The Truth about the "Bill Gates Scholarship"

Don’t Believe Everything You Read on the Internet
There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Case in point – I was recently looking for information about college financial aid and found one on a “scholarship” website. Not only was it poorly written, it was also wrong. It was about the “Bill Gates Scholarship.” The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does fund a scholarship program called The Gates Millennium Scholars. The article got at least that part right. However, the article said that the scholarship was available to anyone who was a permanent resident of the United States.

Actually what the article says is “The students from different ethnic groups like Native American, African American, Hispanics and Asian and Pacific Islanders are privileged under this scholarship. …. The Nationality also will not be a barrier for availing scholarships from the establishment. If you are a permanent resident of US, you are adequate for the scholarship.”

Huh?

Was it written by a software program or someone who doesn’t speak English? Either way they got the facts wrong, because The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program is ONLY for African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and Hispanic Americans.

Want More Info on the GMS Program?
For those of you who might be interested in this scholarship, there are other requirements for the scholarship, including a cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (unweighted), and meeting the Federal Pell Grant eligibility criteria (which is for lower income families). The recipients also have to be nominated by an educator and recommended by someone familiar with the student’s leadership and community service.

There is no mention of the two additional applications (by the nominator and the recommender) in the article I found. It does however say that the scholarship “will cover the major portion of the coaching fee.” I have no idea what that is supposed to mean because on the official website of the GMS there is NO mention of any “coaching fee.” Maybe he’s talking about the tuition? He also gives a specific dollar amount for the scholarship, but, in reality, it varies depending on a number of factors. Again I wonder who or what really wrote the article.

The deadline for the GMS program is January 11, 2010 (11:59 p.m. EST), so there is still time to apply. However, before you do anything else, you should go to the GMS website, which you can find here. That way you can get the whole truth and nothing but the truth about this scholarship. You should do this with any scholarship for which you plan to apply.

What about the Nominators and Recommenders?
The educators who qualify as Nominators are principals, teachers, guidance counselors, higher education representatives, and other professional educators. They are invited to nominate students with outstanding academic qualifications, particularly those likely to succeed in the fields of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health, or science. There are no limits on how many students a Nominator can nominate, so if your student meets all the qualifications, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask an educator to nominate him or her. It may be that an educator who knows your child would be delighted to nominate her or him, but doesn’t know about this particular program.

As far as the Recommender goes, the GMS website even suggests that you “choose your Recommender carefully.” It can even be the Nominator if that person is also familiar with the student’s non-academic activities.

Speaking of Financial Aid…
The Financial Aid ebooks are almost ready. You’ll be the first to know when they are available!

Blessings,
Bonnie

Income Based Repayment for Federal Student Loans

There’s a new program for government college loans that gives students with big college debt some relief. It is based on your income and family size, so that if you have a large debt and a small salary, your payments are adjusted taking your family size into consideration as well. This new program, appropriately called Income Based Repayment (IBR), is available now for people who have any Stafford, Grad PLUS or Consolidation loan made under either the Direct Loan or program, unless the loan is in default, parent PLUS Loans, or consolidation loans that repaid a parent PLUS Loan. Although your lender will make the calculations to determine a new payment, you can find out if you are eligible and approximately how much difference this program would make on your monthly payment by going to the government’s IBR Calculator.

To use the IBR Calculator you will need to know your estimated adjusted gross income, the amount that you owed on your eligible federal student loans when you entered repayment, the estimated average interest rate on your eligible federal student loan, and your family size. You plug these figures into the IBR Calculator, and this gives you the payment amount your would pay on your government student aid through the Income Based Repayment plan. If that payment is lower than the monthly payment under a 10-year standard repayment plan, then you are eligible to repay your loans under IBR.

During this time of economic hardship and mounting student debt, this federal student loan program could be a lifesaver for many students and their families. Check it out at the Federal Student Aid website.

Blessings,
Bonnie