<p>My daughter just found out she is a 2011 -2012 finalist. Which made me think about the future - how fantastic it would be were she to receive it. However, if she is fortunate enough to receive this scholarship, are there ongoing annual requirements to maintain it? Minimum GPA's, etc. What if your financial situation changes? Do you have to qualify for Pell grants each year? I've looked online but can't seem to find anything. Thanks!!</p>
<p>Well she obviously has to maintain her high grades and involvement in leadership and extracurricular activities. If she receives it she also has to do her FAFSA each year. My older sister received it a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>Did your daughter receive an e-mail yesterday or a letter? I’m waiting to see if they send me anything ):
Thank You.</p>
<p>alyyy12,</p>
<p>She received an e-mail on Tuesday morning around 10 AM EST and a letter in the mail today (Thursday) which was basically a hard copy of the e-mail. Hope you have good news too!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>swohiomom, I asked my daughter who is a junior if there are GPA and/or EC requirements. She said she “thinks” she remembers being told that the GPA req. might be a 2.0 or maybe a 2.5 to maintain the scholarship, but doesn’t remember anything about continuing EC’s. I would think Gates would like students they chose as scholars to continue being active in their school and community, after all those components were important in their selection process.</p>
<p>ga2012mom,</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I was mostly wondering about the Pell grant qualification. Say your financial situation improves one year… does one year of not qualifying change your status?</p>
<p>Good question swohiomom. It is a question that would not pertain to my circumstances so I don’t know the answer to that. I would definately call Gates, and could you please post the answer to that as it might be a question asked in future years.</p>
<p>@swohiomom</p>
<p>doesn’t make a difference. in the q&a it says that you only have to be Pell when they pick you.</p>
<p>I agree, it’s okay if your financial situation changes a bit and you don’t get Pell grant the second year.
I believe the GPA requirement would be 2.5 (although, some universities require that you keep a 3.0 for you to get financial aid from the university, so watch out for that too because even as a gates scholar you still get aid from the university)
Other than that just fill out the renewal form every year, it’s not too complicated. I think it just gets complicated if you have really bad GPA or you try to defer or something.</p>
<p>When can i apply for the scholarship nxt year anyone know?</p>