Millenium Gates Scholarship

I mentioned this scholarship in one of my previous posts, and trust me, this is one that you will not want to miss out on if you are qualified for it. The Millenium Gates Scholarship is a scholarship offered by Bill and Melinda Gates that offers a fair amount of financial aid money for college students.

This scholarship is for minority students with financial need who meet other criteria such as having at least a 3.3 GPA. Winners of the scholarship receive an amount of financial assistance that is determined by the amount of unmet need they have from the university that they will attend.

The Millenium Gates Scholarship is definitely one that you should apply for if you meet the criteria (for full details, see their website), as you can receive a VERY LARGE amount of financial aid from this scholarship. To have a chance of receiving the Gates Millenium Scholarship, applicants begin their application by submitting a nominee form (this is the student application), a nominator form for the applicant, and a recommender form (I believe this would be a letter of recommendation).

I would advise starting your application for the Gates Scholarship in advance, as it is pretty lengthy. In the nominee form alone, you have to fill out several essay questions; the essays include answers to questions regarding your community service, areas in which you have excelled/had difficulties, your leadership experiences, what your future goals are, and more. Strong writing skills and writing solid essays will be essential in winning this scholarship, so make sure that you put a fair amount of time into it. If you plan to apply later on down the road (i.e. you are currently a freshman in high school researching future scholarship opportunities), make sure that you become involved in community service, leadership experiences, etc. Such experiences will make your application stand out from the rest.