Frequently Asked Questions

If you are a current GSBA scholar, pursuing your undergraduate degree, you do NOT need to apply to GSBA again. If you are graduating this academic year, and will then be applying for a new program or graduate school, you DO need to apply. For example, if you became a GSBA scholar while pursuing an Associate’s degree, and received 2 years of funding to complete your Associate’s degree, and have now decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree, you DO apply. If you have graduated with a Bachelor’s degree and now want to pursue graduate school, you DO apply.

That’s okay! While you must be a Washington State resident to qualify for a GSBA scholarship, you may study at any accredited college or university. Applicants are considered a resident if they meet one or more of the following criteria: 

1. Have lived in WA since September 2025 or earlier. 

OR

2. Have lived in WA for at least one year at any time in the past five years (2020-2025).

OR

3. Have lived in WA for more than one year at any time, and have been continuously enrolled in an accredited school over during the past five years (for ex: grew up in WA, have been attending school in another state).

We do offer a limited number of graduate school awards, and these vary from 1-2 years.

There is no minimum GPA requirement. We understand that grades are only one piece of your academic journey. Do not allow doubts about your GPA stop you from completing this application! We are simply interested in where you are thus far on this journey.

If submitting your application in a language other than English would better for you, please do! We contract with a language translation service for non-English applications to ensure the most accurate translation possible. If you have questions about this, feel free to reach out to us and we can address your specific scenario.

Responses to essay questions are evaluated for detail and clarity in their responses, using a 1-5 point scale:

• 5 – fully answered this area with detail.
• 4 – mostly, but could have added more clarity and/or specific details.
• 3 – yes, and have several lingering questions.
• 2 – a start, but is lacking focus and/or detail.
• 1 – response is written, but does not address the question asked.

The word limit for each essay question is 500. We recommend writing your essay responses in a separate document to then copy and paste into the application.

While AI can be a useful editing tool, we want essay responses to be your authentic voice. Submissions that appear to include mostly or entirely AI generated content may be disqualified.

If you would like to create a video response to any of the four essay questions, you may, and please include a link to that video in the text box. In the settings, be sure to allow anyone with the link to view the video. Please limit your video to 5 minutes for each question.

We expect to have 25 open scholarships for 2026-27, and can receive up to 400 applicants each year. This is about a 6% award rate, in line with the national average. Once you have applied for this scholarship, do check in to the following scholarships for the LGBTQ+ community: Pride Foundation, Stonewall Foundation, and Point Foundation.