From skill building to networking to funding, fellowships can aid students navigating the complex terrain of higher education by providing a direct pathway to various professional fields.
Fellowship programs include competitive grants, study abroad and research activities, but they are most often awarded to fund proposed research projects or other academic work.
Is a fellowship for you? Here’s some information about what fellowships are and tips to cultivate a competitive application.
What Is a Fellowship?
Three basic categories of fellowships are financial awards; experiential programs that provide job, travel or research experience; and graduate awards that provide funding and can be tied to a specific school, like the Rhodes Scholarship and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, says Tara Yglesias, deputy executive secretary for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, an independent federal agency in Washington, D.C.
The foundation awards the Truman Scholarship, a graduate fellowship, to those pursuing careers as public service leaders.
Fellowships can be awarded at the undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate level.
In addition to the financial and educational benefits, fellowships can help recipients build communities, Yglesias says.
[Read: An Ultimate Guide to Understanding College Financial Aid.]
“You work closely with professors to get selected, you know, to get letters of recommendation. You work with people on campus to help develop your writing and your interview skills,” she says. “And so, I think for us, we tend to think of fellowships as a whole as a way to kind of develop those skills and add value to education.”
Fellowships also give scholars the opportunity to think about how their personal and professional experiences beyond basic coursework can support long-term goals, she says.
Explore Free Websites
Many websites offer fellowship advice, some of it dubious and for a fee, Yglesias says.
But there also are plenty of free online resources available through schools, including the University of South Carolina, Arizona State University and for graduate students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she says.
“We also suggest Benefits.gov and Grants.gov to find federal government specific opportunities,” Yglesias wrote in an email.
The Truman website also has a list of fellowship programs, including those it doesn’t administer. Yglesias recommends using the site as an application tool, even if not applying for that particular program, because it can helps you think through the different steps in the application process.
The website has a section on sample answers, common issues and interview advice, as well as “some generic writing suggestions,” she says.
Seek Out Your College’s Fellowship Advising Office
Fellowship advising offices at colleges can help students identify resources available to them for the tuition they’re already paying, says Robyn Curtis, director of the Office of Major Fellowships at Clemson University in South Carolina.
Advisers discuss with students their fields of study and short- and long-term goals, says Curtis, who is also president of The National Association of Fellowships Advisors.
“That’s how they can identify the correct program that’s going to be a great fit for them, as well as make sure they understand deadlines” for application, she says.
[Read: Paying for Scholarship Help: Pros and Cons]
If your college doesn’t have a fellowship advising office, Curtis suggests checking with the foundation offering the fellowship opportunity you’re seeking to see if there’s a liaison available to provide support.
Don’t Delay
Fellowship applications may require endorsements, or letters of recommendation, from universities, which take time. Applicants should not delay in meeting with their fellowship advisers and doing their own research, Curtis says.
Some applications may also require endorsements from high-ranking university officials, such as the president or provost.
“Students are often very deadline oriented, but they don’t understand the timeline for these kinds of opportunities. You know, you cannot roll up two days before the Rhodes Scholarship deadline and apply,” she says.
Get to Know Faculty
It’s much easier for professors to write letters of recommendation for students who are known to them as opposed to strangers, so get to know the faculty, Curtis advises.
That includes going to office hours, asking questions about pursuing graduate study, or discussing an interest in research.
“Faculty are excited to engage with students who are, you know, really interested in this work as well, and they will support you,” Curtis says, adding that faculty also might know of opportunities they can recommend.
Fellowships Don’t Have to Be in a Particular Field of Study
Some fellowships are specific to a student’s field of study, while others don’t have that restriction.
“The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, for instance, you can be in any field. And we say there’s a Fulbright for everyone because it’s an opportunity to go abroad, do research, or be enrolled in graduate study or teach English,” Curtis says.
Students should look for fellowship opportunities both in and outside of their field of study to see what might spark their interests.
Funding Periods Vary
Some fellowships, such as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program, fund three full years of graduate study, while others cover less time.
For example, The Rhodes Scholarship is a postgraduate program that funds two years of study at the University of Oxford in England.
“But then there are many other scholarships that are not intended to be full-funded opportunities, but are just meant to assist students” and supplement their cost, Curtis says. “So, it really, really depends.”
Some fellowships have a service requirement in exchange for awarding funding to students. For example, the Truman Scholarship requires recipients to engage in a career of public service for a certain number of years after graduation.
“The student would really need to carefully read the opportunity and make sure they understand,” Curtis says.
[Read: How to Win a Fulbright Scholarship.]
Tailor Each Fellowship Essay
Don’t use the same essay for every opportunity you apply for — tailor it to the fellowship you’re seeking.
“Students really need to think about the specific opportunity, why it’s good for them, and why they are a good fit for the mission of the program,” Curtis says.
Students gain from the process of writing the application, she says, because they learn to articulate their goals and write about themselves and their experiences in a way that forms a cohesive picture.
AI Is a Tool, Not a Crutch
Students should be wary of artificial intelligence writing platforms and write essays in their own words, experts say.
Writing for fellowship applications is very different from academic writing, and students need to recognize that, Yglesias says.
“And I think one of the big things that we’re seeing now, particularly with abusive AI tools, is that students produce writing that doesn’t sound conversational, that doesn’t sound like their authentic voice,” she says.
ChatGPT and other AI tools can be useful for grammar purposes, or to make sentences more concise, she says.
“But we do discourage it … for primary drafts for creating a product that the student doesn’t feel represents themselves,” she says.
University writing centers, staffed by skilled editors, can be useful resources to workshop essays and ensure quality, distinctive writing samples, experts say.
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What a Fellowship Is and Why You Might Want One originally appeared on usnews.com