Gates Millennium Scholars Program
Frequently Asked Questions
In addition to the questions and answers below, the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Guide is an important resource in helping you achieve your educational, professional, and personal goals as a Gates Scholar and in helping you understand the GMS award process. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, you are responsible for meeting all GMS deadlines and reporting requirements.
For the most up-to-date information about deadlines, exceptions, and program requirements, please contact GMS directly.
1. How is a Gates Millennium Scholar award determined?
2. Do I need to file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)? What other forms am I required to complete?
3. How is Cost of Attendance determined?
4. Do I need to report other scholarships I have earned?
5. Can I appeal my award?
6. When will my award be paid? Can I expect a refund?
7. Who do I contact if I have questions about the status of my scholarship?
1. How is a Gates Millennium Scholar award determined?
Students selected as Gates Millennium Scholars will receive funds in an amount determined by the Gates Millennium Scholars Program based on financial need. The award will be based on the cost of tuition, fees, books, and living expenses for the academic year (otherwise referred to as "Cost of Attendance"), as well as on the availability of grants and other scholarships reported on the submitted financial aid award letter.
The scholarship, for the undergraduate award, may be renewed annually based on satisfactory academic progress, full-time status, and the timely submission of required documents.
Support for graduate degrees may be pursued for the following fields: computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health, or science.
2. Do I need to file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)? What other forms am I required to complete?
All Gates Millenium Scholars must complete a FAFSA online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
If you are selected for verification (a review process) by the University, you will need to complete those UC Berkeley forms and that UC Berkeley process before your GMS award can be determined.
Additionally, you must submit a request for GMS funds at the beginning of each academic year. You do this by submitting the GMS Information Sheet and the GMS Award Request Form. Beginning with the 2012-13 academic year, you must submit the GMS Information Sheet and the GMS Award Request Form online to GMS via the GMS student portal (gmsp.org, look for the Scholar Login area).
The Gates Millennium Scholars Program is discontinuing the use of paper forms, and all paper forms are expected to become obsolete beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. However, if you are requested by the Gates Millennium Scholars Program to complete a paper form, you will need to allow for sufficient processing time by submitting the completed form to the UC Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office at least two weeks before the GMS due date. We will then process the paper form and submit it to GMS.
Paper forms may be mailed or faxed to the following addresses (please be sure to include your name and student ID number on each page):
Mail:
University of California, Berkeley
Financial Aid and Scholarships Office
201 Sproul Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1960
Fax: (510) 643-2015
If you wish to request a GMS Award Revision, please see question 5 below for information about the forms required to complete that process.
3. How is Cost of Attendance determined?
Cost of Attendance is the total set of expenses you are expected to have for the academic year or term. For a breakdown of standard budgets, please see our Cost of Attendance page. Please note that GMS does not award students during summer terms except for undergraduate scholars who will earn their degree at the end of a summer term.
You can verify your current Cost of Attendance by logging on to MyFinAid and viewing your My Net Cost screen and Budget Detail screen. If you find that the information is inconsistent with your actual circumstances, you will need to submit a Budget Appeal Form and then contact the Outside Agency Program Manager in the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office if your GMS Award Request Form has already been submitted.
If you are studying abroad via an Education Abroad Program (EAP), direct your questions about budget adjustments to the EAP counselor and then contact the Outside Agency Program Manager in the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office if your GMS Award Request has already been submitted.
4. Do I need to report other scholarships I have earned?
You must report the name and amount of each additional resource you expect to receive for the academic year. You can do this via the Report Other Resources screen on MyFinAid. If you have reported outside scholarships or other resources that you expect to receive on MyFinAid, they will be added to the Award Details page.
Federal financial aid regulations require that financial aid awards you receive cannot exceed your student budget. It is possible, therefore, that outside scholarships could reduce a component of your package of financial aid awards. We may need to reduce your financial aid awards by the amount of your outside resources to ensure that your total awards do not exceed your student budget.
You must report outside awards in a timely manner in order to avoid overpayments and reductions to institutional grants and scholarships. Outside scholarship information is also used by GMS when they determine your award for the academic year. GMS Is a last-payer award, which means that other outside aid (or a need-based award) will first reduce your eligibility for a GMS award.
5. Can I appeal my award?
Yes, but only under limited circumstances. To initiate the revision process, contact the GMS Administrative office via the online portal (gmsp.org) and fill in the GMS Award Revision Request Form.
