<p>I just got on the Facebook group for last year’s scholar and saw a Wall post by someone who appears to be an admin for GMS. He said that there were over 20,500 applications this year, 7500 more than last year! Although, I find it interesting that 46,000 people registered but less than half of them actually finished/submitted the app.</p>
<p>Oh wow 20,500 is a lot. But someone told me it was like 60,000 this year lol
I guess that was just a rumor. haha</p>
<p>lzhang, do you know how many finalists are chosen?</p>
<p>I dunno about the finalists for this year, but I believe that there were 1800 last year. Maybe they took more finalists this year due to the significant jump in applicants? If you setup a ratio between this year and last year’s numbers, that would mean there are 2838 people selected as finalists this year-however this is just a guess using math, and we all know how real life and math equations are two different things. Still, I’m pretty sure that there are more finalists this year…unless we are going by the assumption that all financially and academically qualified finalists become scholars, then there wouldn’t be any change in finalists numbers.</p>
<p>have you guys gotten an ulcer yet?..jeesh…don’t kill yourselves…</p>
<p>cus i have …almost.</p>
<p>umm. I’m starting to worry that I didn’t send my application right or something. I was searching for a confirmation letter in my e-mail to make myself better (i.e. that it had actually arrived)…but I couldn’t find it. I clicked send and everything and thought it had been sent.</p>
<p>Well…can’t do much at this point.</p>
<p>Check this out. I emailed GMS to see if my documents were received. Got this reply:</p>
<p>Greetings from the Gates Millennium Scholars Program!</p>
<p>All of your documents have been received as of 3/12/2009. Notification will go out as of May 1, 2009. Letting you know if you got selected as 1 of the 1,000 scholars selected every year as Gates Millennium Scholars. Please do not hesitate to contact our office should you have any questions or concerns.</p>
<p>We have to let the college we ultimately choose know we are coming by May 1st. Of course where we goes depends on whether we have the ability to afford it. If I am chosen to be a scholar, that could make a big difference on where I decide to go. But if I don’t find out till May 1st, how can I make the best decision? What do all of you make of it?</p>
<p>On my way, you addressed exactly what i’ve been wondering about too!</p>
<p>But are you sure it’s May 1st? Cuz i heard from some ppl that it’s around mid April.</p>
<p>I mean mid April makes a lot more sense lol</p>
<p>Most people begin finding out on a rolling basis start late March and all 1000 should know by around Mid-April.</p>
<p>Mid April does make more sense. That’s just what they emailed to me. Who knows.</p>
<p>im so excited!!! =]</p>
<p>How many finalists have submitted their documents for verification? Those who have submitted them, did you guys submit them through fax or by mail?</p>
<p>For the college acceptance letter, can it be from your email or does it have to be an official letter from the school?</p>
<p>I submitted all mine via fax yesterday. I called the APIASF office and they said they received it. Now all I need is good news…</p>
<p>I submitted all my materials except the acceptance letter yesterday.
I did it by fax :)</p>
<p>Did any finalists get a call from the GMS?</p>
<p>Because I got a call today and I happened to leave my purse at starbucks and when I got to it I had a voicemail from the Hispanic Fund and they left a number to call back. And I tried to go back to hear it cuz my friends were talking to loud and I accidentally deleted the message! :[</p>
<p>so I tried to call back the number they called me from to see if I could speak to someone but all I got was an answering machine… and they haven’t called me back. haha I just have this paranoid delusion that they were trying to reach me to tell me there was a mistake and I wasn’t a finalist after all :/</p>
<p>I sent mine by mail yesterday… Hey, did any of you finalists receive a phone call today or yesterday?? Because I checked my messages today, and I had a phone call from a GMSP person, and I was just wondering if anyone else had as well.</p>
<p>I got a phone call today.</p>
<p>which fund called you? and did you end up calling them back and talking to them?</p>
<p>I got a phone call directly from the GMSP, and she was basically making sure that I had received the email that they sent notifying me of my finalist status, and if not, that I had received the package in the mail with all of the papers needed to send to them. I didn’t actually answer the phone; it was a voicemail, so all she said was that I needed to make sure that I sent them in on time, and that they, at the Gates Millenium Scholarship Program, were looking forward to receiving the rest of my application.</p>
<p>Yes, I got a phone call today too from GMSP asking whether I had received my items and when I was planning to submit them.</p>
<p>I bet the sooner they get all the documents they requested back, the sooner the will start sending notifications out, especially if they want to send them all out at the same time. I hope everybody got their stuff in, even if you are still waiting to hear from other colleges. It doesn’t matter which college acceptance letter you send because after you get all your college answers, you can change the school if you decide on a different on. I sent the school that I would choose out of the acceptances that I already have. I may or may not change my mind after I get all the others back.</p>