Fellowships Offer a Path to Graduate Programs, Study Abroad

Grad school always appealed to Jacob Calvert, but it wasn't until late in his junior year at the University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign that the bioengineering major zeroed in on a subject area that really spoke to him: complex systems mathematics.

After discovering a center focused on that field at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, he strategically sought out several fellowship programs that could pay his way.

With the help of an adviser, Calvert applied for and earned a Marshall scholarship, which funds up to 40 American students each year who are pursuing graduate degrees in the U.K. Calvert's scholarship covers the $30,000 tuition toward a math master's degree and gives him an additional $20,000 for expenses.

Many fellowships can be thought of as scholarships that cover tuition for one to three years of graduate study and sometimes include extra funding for living expenses or attending academic conferences. Other awards are given for teaching, research or short-term jobs.

Becoming part of a cohort of highly qualified peers and having access to personalized professional development can be just as valuable as the monetary benefits, says Kyle Mox, vice president of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors.

[Learn more about paying for grad school.]

Some fellowships are based at particular schools, while others are targeted at people in certain disciplines. The Rhodes scholarship is exclusive to the University of Oxford in the U.K.; the Truman scholarship is for those interested in public service.

Plus, "there's just a whole alphabet soup" of offerings in the sciences, notes Suzanne McCray, vice provost for enrollment management and director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards at the University of Arkansas.

Aspiring scientists might consider the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship -- with 180 awarded annually in fields of interest to the Department of Defense -- or the Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship -- with 12 to 15 awarded per year to people pursuing a Ph.D. in science, math or engineering -- among many others.

A number of opportunities are earmarked for students from underrepresented minority groups. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine administer a fellowship on behalf of the Ford Foundation, for example, that invests in about 120 doctoral students in a variety of disciplines each year with a goal of diversifying teaching faculty.

The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans program annually supports 30 naturalized U.S. citizens, other immigrants and children of immigrants for two years of study in any field.

[Find other scholarships for grad school.]

To help students sort through their options, many universities have dedicated fellowship advisers and detailed databases of offerings. Cornell University, for example, offers a publicly searchable collection of fellowships. Mox suggests working with your school's advisers to find programs whose goals align with your interests.

It's important to start thinking about applying junior year -- or even earlier. Applications for many competitive programs are due early in the fall. They often require a personal statement, letters of recommendation and extensive interviews. Depending on the program, you typically will either apply to a fellowship organization or be nominated by your undergraduate institution.

[Check out a list of prestigious fellowships.]

Selection committees want applicants to make clear how a fellowship is critical to their career path, rather than framing it as a study-abroad experience, for example.

"It's not a gap year," McCray says. "It's a supplemental experience that really is going to enable you to do what it is you want to do."

Other desirable attributes generally include top-notch academic performance and leadership skills.

"What we're looking for is people who apply their intellectual skills, their people skills, and their grit and determination to an issue that they care about," says Rob Garris, director of admissions for the Schwarzman Scholars program, which will enroll its inaugural class of 111 this year.

Participants study at Tsinghua University in Beijing in a fully funded one-year master's program specializing in international studies, public policy or business and economics.

Applying for a fellowship can even sometimes benefit those who are not selected. For instance, applicants for the Mitchell scholarship, which is awarded to American students enrolling in a graduate program in Ireland or Northern Ireland, can choose to have their submissions shared with companies that help sponsor the program, such as Morgan Stanley or CRH, an international building materials firm.

"Our entire applicant pool is highly impressive, and that's of interest to companies," says Trina Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance, which administers the Mitchell.

This story is excerpted from the U.S. News "Best Graduate Schools 2017" guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.