Funding for Graduate School
Why
Get a Fellowship?
 Most students
in the sciences get funding from their department, in the form of a teaching
assistantship, research assistantship, or departmental fellowship. If you're
going to get funded anyway, why apply for external fellowship support?
Departmental
support is no longer a sure thing.
Federal support
of graduate research, both directly and indirectly, has decreased somewhat
in the past few years. Top universities have responded by limiting the
number of graduate students they'll support, and even admitting some graduate
students without support.
No
teaching duties.
Many key fellowship
programs preclude the university from requiring you to teach or become
a teaching assistant, leaving you more time for thesis research.
Safety.
Many universities
now limit the number of years of support. By bringing in outside funding,
you earn yourself a reprieve.
Edge
in Graduate Admissions.
Graduate students
who bring funding with them are much more attractive to admissions committees
than those without funding.
Flexibility.
If you have
your own funding, your choice of a graduate school won't depend on which
schools offer you money. You'll also be able to choose the thesis topic
that interests you the most, instead of having to find a topic that is
relevant to your advisor's research grant.
A
common horror story:
You're a year
into your thesis research, and just starting to get results, when your
advisor tells you that his grant wasn't renewed, so you'll have to change
thesis topics.
Getting
a Good Advisor.
An advisor can
support only so many students. If you bring funding with you, you'll be
more attractive to potential dissertation advisors.
Focuses
Your Dissertation Work.
Writing a grant
proposal forces you to think about your proposed thesis research in a concrete
fashion. In particular, it makes you think about the work from the point
of view of justifying it to others. It'll make writing your thesis proposal
a lot easier, and help you isolate the essence of your topic.
Practice
for Future Faculty.
Seeking funding
and writing grant proposals will be a part of your future, whether you're
going into academia, government, or industry. Get practice now, so you'll
be more successful later. Faculty with funding wield power.
Finish
Faster.
If you don't
have sustained and secure financial support, it'll take you longer to finish.
Time to completion decreases with increasing financial support.
Resume
Fodder.
Winning a prestigious
fellowship looks good on your curriculum vitae, and can make you look more
attractive to future employers. This is especially true in academia, where
it tells universities that you're already acquainted with the funding game.
Money
is the number one worry of graduate students.
If you can get
it out of the way early on, you'll have more time for other concerns. Even
if you don't get funding, learning how to apply for funding will be a positive
educational experience.
Sources
of Funding
University.
University support
is the primary source of funding for students, especially foreign graduate
students. (Most fellowships require US citizenship or permanent residency.
Some fellowships include Canadians and Mexicans. For students of other
nationalities, write to your embassy, the US Department of State, and the
US Information Agency.) These typically include a tuition waiver and a
monthly stipend. Stipend amounts are usually at or slightly below the poverty
line.
Teaching
Assistantship (TAship).
Requires you
to perform teaching duties, ranging from grading papers, to running recitation
sections, to teaching courses. Good practice for graduate students interested
in teaching careers, but it'll take away 20-30 hours a week from research.
Research
Assistantship (RAship).
Requires you
to perform research duties for your advisor. This could be on work unrelated
to your future research topic. If you're lucky, you will be working on
something that will evolve into your thesis topic. Good way to explore
the field and learn laboratory technique.
Departmental
Fellowship.
Typically without
specific duties, but may be for only a year or two of support, after which
you'll have to have an RAship or TAship.
Foundation
Fellowships.
The best kind
of support. See ``Key Fellowship Programs'' below for a list of the most
prestigious (and well-funded) fellowship programs. See ``Writing the Fellowship
Essay'' for some pointers on writing a fellowship application.
Research
Grants.
Some fellowship
programs (e.g., NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program) are actually
grant programs, and you apply for them just like faculty do when writing
a grant proposal. See ``Writing Grant Proposals'' for some pointers on
applying to grant programs.
Loans.
The federal
government provides some loan programs for US graduate students.
Steps
to Getting Funding
Identify
likely sources of funding.
Spend at least
a day in the library and find the programs that are most likely to fund
you. Don't pay money to scholarship search services.
Get
current application materials.
Letters
of recommendation.
Ask your advisor
to write you a letter of recommendation. Don't be surprised if he asks
you to write a draft version, which he'll then edit. If he does, don't
be modest in the letter. Don't underestimate how difficult it is to write
a good letter of recommendation. Choose your other references carefully.
