The GMS pays for the unmet gap that is left in the Cost of Attendance (COA). I am not sure about every college, but you can talk to your college’s admission office about deferring your confirmation fee or commitment fee to your COA. If you get the GMS then they will cover it for you.
As for personal expenses, it is hard to explain but the COA is taken into account once again. Once you get your COA from your college, then you have to report to the GMS office. They will do the calculation for you and help you pay the unmet gap amount. If the amount of financial aid that your scholarships and GMS provide exceed your COA, then you will get a refund. You then can use that refund as your personal expenses.
For whether GMS applies before or after, it really depend on the college but it usually apply at the same time along with other scholarships.
In their mailing, every Scholar will receive a 30-page guide to the GMS award. The math is pretty simple. Here’s a summary.
Start with the official Cost of Attendance at your school. That will be different for every school and could even be a bit different for students attending the same school depending, for example, on the distance between your home and your school. The Cost of Attendance includes all the direct costs like tuition, fees, room, and board, plus additional amounts for books, travel, and personal expenses.
Subtract your EFC, if you have one. For some Scholars, the EFC is $0, for others it could be several thousands of dollars. The GMS award does not cover the EFC! The difference between the COA and the EFC is called the “Financial Need.”
The award letter from your college will list all the types of aid towards the Financial Need. This will include things like your Pell Grant, grants from the college, and other scholarships you have won. It may include regular student loans, like the Perkins and the Stafford, as well as an amount from a Work-Study job. The loans and the Work-Study are called “self-help aid.”
Subtract all the aid offered from the Financial Need. That’s called your “Unmet Need.”
Here’s the best news. The GMS award is a “last-dollar” scholarship. It will cover any Unmet Need, and it will cover the amount of any loans you decline (and why would you accept them?) and it will cover the Work-Study amount if you decline that too. (Note: College comes with some personal costs that are not covered by aid. If you become a Gates Scholar, and need or want extra cash, it is generally best to get a non-work-study job on or off campus.)
Your college will give you the money in the COA that goes for books, travel, and other personal expenses. They will probably give you part of this money at the start of each semester. Be sure to budget this cash so that it lasts.
One final note. You may see news stories about students who win $1 million in scholarships. What those stories usually fail to mention is that the student does not get to accept all that money, spend a bit on college, and bank the rest. In fact, it is illegal for a college to give you more aid than the Cost of Attendance. Scholarships enable you to finance your college education, not make a profit.
OK, here’s one more final note about GMS and grad school (for those of you who make ten-year plans). GMS will help you pay for grad school, up to and including a PhD, in any of seven fields: education, public health, engineering, math, science, computer science, and library science. No med school, no law school, no business school. Details about grad school aid are described in the 30-page guide for Scholars.
@pleaseacceptme99 You’re welcome. I’m a community volunteer who has helped over 15 GMSP candidates from my local high school with their applications during the past three years. Of those, there have been six finalists and three Scholars. One of those six is a finalist this year, eagerly awaiting news of the outcome just like all the other nervous finalists. I want to add that the other candidates I helped are all in college, having found other ways to finance their higher education.
@2ne1islife@pleaseacceptme99 There are Scholars who have EFCs ranging from zero to several thousands of dollars. Eligibility for a Pell Grant is the only need-based criteria. The maximum EFC for a Pell this coming year is $5,234. Winning is not about who is the neediest. It’s about choosing a diverse group of 1,000 academically capable, service-oriented leaders who are likely to make a positive impact on our society and our planet. The focus on the eight essays is evidence that it’s your story, not your stats, that counts.
@northernAZ You are absolutely correct. My sister is a GMS at Columbia. It is the essays–and your recommendations–that count. Your GPA and Pell Grant status are used purely for screening.
@northernAZ Thank you so much for the insight! I just assumed grad school only referred to a Master’s Degree. My son hopes to attain a PhD in engineering or applied science. Truth be told, the Gates will be more valuable to him then as opposed to his undergrad degree, since the 4 schools he’s narrowed it to all gave him very nice aid. Work study is a biggie to me, as well. I want him focused entirely on his schooling during the first year, due to the rigor of his top choices.
@2ne1islife Student earnings from a regular job could impact the following year’s Pell Grant, but only if it was a lot of money. Each situation is different. You would need to crunch the numbers by using the FAFSA4Caster and playing around with various scenarios. Remember that the GMS award is a last-dollar award, so if your Pell Grant went down a bit, GMS would make up the difference, so you would not have less overall aid.
@northernAZ I also believe that it is ok if your family’s financial situation improves AFTER they are named a scholar. I don’t believe you have to be Pell Grant eligible every year to keep the scholarship. Do you agree?
@2ne1islife It’s actually the other way around. The EFC determines the amount of Pell Grant. So, whether or not your EFC will go up and by how much will depend on the amount of your non-work-study earnings for both term-time employment and summer employment. Only a certain percentage of your earnings goes into the FAFSA formula. That’s why I suggested using the FAFSA4Caster to crunch the numbers. One thing is for sure: the Work-Study earnings will not give you extra “pocket money” because it will just reduce the amount of your Gates award by an equal amount.
@2ne1islife Good news! For the current school year, 2015-16, the amount of student earnings that can be “sheltered” from the FAFSA formula is $6,400. This figure is adjusted for inflation each year and does not include Social Security or Medicare taxes (payroll taxes). In case you actually owe some federal or state income taxes, those amounts are also not counted in the $6,400 cap. So your gross income could be even more than $6,400. The cap is $6,400 in net income. Without making extravagant purchases, it will also help if you reduce the amount in your bank accounts before filing your FAFSA each year. In that way, your reported cash assets will be minimized and won’t have as big an impact on your eligibility for need-based aid. Hope this info helps.
we appreciate it