I’m about to throw my computer out the window filling this thing out. No wonder they had to extend the deadline. I’m still stuck on filling out every course taken in 10th, 11th and 12th grades, and I think I can safely say this is the most tedious interface I’ve ever used for this purpose.
Yes, especially this year!! Needing everything from 9th grade including hours per week and weeks per year (for the Univision scholarship one) for a college junior was a lot of work. I stayed up until 4 a.m. helping my child, she submitted it and then two hours later they extended the deadline. In previous years if you applied your previous application pre-populated the application so you only had to do the essays and brief updates. This year everything must be entered in a ton of detail and then you have to apply individually for each scholarship that HSF administers. In previous years you did one application and then clicked different boxes saying which scholarship you wanted it to go to. So you have good company. I told my child that she has to help HSF with writing a better code for next year’s application. Good luck.
Yes, she definitely could!! It’s ridiculous, and although I helped my D fill out 20+ college applications, none were as bad as this.
One thing that needs to change is that you should be able to set the institution (eg ABC High School), and then fill in all the courses for that institution, rather than having to tediously input the high school name every time. Another thing: why do they ask for both the year and the semester when you’ve already had to fill in the grade (e.g.,10th)? That is redundant information; they shouldn’t need the year. You’ve already provided the year you started high school.
The whole thing’s ill-conceived with its dropdown interface for every field. I find it slow going, even knowing that I can tab between fields and use the keyboard to choose selections from the dropdown. Not sure how many people even know that.
I feel better after that little vent. 
4am…wow. I guess I better get back to it… 
Just try dealing with the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program!! Even if you are a GMS Scholar, getting a response requires a major effort. Alas, for Hispanic students it is administered by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund as is the new Gates Scholars program…
@widgetmidget You are so right!! Do they ever answer emails??
My DD always calls. She has never had an email responded to, but always gets through with a phone call. In HSF’s defense, they have a pretty small size staff to deal with the number of applicants which has really shot up in recent years. My DD is a past receipent so we have attended their scholars celebrations and everyone we met is very nice.
However this application is still pretty terrible in terms of getting it filled out. I work with very smart students from our local barrio and yesterday they told me they gave up and didn’t fill out the application.
Don’t give up! My young mentee won Gates and a HSF scholarship last year. We attended the NYC award dinner with him and it was such a wonderful organization! Warm and supportive, keep at it, it is worth it!
Pain in the rear!
We did it for all three of our kids.
They didn’t receive a dime!!! Our DD2 was told to send in more documentation because they had extended a timeline for several hundred dollars. So she hurriedly made an appointment to see the registrar and financial aid at her UC, got everything turned in and faxed to then be told:
“oops, our mistake, we really did run out of money”.
Tired of their games and it is really not worth our time.
@NuaDusa2 He went to an in-state public school and loves it there. He attended the Gates conference in DC (during Pope weekend!) and loved the experience as well. The speakers in particular talking about Imposter Syndrome were very meaningful to him, and the speakers at the HSF NYC event we attended were amazing as well.
We didn’t end up finishing it–not so much because of the app, but because I told my daughter too late and she was not in the right frame of mind to do the essays. I am glad people are chiming in on what a good organization it is. My purpose in posting this was to shine a light on an overly cumbersome process that risks deterring many of the students they are trying to target with this scholarship opportunity.