Look
at previously successful essays and grant proposals.
Many graduate
students will be willing to let you look at their essays.
Write
the proposal.
If need be,
get some help from a technical writing workshop. If your university runs
a grant-writing workshop, go to it. The skills you learn in writing a grant
proposal will be useful throughout the rest of your career. Show the essay
to your advisor and friends for feedback. Type it and proofread for spelling
and grammar.
Submit
the proposal.
Send out the
proposal to all the funding agencies, tailoring it to each. Keep a copy
for your records.
Revise
the proposal.
If you get rejected,
many funders - even for fellowship programs like NSF - will send you a
copy of the reviewer's comments. If you address their comments, your proposal
is much more likely to succeed the next time. (You can apply for the NSF
both during your senior year of undergraduate school and during your first
year of graduate school. The same is true for many other fellowship programs.)
Don't be discouraged
if your fellowship application or grant proposal gets turned down. The
success rate forthe most prestigious awards runs from as high as 30% to
as low as 2%. The success rate for NSF fellowships is 14%. At such rates,
they can't fund all the worthwhile proposals, so the funding game is something
of a crap shoot. The more grant proposals and fellowship applications you
submit, the greater your chances of gettingfunded.
Watch out for
the deadlines - deadlines for fellowship applications and grant proposals
are firm. If you're one day late, they won't even look at your application.
Writing
the Fellowship Essay
Writing an essay
for a fellowship program is just like writing the statement of purpose
for graduate school. In many cases you'll be able to use the same essay
for both. You should present a clearly focused area of interest, state
why you're interested in the topic, and describe your relevant background,
especially research experience. Where have you been, where are you now,
and where are you headed? Show a set of intertwined threads running from
the past through the present and on to the future, woven into a cohesive
tapestry. Be specific, and give concrete examples.
Writing
Grant Proposals
A grant proposal
is much different from a fellowship essay. In a grant proposal, like in
a thesis proposal, you're trying to convince someone (the funding agency,
the faculty) to allow you to conduct your proposed research. Thus a grant
proposal should have the following elements:
The
Topic.
What is the
basic idea or purpose of your topic? What is the problem you're trying
to solve?
Argue why
the topic is important and worth solving. Why should they fund your proposal?
The thesis is the thing you're trying to prove or accomplish.
Previous
Work.
Has this problem
been addressed before? Include a brief review of the relevant literature.
How does it relate to your field of research? Place the problem in perspective.
The
Gap.
What will your
contribution be? What is the gap in previous work that you'll attempt to
fill?
What is your
``secret weapon'' that you'll use to solve the problem? What kinds of results
do you expect? What will be the impact of your solution?
Proposed
Research.
What you will
definitely do and what you might do in investigating the problem. What
methods will you use? Have these methods been used before successfully
on similar problems? Be sure to provide enough detail here.
Evaluation.
How will you
measure your progress? What are your completion criteria?
Time
and Money.
Can the problem
be addressed in the time proposed? Are the results obtainable in a reasonable
amount of time? How much money will the research require? Justify your
budget in terms of the research. Be realistic.
Qualifications.
Why are you
uniquely qualified to undertake the proposed research? What is your background?
Have you done any related work? Any preliminary results? How does this
project relate to your interests?
Follow
the grant guidelines carefully.
Make sure
your proposed research is directly relevant to the sponsor. Tailor your
proposal to the goals of the funding agency. State how it is relevant to
their interests. Target it to the audience.
Don't
be wishy-washy.
If you can't
make up your mind, pick one topic and go with it; you can always change
your mind later.
Key
Fellowship Programs
Here are some
of the more prestigious fellowship programs. Most provide from 3 to 6 years
of support, typically including tuition, required fees, and a monthly stipend.
Most programs accept applications during your senior year of undergraduate
school (e.g., ONR) or your first year of graduate school. Some let you
apply both years (e.g., NSF, Hertz, AFLGFP, NDSEG), and a few let you apply
any time during your graduate career (e.g., NASA, Ford). Dissertation fellowships
are for the last year or two of your graduate program (e.g., AAUW, NEH,
Rockefeller).
