NEW Fulbright Partnership Fellowship in Scotland

Lisa Gates / / Uncategorized

From the US-UK Fulbright Commission: We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. As the deadline quickly approaches for the Fulbright Postgraduate Student Awards for 2010/11, we wanted to let you and your students know a little more about Strathclyde and the new Fulbright opportunity to study there.

The NEW Fulbright-Strathclyde Partnership: Beginning this year, the University has agreed to waive full tuition fees for up to 4 incoming American Fulbright Scholars to pursue Master’s-level or higher research programmes in any subject area. Their Fulbright Award of approximately £10,000 would be used for living/maintenance costs, which are relatively low in Glasgow. Students in all academic subjects are particularly encouraged to consider Strathclyde, and if interested, to note it as their top university preference on their Fulbright Application. The deadline to apply for an Award in 2010/11 is 19 October 2009.

About Strathclyde: Founded in 1796 and granted its royal charter in 1964, Strathclyde is one of the largest universities in Scotland and welcomes more than 15,000 full-time students each year. It is one of the leading international technological universities with a world-wide reputation for research and learning, meeting the needs of students, employers, industry and the wider community through its teaching, research and consultancy.
Fast facts:
– Strathclyde is the UK’s largest provider of graduate education – including a large number of continuing education and professional development programmes
– 85% of research output is rated at an internationally excellent standard (Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008)
– More students train to be teachers at Strathclyde’s Faculty of Education than anywhere else in the UK.
– The Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde is one of the best equipped engineering faculties in the UK and is the largest in Scotland (2008 RAE ranked Strathclyde top in Scotland for engineering ‘research power’).
– The University of Strathclyde established the first student-run Law Clinic in Scotland. The Law Clinic provides free legal advice and representation to people who cannot afford a lawyer buy may not qualify for legal aid. It provides law students with the opportunity to gain valuable experience with real-world legal problems
– Strathclyde Business School is one of the top 1% of business schools worldwide, and the only one in Scotland with accreditation from the three leading international accrediting bodies (AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS).

Life in the heart of Glasgow – City of Culture: Strathclyde has its own Campus Village, right in the heart of the Glasgow – Scotland’s largest and most cosmopolitan city. It is a city that prides itself on style. As well as its cutting-edge music, excellent shopping and restaurants and a vibrant arts scene, Glasgow has more than its fair share of high culture, with a year-round programme of arts and music. Glasgow was named UNESCO City of Music in 2009. There are over 20 museums and galleries, and the city is home to Scottish Opera , the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Royal Ballet.
People visiting Glasgow for the first time are often surprised at the amount of green space in the city centre – all the 19th-century landscaped parks and gardens are the perfect balance to the urban pace of life. With a keenly contested rivalry between the country’s two top football teams – Rangers and Celtic – an international stadium at Hampden and hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014 , Glasgow has a rightful claim to be Scotland’s sporting capital.
If Glasgow whets your appetite for seeing more of Scotland, you couldn’t be better placed than Strathclyde. For fans of the outdoors, the stunning scenery of the Trossachs and Highlands is just a short drive away. Or you could hop on a boat to one of Scotland’s islands and explore a slower pace of life in the rugged landscape of the Western Isles.
Related links:

Contact at Strathclyde for more information: Julie Ramsay, International & Graduate Office at julie.ramsay@strath.ac.uk .

Midd Deadline for Marshall and Rhodes Coming Up

Lisa Gates / / Uncategorized

Applications for nominations for the Rhodes and Marshall fellowships are due soon–Monday, September 7 by noon!  Important things to note:

  • If possible, send application materials ELECTRONICALLY to lgates@middlebury.edu . Word docs and pdf files are fine. If electronic delivery isn’t possible, you can bring me paper on Monday morning.
  • If you are applying for nomination for the Rhodes AND Marshall, you only need to send me application materials for the Marshall at this stage. Just note that you are applying for nomination for both.
  • Make sure you send me the Banner Degree Progress Report (and NOT the Unofficial Transcript) with your materials
  • You must also sign up for an interview slot with the British Scholarship Committee.  Brief interviews will be Friday, Sept. 11, between 1:15pm-4pm. Either call me (x3183) or stop by my office ADK 204 to sign up. YOU MUST SIGN UP BY Monday, Sept. 7 at NOON!

