Gates Millennium Scholarship 2009-2010

<p>Lol, I'm Haitian as well!! :)</p>

<p>Cool, where r u from? im from BOSTON! (Beantown stand up (lol)</p>

<p>That's cool. Well, I'm from Jersey.</p>

<p>I've never been to New Jersey, I've always wanted to go to South Orange, I heard the guys they're are "dope" (lol). Hopefully your not a guy because that would be weird! (lol) But Boston is boring sometimes. What schools did everyone apply to? I applied to Amherst College, UMASS Amherst (got in!; kinda expected too), Spelman College, Emmanuel College, Northeastern University, Boston College, Boston University, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College. Can't wait to hear back from them!</p>

<p>I'm going to Columbia University next year. Don't know if this will help or hurt me.</p>

<p>No, I'm actually a girl. I applied to St. John's University(Accepted) as well as other schools in the tri-state area.</p>

<p>Oo cool, my cousin goes to st. Johns, he loves it!
CrookedI- I don't know what that means to you but that's an accomplishment in itself I think it will definetly help you. Not just anybody can get into Columbia : ) Congrats to you!</p>

<p>Have you all filled out FAFSA? I read somewhere in the Gates book that they prefer you to have it finished by the 1st of February.</p>

<p>I did! But my problem is I might not be federal pell grant eligible, I will be so mad if I'm not!! Especially since I slaved over those eight essays for hours...which sucks! But yea we do have to fill it out to "prove" that we are eligible to receive the scholarship.</p>

<p>Yeah, make sure you guys don't forget to fill out the FAFSA! I filled out the FAFSA the first day it was available, January 1. lol! I'm eligible for the pell grant, so I'm good to go.</p>

<p>You guys, I definitely think that essay length is no big deal. My school had our first Gates Scholar last year and he told me that he really didn't write that many long essays. Some of them were 500 words and some of them were only 150 words. I mean, he got it so I think it's all about answering the questions fully.</p>

<p>Oh gosh, another question. My mom is on a trip overseas, which means our income tax for 2008 wont be finished. Is there a way I can simply estimate my income? I heard something about that. Or will I HAVE to wait until our income tax is completely finished? It really worries me. Aghh.</p>

<p>lulu_faye- I tried doing that with my stepmom & turns out i'm not federal pell grant eligible but someone is explaining to me that you shouldn't estimate because it might be risky! So I'm waiting until the end of this month to update my fafsa because my parents don't even make close to 100, 000 a year and my EFC is saying something like 45, 232; which makes NO SENSE! I think we messed up something in the process of estimating (lol). So I'm probably going to be making changes the night before the deadline for the FAFSA.</p>

<p>You can estimate your income now using your 2007 tax returns, but you're going to have to make corrections when your 2008 tax returns come in. You shouldn't wait.</p>

<p>Yeah, this thread pretty much died, so I decided to revive it. =P Did everybody remember to fill out their FAFSA? My parents finally got their W-2s so I finally made the corrections. I was pretty close in my estimates. We actually make less than I initially thought. We're definitely in pell grant territory.</p>

<p>i filled out fafsa on january 1st. and sent in it jan 2. </p>

<p>it was so easy to fill it out: my mother has been unemployed for like 8 months!</p>

<p>Anyone know how we submit FAFSA to GMS?</p>

<p>I know how to fill it out, etc. But how do they get it? I'm so confused.</p>

<p>If you get selected as a finalist, they'll ask you to send in your student aid report. The student aid report is what you get after submitting the FAFSA. On the student aid report, it should say that you are eligible for the pell grant.</p>

<p>I just can't wait til we get our status back as to whether or not we're all finalists or not!! I know on the website there's no like, specific date or anything when they'll let us know, (it just says March lol) but does anyone have any idea like, early or middle or late March?? Cuz it's killing me already lol</p>

<p>Well, the first wave of finalists find out in early March. For the past two years, posters on CC have got word of finalists on March 12. I'm hoping that it's around that time or even earlier this year. I'm trying not to think about it as much though. It makes the time pass quicker! =D</p>