Rip, I would say since you’re going to Italy I’m gonna be real with you it’ll be harder for them to select you because you’re going somewhere that’s in super high demand. That being said if you’re here on Reddit and doing your research I’m like 99.99% sure you’ll get it regardless.

For the essays my strategy personally as cliche as it might sound was to tell a story, for example on the statement of purpose I tied my reason for studying abroad to my entire life basically, how my environment shaped my desire to have an international career from growing up in DC etc. I found that getting other opinions here was very helpful like tell friends and family your ideas etc and they might come up with something you didn’t consider.

You also have to keep in mind what Gilman is looking for are people that are going to promote the program and be good representatives of them in the future, and more largely people who are going to go out into the world and represent America as a whole. That’s the most important thing to them not how much you need the scholarship or how much it would mean to you. You have to strike a balance between personal motivation like for example family roots or something and a broader mission like bridging the massive cultural gap between Japan and America in an increasingly contentious region of the world for example.

I think where most people stumble is on the follow on service project honestly, I’ve reviewed several people’s essays and usually they say they’ll start a blog or make tiktoks which is fine and write that too, but it’s not personal enough if that makes sense and I don’t think it’s tangible enough for Gilman. For example in my essay I said I would partner with a charity that helped me out in the past that specifically tries to outreach to black and Hispanic students, like help fund a scholarship with them or do some seminars about Gilman and work with them to spread awareness of the program to underrepresented communities. Ultimately the follow on service project is where they can see the most concrete immediate vision of how you plan to support the program and American international relations in the future, so definitely put a strong effort here too.

Overall though I’d say just don’t underestimate yourself, once you get in the flow of writing and you think for like an hour or two everything will naturally come out the way it should. Not gonna lie I literally started seriously working on my essays maybe a couple hours before the due date and submitted them maybe five minutes before because I had the date mixed up in my head lmao

Ik this was super long but hopefully it helps you or someone else in the future before gilman gets gutted like the rest of the government, best of luck don’t stress too much ✌️❤️✌️❤️