Science,
Mathematics, Engineering:
Air Force Laboratory
Graduate Fellowship Program (AFLGFP)
Fannie and John
Hertz Foundation Fellowships
Howard Hughes
Doctoral Fellowship
NASA Graduate
Student Research Program (NASA GSRP)
National Defense
Science and Engineering Fellowship (NDSEG)
National Science
Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellowships
Office of Naval
Research (ONR) Graduate Fellowship Program
US Department
of Energy Graduate Fellowships
Study
Abroad:
Fulbright-Hayes
Marshall Scholarships
Rhodes Scholarships
Winston Churchill
Foundation
Medicine:
Howard Hughes
Medical Institute Fellowships (HHMI)
National Health
Service Corps Scholarship Program (NHSC)
For
Female Students:
American Association
of University Women (AAUW)
AT&T
National Physical
Science Consortium (NPSC)
Zonta International
(Aerospace Science and Engineering)
For
Minority Students:
Ford Foundation
Minority Doctoral Fellowships
National Physical
Science Consortium (NPSC)
GEM Minorities
Fellowships
NSF Minority
Graduate Fellowships
Humanities:
Jacob K. Javits
Fellowship Program (Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences)
Mellon Fellowships
in the Humanities
National Endowment
for the Humanities (NEH) Dissertation Grants
Charlotte W.
Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in the Humanities
Rockefeller
Foundation (Social Sciences)
Social Sciences
Research Council (SSRC)
National Security
Education Program (Languages)
Tricks
of the Trade
Encourage the
first years in your department to apply for fellowships. If they get outside
support, this will free up departmental funds for older graduate students.
Don't ignore
small programs. Every penny counts, and winning small fellowships adds
credentials that can help you win the big ones. (After all, winning $1,000
for a few hours work isn't bad.)
If you run into
sudden financial problems, talk to your university's financial aid office.
Most universities have emergency loan funds. They may also have transition
loans available, to tide you over until you receive your first stipend
check.
Watch the deadlines.
The deadlines for some programs can be as early as October (e.g., Hertz).
Many conferences
will provide financial assistance to enable students to attend, especially
if they are
presenting papers.
You may be required to be a volunteer (e.g., sit at registration for a
few hours).
If a fellowship
requires that you be nominated by your department, just ask the nominator
to nominate you. Bring a copy of the materials with you, including a copy
of your resume.
If you have
minor variances from the eligibility restrictions, apply, especially if
you're minority or female. The stress here is on minor variances. For example,
if they specify a limit on the number of graduate credit hours, and you're
over the limit because you took too many graduate courses as an undergraduate
student, apply anyway. The intention of the restriction is award the fellowships
to first year graduate students. On the other hand, if they require minority
applications and you aren't, don't apply - it's a waste of your time and
the sponsor's time.
Taxes
If you're a
degree candidate and your fellowship doesn't require teaching or research
services as a condition of receiving the grant, then amounts used for tuition
and required educational expenses (e.g., fees, books, supplies, and equipment)
are exempt from federal income tax. The stipend portion of the fellowship,
which is designated for living expenses (e.g., room and board) is not exempt.
If an amount
is exempt, this means it is an excludable expense. Excludable expenses
may be used to reduce the taxable income before any deductions. Thus you
can subtract the excludable expenses from gross income and still take advantage
of the standard deduction - you don't need to itemize deductions.
The full amount
of the fellowship is usually exempt for social security.
Foreign students
should become familiar with the details of their country's tax treaty with
the US (IRS
Publication
515). Many universities are extremely conservative when it comes to the
tax status of foreign students.
Cutting
Costs
Other tips for
saving money:
Complete your
education more quickly.
Sell your car
and buy a bicycle.
Get a cheaper
apartment, or find yourself a roommate.
Marry a wealthy
spouse.
Learn to cook
and stop eating out.
Turn off the
lights and turn down the heat.
Pay off credit
card indebtedness with a consumer loan from your bank.
Use the library
instead of buying books.
Buy your clothing
at Goodwill and Dollar a Pound.
Loan
Programs
One in six doctoral
students must carry a loan to graduate, with the average amount of indebtedness
at graduation around $20,000. About three times as many graduate students
in the arts, humanities, and social sciences carry loans as do in the sciences
and engineering.
About this
document ...
This document
is based on a set of handouts prepared by Mark Kantrowitz for talks presented
at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University about financial aid for graduate
school. Mark Kantrowitz is co-author of the book
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