fellowships – Page 30 – Middlebury Fellowships and Undergraduate Research

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.

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.

Tag: fellowships

The Student Funding Database

Gearing up for fellowship applications