Writing Resource Available Online

Lisa Gates / / Uncategorized

For those of you in the midst of writing and revising essays (or thinking about getting started–but no, that’s not you, right?), Joe Schall has made his guide to writing essays for graduate programs and fellowships available online. You can find it at https://www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ . It’s free through Penn State’s e-Education Institute.  The online chapters offer advice on  generating detail for personal essays, writing style as well as fellowship-specific advice.

The Student Funding Database

Lisa Gates / / Uncategorized

I want to give a plug for the Student Funding Database, if only because it deserves more attention than it probably gets. Perhaps it would help if it had a different name, like “Look Here for Money!” and an online equivalent of a flashing neon sign.  But don’t let the generic title fool you; the database an excellent resource for current undergraduates and recent alums looking for funding sources for graduate education, projects, and in a few cases, undergraduate funding.

The database contains all fellowship opportunities we learn about, both those internal to Middlebury and from outside foundations, companies and organizations.  And the best part?  You can search the database based on your class year, citizenship, or field of interest.  You can find it through our  SFAS website and look for the link on the left-hand side.  And if you find fellowships that aren’t included, but should be, you can add them.

Why do we need this? There are simply more opportunities out there than those we can advertise through our office. We focus on competitive academic fellowships (and a few internships) that require institutional nomination, but there are many other opportunities for which students apply to directly. Search around and you’ll find things like the Collegiate Inventors’ Competition, where individuals or teams from different scientific disciplines display their innovative ideas, processes, and technologies. There’s modest travel and research funding for undergraduates conducting research about the Lake Champlain ecosystem. Or the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest, with awards ranging from $500 to $5000. Like many fellowship opportunities, these focus on particular areas of study or kinds of students, so you do have to spend some time looking. But with the search functions, we’ve tried to make this process as easy for you as possible.

And as with any opportunity, feel free to come talk with me about the scholarship or contest you’re considering.

Gearing up for fellowship applications

Lisa Gates / / Uncategorized

Fall is the big fellowship application season. It’ll start with the British scholarships (Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell), then the Fulbright and the Watson, then a few more for the UK–St. Andrews, the Churchill, and the Gates-Cambridge–and then the NSF.  And that’s all before Halloween.

These fellowships offer great opportunities for post-graduate educational funding and a few also contribute toward undergraduate education. Some, like the Fulbright, the Watson, and the Compton, provide for a year-long post-graduate experience, like a research project or an opportunity to teach English abroad.

How do you know if you qualify for a scholarship? Well, do some research.  The fellowships that require Middlebury nomination are listed on our website: go/sfas .  There’s also a link there to a much bigger database where we add all the opportunities we come across, and most of those you apply to directly.  But the first trick is to find a good match between you, your objectives, and the scholarship’s mission and criteria.  All these foundations have different kinds of students they look to support.  The Churchill funds a year at Cambridge in science, engineering and mathematics.  The Udall funds undergraduate students interested in environmental policy.  The Jack Kent Cooke will fund any kind of grad program, including law and medicine, but you need to have demonstrated financial need as an undergraduate.  The Watson wants creative projects.  The Fulbright wants students who will make good ambassadors abroad.  Many, but not all, have minimum GPA requirements, too.  So review the scholarship’s selection criteria and look for ones where there’s a good match between you and the scholarship.

When should you start looking at competitive fellowships? There is no time like the present.  Most of these are for seniors and recent grads, but some are for sophomores and juniors (look at the Goldwater, Beinecke, IIPP, Truman and Udall).  And there is a real advantage to starting this process early in your undergraduate career–it will make you a much stronger applicant when your application time rolls around.

What should I do next? Get in touch with the fellowship advisor for your fellowship.  You can find contact information on our SFAS website.

Upcoming topics: letters of recommendation and writing the essays.