The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is extremely competitive with around 0.5% of applicants receiving an award in recent years. Eligibility and selection criteria
Applicants from any country other than the United Kingdom are eligible to apply for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. Candidates must apply to pursue one of the following full-time residential degrees at the University of Cambridge:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Master of Science (MSc), Master of Letters (MLitt), Master of Philosophy (MPhil) Other one-year postgraduate course (e.g. LLM, MRes, MASt)
Applicants concurrently apply to a course, college and department and the offer of a Gates Cambridge Scholarship is conditional on the student gaining full placement in each.
The Gates Cambridge Trustees use four criteria to choose Scholars:
Academic excellence: Competitiveness is evaluated through academic transcripts, references, experience and the potential to succeed on the chosen course. A departmental nomination is crucial for demonstrating this criterion; Choice of course: The Trust seeks Scholars who will have an academically transformative experience at Cambridge. Candidates must demonstrate intellectual superiority and the necessary skills and expertise to complete the course which they have chosen; A commitment to improving the lives of others: A defining characteristic of Scholars is their deep devotion to improving lives of others as evident by their past, current and future commitment to the societies in which they will live and work; A capacity for leadership: Candidates must show exceptional leadership elements and a pledge to 'take others with them' as future leaders of their fields and communities. Generally, each class of Gates Cambridge Scholars is composed of 2⁄3 PhD and 1⁄3 one-year Scholars. The Gates Cambridge Trust uses a three-stage selection process to select its Scholars. The application process begins with prospective students applying to study for an eligible degree at the University of Cambridge, either during the U.S. or the global round. Following the initial application, each academic department at the University of Cambridge ranks and nominates eligible applicants for the scholarship. Departmental nominees are the most academically outstanding applicants for postgraduate studies in the department. The list of departmental nominees is then forwarded to the Gates Cambridge Trust, where it is divided into broad subject areas and passed to the Shortlisting Committees. Each Committee reviews the entirety of a departmental nominee and applies the Gates Cambridge selection criteria to shortlist applicants for interview. All shortlisted candidates are interviewed to assess how they meet all Gates Cambridge criteria and Scholars-Elect are selected only after the interview.
Gates Cambridge Scholars organizations
In 2002, Gates Cambridge Scholars organized and elected a student committee titled The Gates Scholars' Council. The Council aims to represent the Gates Scholars at Cambridge and to build a scholar community interwoven into the fabric of the university. In cooperation with the Gates Cambridge Trust, the university and various academic and professional organizations, the Scholars' Council organizes a number of academic, social and professional events that have distinguished and built the reputation of the Gates Scholars at Cambridge University. The scholarship is particularly known for its strong academic and social community at Cambridge.
In 2005, the Scholars once again self-organized to create the Gates Scholars Alumni Association, which aims to build upon the friendships and contacts that were first made at Cambridge and to bridge the gap between the different generations of scholars. It is an active and growing organization, with members dispersed all over the world.
Controversies
Criticism of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reduced its investments in non-renewable energy in 2016, after recipients of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship had urged the Foundation's trustees to divest from fossil fuels a year earlier.
The Foundation gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its 2019 Global Goalkeeper Award for the Swachh Bharat Mission and the "progress India has made in providing safe sanitation under his leadership." More than 100 Gates Cambridge Scholars and alumni had condemned the Foundation's decision, following the Indian government's decision to withdraw the special status of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Notable scholars
NameUniversityCambridgeCollegeYearNationalityField US Naval Academy Peterhouse 2010 NASA astronaut Harvard University King's 2015 historian Harvard University Trinity 2005 linguist UCLA King's 2006 neuroscientist University of Michigan Queens' 2006 classicist Yale University Hughes Hall 2005 journalist and author UC Berkeley Trinity 2003 climate scientist and science writer Jadavpur University St. John's 2002 vocalist University of Chicago Fitzwilliam 2011 ultramarathon runner and entrepreneur University of Queensland Christ's 2008 poet University of Auckland St. Catharine's 2004 entrepreneur and writer Georgia Tech Churchill 2002 toy inventor BYU Trinity 2008 writer and memoirist Duke University Trinity 2003 mathematician Universiti Teknologi Petronas Corpus Christi 2009 politician Harvard University Emmanuel 2009 economist Yale University Clare 2010 lawyer, Second Lady of the US University of Arizona St. John's 2007 law professor Stanford University King's 2009 entrepreneur and civil servantGeorgetown University, University of OxfordNewnham2015founder, JR Biotek FoundationUniversity of the West IndiesChurchill2014professor of chemical and biological engineeringUniversity of FlorenceWolfson2002professor of chemical and structural biology, Fellow of the Royal Society of ChemistryYale UniversityQueens'2001Editor-in-chief of New York and co-founder of Kings County DistilleryNational University of Kyiv, Dartmouth CollegeSt. John's2016poet, translator and scholarNorthwestern University Wolfson2001music neuroscientistUniversity of Pennsylvania, Yale UniversityJesus2020entrepreneur and global health leader, founder of Cocoa360Clark UniversityCorpus Christi2005professor of psychologyUniversity of MichiganHughes Hall2001lawyer and global security consultantLeipzig UniversitySt. John's2003professor of physical chemistryLehigh University, Carleton UniversityPembroke2014polar geographer and climate change communicatorScott KaufmanCarnegie Mellon UniversityKing's2003cognitive scientist, author, podcaster, coach, and popular science writerUrbasi SinhaUniversity of CambridgeQueens'2002quantum physicist and professorRob HendersonYale UniversitySt. Catharine's2018writer and political commentatorEmily KassieBrown UniversitySt. John's2016investigative journalist and documentary filmmakerCaitlin CaseyUniversity of ArizonaSt. John's2007observational astronomerTodd TuckerGeorge Washington UniversityQueens'2012academic, political scientist, and political commentator Yassamin AnsariStanford UniversitySt. John's2012US congresswoman Kate BrandtBrown UniversitySelwyn College2007Chief Sustainability Officer at GoogleWilliam GreenleafHarvard UniversityTrinity2002molecular biologist, biophysicist, inventor, and professorNjoki WamaiUniversity of Nairobi, King's College LondonQueens'2012feminist activist and professorNaomi WooYale UniversityClare2013conductor and pianistChristopher TooleyMassey University, University of AucklandGirton2002academic, executive and indigenous health leader
See also Churchill Scholarship at Cambridge University Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University Clarendon Scholarship at Oxford University Yenching Scholarship at Peking University Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan Marshall Scholarship for any university in the United Kingdom Mitchell Scholarship for any university in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University Jardine Scholarship at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge
References
External links Coverage in the Harvard Crimson