Help..Gates Milennium Scholar

SOOO..I'm a senior in hs now and I just started filling out the application for the Gates Milennium Scholarship..Anyways I just wanted to know if anyone here had applied for or received the scholarship..Any advice for me..plz and thank you.. And are any other seniors thinkin about applying??? and on a very unrelated side note...I jus learned to start a thread..and im soo hype(the reason for the colorfulness)...yea me!!!

PLEASE DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY THE LENGTH OF THIS APPLICATION!!! I was too and ended up being a semi-finalist. I swear to you I played the lazy role and submitted this application an hour before it was due and thank God because it turns out they were in a different time zone. so it was like 10:50 in chicago but 11:50 in (i think it was) nyc. my mother stayed on my **** about this application and kept saying to just give it a chance. no, i was not the vice president of the student body, i wasnt a cheerleader, didnt have any serious business connections. i was an average high school senior with a few volunteer activities under my belt and a lot of will. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO GET THIS AWARD. like someone said u simply have to stand out. true enuf i didnt receive it but there were about 20 people at my school and out of those 20 three of us made it to semi finals and two actually won! i was disappointed yeah but think if i hadnt have applied. i woulda been singing my shoulda coulda wouldas. it just went on to show me that i could stand out in a crowd. thousands of people apply and only hundreds make it to semi finals so that was an accomplishment in itself. baby girl do not sell urself short