The New Gates Scholarship

Archive The Gates Scholarship
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The Gates Millennium Scholarship was a great opportunity for minorities and high achieving students to gain an all-expenses-paid scholarship towards their college education. As some of you might know it was sadly discontinued for the class of 2017. The good news is that it has been revamped and is now available for the class of 2018. I don’t know how the application process is going to be different from the old one (more details will be revealed when the application opens on July 15) but I just wanted to give a heads up to my fellow rising seniors who are interested.

For more information, check out the TGS website: https://www.thegatesscholarship.org/scholarship

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Key to note if this website is correct, the application opens July 15 and closes Sept 15. There are only going to be 300 awarded not 1,000. Only for undergrad.

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“The Gates Scholarship is a highly selective, full scholarship for exceptional, Pell-eligible, minority, high school seniors. Starting in 2018, the scholarship will be awarded to 300 top student leaders each year, with the intent of promoting their academic excellence through college graduation, and providing them the opportunity to reach their full potential.” Keep in mind you must be a Pell grant minority student to apply.

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If the application window closes before the FAFSA window opens, how will they know if the applicant is Pell eligible?

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@twoinanddone They won’t have determined Pell Grant eligibility by the application deadline so an applicant that is ‘very close’ may apply and not end up being Pell Grant eligible - and thus not able to go further. But this earlier start will give them a lot more time to review applications and select potential Semi-Finalists. At some point, some of those will ‘drop off’ and not make the ‘next cut’ based on not being eligible. With the old Gates scholarship, the application deadline was in January and Semi-finalilsts were announced in March, and winners in April. My daughter was a Gates Scholar (just graduated from college - Thank you, Bill Gates!) and when she won in 2013, there were 55,000 applicants, 2000 Semi-finalists, and 1000 winners. No “Finalist” stage. The new Gates has a Semi-finalist and Finalist stage as well as interviews. With this new scholarship, they are using a September application deadline (vs January for the old one.).

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I just finished my application for the scholarship. I’m a rising senior in high school with a 3.7 weighted GPA. In all fairness, I wish other seniors like me luck with getting scholarships, but I hope not too many students have applied for this scholarship or know about it. I really need this! Wish me luck!!!

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@CJCARTER70 , good luck with the outcome!

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@CJCARTER70 Can you post the application essay prompts? I want to know it they changed from previous years.

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This application is a different animal than Gates Millennium (which my foster son won in 2015). There are NO essay. This new application has a large number of questions on activities, leadership roles etc. You can check various boxes. There are no long written answers expected. The application closes on Sept 15th.

The applicant pool gets cut down, and then round two starts.

Round two lasts from Nov to Jan 2017. We will have to wait and see what/if there are essay questions are.

Round three starts after there is another cut in February. In person interviews are conducted in March 2018.

Award winners (300) will be selected in April 2018.

The old version of the scholarship had about 57,000 applicants with 1,000 winners. Just be aware this is worth trying, but very stiff competition.

2015 Essay prompts were as follows.

In addition, in 2015 you needed a nominator and a recommender. These two different people had to write significant length essays. It would be wise if you want to be a serious applicant that you make certain you have people to fill these roles.

Gates Essay topics (2015)

Essay 1
Discuss the subjects in which you excel or have excelled. To what factors do you attribute your success?

Essay 2
Discuss the subjects in which you have had difficulty. What factors do you believe contributed to your difficulties? How have you dealt with them so they will not cause problems for you again? In what areas have you experienced the greatest improvement? What problem areas remain?

Essay 3
Briefly describe a situation in which you felt that you or others were treated unfairly or were not given an opportunity you felt you deserved. Why do you think this happened? How did you respond? Did the situation improve as a result of your response?.

Essay 4
Discuss your short and long-term goals. Are some of them related? Which are priorities?

Essay 5
Discuss a leadership experience you have had in any area of your life: school, work, athletics, family, church, community, etc. How and why did you become a leader in this area? How did this experience influence your goals?

Essay 6
Discuss your involvement in and contributions to a community near your home, school or elsewhere. Please select an experience different from the one you discussed in the previous question, even if this experience also involved leadership. What did you accomplish? How did this experience influence your goals?

Essay 7
Other than through classes in school, in what areas (non-academic or academic) have you acquired knowledge or skills? How?

Essay 8
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about that may help us evaluate your nomination (i.e., personal characteristics, obstacles you have overcome)?

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Reminder - application closes on Friday, Sept 15th!

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Goodluck and did you apply yet?

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And there is no essay with this I believe.

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Correct, no essay for the first round. Two rounds after that, and I imagine the essays will rear their heads again.

I am a foster parent of a 2015 Gates Millennium winner. I am here to help out applicants, just as Preston (user name NorthernAZ) a now deceased poster on CC, did for us. Best of luck!

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Anyone else finding the gates scholarship site to be down?

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were results not released today for semifinalist?

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i guess not, the website just says "Application status updates were emailed on October 05, 2017 and October 06, 2017. Please check your email, including your spam folder, to review your status update.

Alternatively, you can download The Gates Scholarship Phase One Status Update Sheet for more information. The next deadline is Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at 11:59PM PDT"

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They will be released today. Be patient.

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Hey guys - waiting patiently here. Please post if you receive anything!

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will do!

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Any updates out there?