If you are an international student who is currently prioritizing a fully funded UK postgraduate scholarship, this article is for you. Here, we’ll explain exactly how to get the Gates Cambridge scholarship. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds fully financed Gates Cambridge Scholarships for UK students at Cambridge.
Fully funded means tuition, living costs, airfare, health insurance, and all other benefits of fully supported scholarships. We’ll walk you through the Gates Cambridge Scholarship application, eligibility requirements, and anything else you need to know. If this interests you, stay reading to the end.
Gates Cambridge Scholarship
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship funds worldwide postgraduate study at Cambridge. We’ll cover all you need to know.
Start with the scholarship website’s eligibility requirements
For eligibility, non-UK nationals may apply for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. That means wherever you are, this is not a developmental, financial, developing country, African, or Asian scholarship. Everyone gets a scholarship.
You must apply to pursue a PhD full-time or part-time, a master’s full-time, or a one-year postgraduate degree at Cambridge.
Undergraduate degrees, business doctorates, MBAs, Masters of Finance, PGDs, medical courses, part-time degrees other than PhDs, and non-degree courses are not funded by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
Examine selection criteria
To study at Cambridge, you must all fulfill the requirements. We’ll tell you, so relax and pay attention.
1. Academic achievement comes first
Candidates seeking a Gates Cambridge Scholarship must demonstrate academic distinction via transcripts, recommendations, experience, and course potential.
2. Academic proficiency
You should also show academic proficiency via your recommendations, as they indicated. What does it mean? This means your reference letters must show academic distinction to be considered for this scholarship. Ask your referees to stress your academic achievements while asking for recommendations.
3. Reason for course selection is the next criteria
All of you should be competent to defend a Cambridge postgraduate degree. PhD and most research master candidates must choose a supervisor to construct a research project, which is part of the application.
You all must show that you have the academic foundation, talents, and competence to finish the course. That’s simple. Your past experience and post-study job goal should show your suitability for the course and why you’re doing it. As said, scholarship with me? Let’s proceed.
4. A desire to help people
A hallmark of Gates Cambridge is your academic dedication to helping others. Candidates identify these criteria and demonstrate their past, present, and future commitment to the societies in which they will live and work.
As mentioned, the criteria are wide, therefore that may not be your situation. Bring your unusual situation. What did you all do before? What are you doing? What are your future plans? Why not if you match these criteria? Try it, and perhaps you’ll all get chosen.
5. Leadership skills
Leadership is the next scholarship criterion. Successful candidates must display leadership in many ways. Applicants should demonstrate their leadership experience and explain how it may affect their careers.
Positions don’t define leadership. The impact you create on any platform matters. Titles, leadership titles, and everything else are unnecessary. It’s not. Leadership requires:
- What influence are you all having?
- You can influence others’ choices, but how? Show how your leadership talents may affect your career.
All of you perceive it as leadership. I assume the last need is a PhD/Master’s award ratio remark. To build and nurture a lively scholar community at Cambridge University and allow scholars to maximize their time there, we pick two to three PhD scholars each year.
That implies two PhD candidates out of three select individuals.
Gates scholarships. Anything supported by Bill and Melinda Gates wins. That concludes the criteria.
Application Timeline
Academic Year 2024–2025 applications open on September, 2024. That shows an open application. Gates Cambridge has two annual selection rounds.
They have two deadlines. US people living in the US have the first deadline. If you are not a U.S. resident, this deadline does not apply to you. This deadline applies to U.S. residents.
Everybody may apply on 15 September, but U.S. citizens have until October 2024. They explain what’s involved and start departmental ranking on 17 October. The second deadline is for non-U.S. US citizens, non-residents, and other qualified candidates.
This round matches the University’s chosen financing competition, thus most candidates will apply. Two application deadlines apply depending on the course. Apply before the University course directory graduate funding competition deadline.
It seems that Cambridge University has two deadlines depending on your study. The application opens to everyone on September 15. Application deadlines vary per course: 1 December 2024 or 5 January 2025.
