Mary Gates Endowment for Students

This page is intended for faculty, staff and community partners who participate in one or more of our selection committees. 

UW faculty/staff interested in reviewing MGE Research and/or Leadership Scholarship applications are invited and encouraged to email the Mary Gates Endowment. The deadline for students to apply for these scholarships is in Autumn quarter (October), and we need help from reviewers in November and December. Please contact us at mgates@uw.edu. 

Why reviewers are needed

• Each year the number of applications we receive increases, which means we need more faculty and staff members to participate in the review process. Thank you for considering joining us!
• Refer a colleague who might be interested! Let us know and we'll reach out to them with information.
• We need faculty and staff from all fields and backgrounds to participate as reviewers. 

What reviewers can expect

• We typically ask reviewers to read and score ~15 applications, though you can always specify your availability for a given cycle.
• As a rough estimate, plan to spend ~15 minutes/application to read, score and provide notes, roughly 4 hours total, within a 2-3 week review period in November.
• Reviews are conducted individually through our online portal.
• Training materials and rubrics are provided to help ensure you feel comfortable with the review process, and to support the entire committee in applying the selection criteria consistently.
• We're available anytime if questions or concerns come up along the way.
• Research Scholarship reviews: 
  • We attempt to assign specialist reviewers to applications that align with their broad areas of expertise, but often have a number of unique applications that don't fit neatly into field categories. Thank you for being open to reviewing a wide range of applications.
  • Generalist reviewers will review a wide range of applications from any field.
  • Once all complete applications are reviewed and scored, our team will evaluate all of the scores and notes, and determine how many scholarships we can award based on the budget available and the overall scoring ranges.
• Leadership Scholarship reviews and interviews:
  • The Leadership Scholarship selection process includes both a review phase and an interview phase. Reviewers are welcome to join both phases (most ideal) or one or the other as suits your schedule and availability.
  • The review process serves to identify applicants to invite to interview (not all applicants will be interviewed). Interviews will be conducted in early December.

Online review system

To connect to our online review system, check your email for the appropriate link; the link changes quarterly so you will need a new link each time you review. Please contact Mary Gates Endowment staff if you need the appropriate link sent to you again; we are available at mgates@uw.edu or (206) 616-3925.

Resources to avoid implicit bias during application review

The Mary Gates Endowment for Students strives to be inclusive of all UW undergraduate students. To help us ensure an equitable and fair process, we ask reviewers to familiarize themselves with resources designed to minimize the impact of implicit bias in the evaluation process. There are many resources available online, but we have found the following to be helpful starting points:

• Bias and the Application Process, Inside Higher Ed (April 29, 2016)
• Journals and Funders Confront Implicit Bias in Peer Review, AAAS (27 May 2016)
• Project Implicit – Resources for researchers and organizations, including link for individuals to take a variety of Implicit Association Tests (including role play of selection committee member for an academic honor society).

You can find more resources on Mitigating Bias in Scholarship Review Processes on the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards website.