@brendalil congrats on Berkeley 
@northernAZ His counselor has said for a couple of weeks that she planned to create a profile, so we were under the impression it would be done. Heās calling GMS today to check on the āoptionalā label. Thanks for the advice.
Has anyone ever been able to successfully get in contact with a GMS representative? My counselor barely sent in the documents on Tuesday since she initially sent them to an incorrect email address, but they called me yesterday saying that I need to submit them. I called them back two minutes after I missed the call and they never answered. They also never respond to any of my emails??
@jjuar16 Have you attempted to contact the GMSP partner organization for your racial/ethnic group? Is that who called you?
Are you all excited? We will hear our good/bad news within 1 week or so?Iām more anxious than excited. Lol.
@pleaseacceptme99 Thanks!!
I hope we all can get fortunate news back! It would be so awesome if we became all could become scholars!
What is the point of verification? And what other factors do the GMS staff take into consideration.
@āBa Aliā The point of verification is to make sure a finalist is eligible for a Pell Grant, has a minimum 3.3 GPA, and has been accepted by a college. The other factors were part of the original application, especially the essays and the responses from the Nominator and the Recommender. The Scholars from each racial/ethnic group are selected by the GMSP partner organizations. The sum of the allocations for each group is 1,000 Scholars.
So my friendās documents are verified, well her counselor material, and mine is not even though the documents were submitted like one day apart.
@northernAZ Yes HSF called me, I tried returning the call and tried to connect to their GMS line but the call would never go through. Since weāve been notified of our finalist status, I emailed them three days after, this Monday, called this Tuesday twice, Wednesday twice, and today with NO answer whatsoever. Iāve made calls to both GMS & HSF with no luck so I just hope they verify my documents by today or something because there is literally nothing else I can do at this moment. 8-|
@exl028 @jjuar16 I emailed the GMSP awhile back because I was freaking out when my documents werenāt verified yet(it took 21 days) but the person who responded back told me not to worry because they would review and verify all the documents before they make the final decisions. So I think today is when you just need to submit them but itās okay if theyāre pending!
@2ne1islife I called them and they said it was fine. Thanks though!
@jjuar16 Do all your documents now display as āreceived and pendingā? Or even better, āreceived and verifiedā? I would only be concerned if any of them display as āaction required.ā
@northernAZ I checked a couple of hours ago and said action required
@northernAZ thank you very much. Just wondering. So if one is selected as a Finalists, I assume that that person met the other factors, and thus was selected according to his/her essays and application. So if one is finalist and verified, what other factors can disqualify h/her from becoming a scholar.
Asian-American finalist from Minnesota. Congrats everyone! May the odds be ever in our favor!!!
@āBa Aliā The GMSP selects about twice as many finalists as Scholars in each racial/ethnic group. Then some of those finalists are disqualified because of Pell, GPA, or failing to submit the required documents. That still leaves many more finalists, and not all of those remaining finalists will be ranked high enough to be selected as Scholars. As far as I know, the rankings are based on the info in the original application. No one knows whether there is any āre-rankingā after all the documents are submitted and verified. In short, it is entirely possible to be a āverified finalistā and not be selected as a Gates Millennium Scholar. Only a total of 1,000 finalists become Scholars.
All my documents are finally received and VERIFIED!!! Yassss!!! Right before the deadline. I was so worried.
Just curious to know, how long did it take you guys to have your documents verified after the initial submission?