Check your course directory to see the deadline for your course. Now, departmental ranking begins in December and February. By 2024, applicants will learn their results. Scholarship awarded late March 2024 after panel review and selection.
These dates are chosen by Cambridge’s admissions office and may vary. The required admissions websites provide current information.
How to apply for the Gates Cambridge scholarship
For the scholarship application, you’ll complete the application form and submit the admission and financing application via the Gates website.
When you apply to Cambridge, you’ll declare that you desire Gates Cambridge Scholarship funding.
Gates Cambridge reviews admission and grant applications with full access. Thus, two in one. You don’t need to apply again. One application covers admission and scholarship.
In the entrance area, you choose a course and institution, and in the financing portion, you apply to Gates Cambridge.
Gates Cambridge Scholarship applicants must submit the Gates Cambridge Statement. Please describe why you want a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and how you fit the four essential requirements in 3,000 characters, or 500 words.
We covered the criterion. They want to know why you’re applying for the scholarship and how you fit the requirements. Everyone freestyles now. All of you should shine here. All of you share your stories here.
Tell your story using the STAR approach—situation, tasks, action, and result. Here, you illustrate why you qualify, why you’ve met all the qualifying standards, and why you believe you’re leading and making a difference based on your past experience.
Include your existing and future activities. Gates Cambridge uses the phrase to identify academic department nominees. It identifies applicants who are intellectually gifted, have leadership skills, and want to assist others.
What have you done to better others’ lives?
They require it. This is the sole component of the application form that asks candidates about their fit with Gates Cambridge. Use your past, accomplishments, experiences, and future goals to demonstrate how you satisfy the program standards. I stated that.
They also describe the PhD program. PhD aspirants must submit a research proposal. For acceptance, you would submit two academic references, and Gates Cambridge candidates would additionally arrange for a reference demonstrating their scholarship eligibility.
You must submit two reference letters for admission and one for scholarship eligibility.
They want the referee to evaluate the applicant’s suitability for a Gates Cambridge fellowship and rate them for a scholarship.
At what level? Based on which group are you ranking? How big is this group? The reference distinguishes academic department-nominated candidates. After applying to Gates Cambridge, your academic department may propose you for the scholarship, and you’ll all be chosen.
The statement and reference of non-nominated candidates might also be considered. Referees are also required to grade scholarship candidates on extraordinary, strong, and not poor qualities. Gates Cambridge reference writers may post a single letter with up to 4,000 characters in the online reference.
They’re telling you who should be your referee. To write the best Gates Cambridge Scholarship reference, your referee must be completely informed about the scholarship and its selection requirements.
When reviewers provide concrete instances of the Gates Cambridge criterion, it helps. Exactly the same stuff they desire. Why am I saying? They want your referee to follow the guidelines. Your referee illustrates how you meet.
Remember this piece of advice…
Scholarship questions: always give examples. We believe these scholarship committees should hire me to review scholarship applications since I’ve read too many and know most of them.
Example-based refereeing helps. Your Gates Cambridge referee must appreciate the necessity to stay on topic. Stop writing here and there. Follow their requests. Does this individual fit? How does the individual fit? How do you rate them? Thus, you must carefully choose referees.
You must choose a referee who is patient enough to write all the specifics and who can listen to you, knows you, and will go all out for you. All of you should choose someone like that.
Ensure academic and Gates Cambridge referees send their references before the time. The departmental nomination is followed by a 20–30-minute interview.
What about Gates Cambridge? The interview will last 20–25 minutes and include academic and professional plans, final opinions, and questions. Gates Cambridge will inform you about the outcome of your application.
If you are not contacted for an interview, you will get an email stating your rejection.
That covers the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. We looked through their Scholars directory and observed that they choose academics from various subjects, nations, and expertise. So, as you apply, make sure you meet the eligibility requirements and study past scholars to know what specific personality they have that Gates was interested in.
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