As I mentioned in a previous post on the Millennium Gates Scholarship, the application for this scholarship involves a fair amount of writing and answering several essay questions. Although you probably have an excellent GPA and lengthy records of activities such as community service, so are a bunch of other applicants. The Gates Millenium Scholarship Essays are where you will really have the chance to show who you are and stand out from other applicants. From my past experiences, I have repeatedly found that even if you have a great GPA and record of extracurricular activities, it is often the essay that will ultimately determine whether or not you are the winner for a scholarship. Thus, you will want to put a fair amount of work into the Gates Scholarship Essays.
As I mentioned, after filling out the nominator and recommender forms, you will also have to complete the personal application part of it, in which you must answer several nominee questions. I am not sure whether or not the questions for the Gates Millenium Scholarship Essays change, but currently they are as follows.
The first question asks you to discuss the subjects in which you have excelled, and what factors you attribute to your success (also must use specific examples). Here, you will obviously want to discuss what you have a passion for when it comes to academics, and what has driven you to excel in the classroom. For specific examples, you could use topics such as all of the all-nighters you have pulled, a career/life goal that motivates you to do well in the classroom, or perhaps a classroom experience where you became the student that everyone else looked to for help/guidance.
The next question in the Gates Millenium Scholarship Essays asks you to discuss the subjects in which you have had difficulties, what factors contributed to those difficulties, and basically how you have dealt with them. Obviously, this essay question wants you to elaborate on a situation where you have overcome a challenge (in the classroom here, to be specific). You will not want to write an essay on how you failed at something, but rather, a situation where you failed at first, but learned from your mistakes, figured out how to improve, and are now excelling in that area. Clearly, not all of us have failed at something; if that is the case for you, then write about a subject that has been a challenge for you and how you have successfully navigated your way through it.
In the next article, I will continue to elaborate on the Gates Scholarship essay questions, and how to best answer them. Clearly, this scholarship involves a long application process, but it will definitely be worth it in the end if you are a winner. There is a potentially large amount of financial aid to be received from this scholarship opportunity.
Dec 15, 2009
