Gates Cambridge Scholarship

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships were established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 with a $210 million endowment to enable outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge. The awardees are given funding for postgraduate study at the University for the duration of the degree. The award includes all tuition costs and a maintenance allowance, currently £13,300, and a return economy airfare. Scholars are also able to access travel funds for conferences, have exclusive use of recreational and social facilities, and participate in an annual retreat to the Lake District. The first scholars arrived at Cambridge in October 2001, and the Scholarship celebrated its 10th anniversary in July 2010.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships are similar in structure to Oxford University's Rhodes Scholarships, although the Gates Scholarships are much younger and are awarded through a more centralized process. Their duration is also more flexible, as the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships generally only last for two years (sometimes three). The American Scholarship is less selective than the Rhodes, Marshall, and Mitchell Scholarships, with Gates Scholarships offered to roughly 5% of 800 applicants each year, in comparison to 3.6-3.7% of Rhodes applicants, 4% of Mitchell applicants, and 3.2-3.5% of Marshall applicants. Since application to the Gates Scholarship does not require nomination or endorsement by the applicant's undergraduate institution (in contrast to the Marshall, Rhodes, Mitchell, and Churchill scholarships), it is better to compare the Gates Scholarship acceptance rate to the estimated number of students who applied for their institution's endorsement/nomination (approximately 2,500 students for the American Rhodes in 2017, making the overall acceptance rate 1.3%). Similar to the Rhodes, the international Gates Scholarships are far more competitive than the American scholarships (in 2017 1.1% of roughly 5,000 applicants for the Gates).

Applicants from any country other than the United Kingdom are eligible for the scholarships. In the first 13 years of the program (2001-2013), 1236 individuals from 95 different countries have been awarded scholarships. By statute, approximately 40% of scholars are intended for citizens of the United States (in practice, the figure has been 44.5%). Other common countries of citizenship have been Germany (5.9%), India (5.3%), Canada (4.9%), Australia (4.1%), and China (3.0%).

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