouldn't hurt to have kept working on it for another week or so. After my father passed away, all i did that week was finish my essays. I felt really proud of myself and spilled everything I had so I decided to turn it in early.</p>
<p>Thanks carlos. </p>
<p>I pretty much told my life story in those essays. I put everything I could into them and did my best to cite specific examples. I think you would be able to write my biography using my Gates essays. lol!</p>
<p>Yay! I thought I was the only one going through hell to write those essays. I put in almost 20 hours of my life. Grr! & almost 2 weeks of editing & rewriting. I can't wait until March! Wish u guys luck!</p>
<p>p.s. I'm Afro-Caribean (Haitian-American)</p>
<p>^I'm Haitian too!</p>
<p>Yay for haitians!</p>