For the 2012-13 academic year, the deadline for submitting the GMS Award Revision Request Form is March 1, 2013 for all students. Please note that this deadline is for submission of the GMS Award Revision Request Form to GMS. To allow for sufficient processing time to complete the UC Berkeley appeal process, you need to submit the UC Berkeley Budget Appeal, Student Contribution Appeal, and/or Parent Contribution Appeal Forms to the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office at least 2 to 4 weeks before the GMS Award Revision Request due date.
Contribution Appeals: If you feel that the financial aid offered doesn't reflect your family's current financial circumstances, you have the option to appeal your Parent Contribution and/or Student Contribution. Download either the Parent Contribution (PC) Appeal Form or the Student Contribution (SC) Appeal Form from our Forms page. The forms include details about what you can appeal and what type of documentation you must provide.
Budget Appeals: You are allowed to submit a request to increase the size of your standard budget for certain expenses that are above the standard amounts:
- The cost of your rent and utilities or the cost of your University Residence Hall.
- The cost of transportation to travel home or locally.
- The cost of special books and supplies; you can only request this if the expenses are required of every student in the class.
- The cost of purchasing a computer; you can only request this once every three years.
- The cost of uninsured medical, dental, or optical expenses.
- Childcare.
The Budget Appeal Form is available on our Forms page and includes details about what you can appeal and what type of documentation you must provide.
Please note that GMS does not allow funding for the following items: computers and related expenses, medical expenses (not including SHIP), certain dependent care expenses, and your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). You will be awarded loans and work-study to cover these types of expenses. If you submit a GMS Award Revision Request Form for these and other expenses, your GMS award may be reduced in certain cases (for example, if you have another outside scholarship). Please contact GMS for more information.
Once the UC Berkeley appeals (Budget, SC, PC) are processed, you are allowed one GMS Award Revision Request Form for the year. It is your responsibility to submit the UC Berkeley appeals in a timely manner, as the noted deadlines for the appeals do not speak to the separate GMS deadline for the GMS Award Revision Request Form. It is in your best interest to request the GMS Award Revision only when all appeals and adjustments have been made, as there are no exceptions to GMS’s policy. If you have an emergency or you are seeking an exception, please contact your GMS Administrative office immediately.
6. When will my award be paid? Can I expect a refund?
Payment Requirements: Your GMS award will only pay out when it is received by the University and you meet the payment criteria. When your financial aid awards are ready to pay out, they will be applied automatically to your Campus Accounts Receivable System (CARS) account. CARS directly bills students for all types of student charges, including registration fees, University housing, telephone, library fines, short-term loans, financial aid adjustments, Summer Sessions registration fees, and miscellaneous student debts.
Approximately one week before the beginning of each semester, your aid will be applied to your CARS account if you meet the following criteria:
- You must be enrolled in classes; GMS requires you to be enrolled full-time (12 units).
- You cannot have any registration blocks.
- Your financial aid file must be complete. Check the MyFinAid Required Documents screen to find out about any documents you may need to submit.
- If you are an entering freshman, the Admissions Office must have received your official high school transcript showing that you successfully graduated and earned your diploma.
If you have other aid that was not ready to pay out at the time of the first CARS transmission for the semester, it will pay out later. The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office sends financial aid payments to CARS three times per week.
Being Eligible for a Refund: After your financial aid is applied to the bills you have in CARS, any aid remaining will be refunded to you. In other words, if what you owe in CARS is less than the amount of aid that has been applied to CARS, you will get money back. On the other hand, if what you owe is more than the aid that was applied, then you will owe money (have a CARS balance). Remember that if you are billed for items after all of your financial aid has disbursed, you will need to pay the new bills with your refund or another resource.
We strongly recommend that you sign up for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) to receive your refund as quickly as possible.
7. Who do I contact if I have questions about the status of my GMS scholarship?
Selection, notification, eligibility, and related questions may be addressed directly to GMS. You may contact a GMS representative at: contactus@gmsp.org or 1 (877) 690-GMSP (4677).
In case of emergency, or if you are seeking an exception, please contact your GMS Administrative Office immediately.
Gates Millennium Scholars General Information: gmsp.org
Gates Millennium Scholars Administrative Offices:- United Negro College Fund, Inc. (UNCF)
Toll-Free Phone: 1 (877) 690-GMSP (4677)
Fax: 1 (703) 205-2079 - American Indian Graduate Center Scholars (AIGCS)
Toll-Free Phone: 1 (866) 884-7007
Fax: 1 (505) 884-8683 - Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF)
Toll-Free Phone: 1 (866) 274-4677
Fax: 1 (202) 530-0643 - Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF)
Toll-Free Phone: 1 (877) 473-4636
Fax: 1 (415) 808-2411
If you have questions about the payment status of your award and have verified with GMS that the funds have been sent to campus, please contact us.