Graduate Research Fellowships 101

Applying for fellowships is an integral part of the graduate experience. Some (but not all) Stanford Bioscience PhD programs require their first- and second-year students to apply for outside sources of funding. Whether it’s required or not, there are many good reasons to apply for research fellowships.

Winning a nationally competitive fellowship is a highly prestigious accomplishment. This recognition will follow you for the rest of your scientific career. Having your own research money can afford more flexibility in terms of choosing a graduate program, research lab and/or project. Fellowships often provide funds for lab supplies, conference fees and travel expenses. As tedious as it may seem, the application process is a good exercise in grant writing, an extremely important skill to hone as a scientist. As long as you meet all of the applicant criteria, there’s really no reason not to apply for a fellowship.

Nationally competitive fellowships awarded most frequently to Stanford Biosciences graduate students are the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP, or simply NSF) and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG). Having said that, there are countless research fellowships from which to choose. At the end of this post you will find links to fellowship databases as well as a link to a list of fellowships available to minority students.

Here is some general advice relevant to the fellowship application process:

Getting organized

-  Research fellowships, decide to which ones you’ll apply

-  Make note of deadlines

-  Generate a timeline by which materials must be submitted

-  Become an expert on the fellowship philosophies and agendas (e.g. Broader Impacts carries a lot of weight in the NSF fellowship application)

-  Develop an organization system for you applications (i.e. directories/subdirectories on your computer)

-  Don’t procrastinate!

Requesting letters of recommendation

-  Make sure you understand the recommendation letter criteria of the fellowship(s) to which you apply (e.g. how many are required?)

-  If possible, ask for recommendation letters from the same people who wrote letters on your behalf for graduate school applications

-  If you feel your current Stanford rotation advisor knows you well enough to write a recommendation letter for you, don’t hesitate to ask

-  Be very clear in communicating what’s required of recommendation letter writers for any given fellowship (how/where/when to submit letters, required forms, etc.)

-  Send a current CV/resumé to those who agree to write letters for you

-  Send polite email reminders to your letter writers one or two weeks before the submission deadline

Obtaining input from peers and colleagues

-  Read and learn from award-winning fellowship applications

-  Have your parents, friends, classmates, etc. (as many people as possible!) read your personal essays and statements

-  For more technical research proposals, have classmates, older grad students, postdocs, and/or advisors read your proposal(s)

-  Ask for advice from anybody who has been awarded a research fellowship*

*Philip Guo is a Computer Science PhD student at Stanford who has written an informative article titled Advice for applying for graduate science fellowships: NSF, NDSEG, Hertz. If your goal is to win a research fellowship, I HIGHLY recommend reading this!!!

As mentioned previously, BioAIMS is hosting a ‘How to write an NSF’ workshop next week. Students who have been awarded the NSF fellowship will share their advice and provide NSF applications of past award recipients. If that’s not enough to entice you, there will be free lunch!

Fellowship Databases

Cornell University Graduate School Fellowship Database

UCLA Graduate & Postdoctoral Extramural Support (GRAPES) Database

Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Fellowship Database

Harvard University Graduate Guide to Grants

List of Fellowships for Minority Students

Stanford offers a number of gradate fellowships. These will be the topic of a future post. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

BioAIMS: An Organization for Everyone

BioAIMS is the clever acronym for the Biomedical Association for the Interest of Minority Students, which welcomes all students. The mission of BioAIMS is “to address the needs and concerns of current minority graduate students in the Biosciences.” Here are some other aims of the organization:

-   to promote the recruitment and active retention of minority students for graduate studies in the biological sciences

-   to facilitate academic success through academically focused workshops*

-   to stimulate professional growth through career development sessions

-   to foster a student support network through social interactions

The 2010-2011 BioAIMS officers are pictured below: 

From left to right: Antonia Dominguez (President), Jon Lynch (Vice President), Anjali Shastri (Financial Officer), Cecilia Sedano (Secretary), Diego Ramallo (Communications Officer)

There are lots of BioAIMS events throughout the year, including a Fall Fiesta, monthly meetings, a holiday party, a winter retreat (the first ever this year!), an annual student banquet, and much more. In addition, BioAIMS coordinates science outreach programs to serve Stanford and the surrounding community.

*Attention new students: as mentioned above, BioAIMS offers a series of workshops targeting new graduate students (you!). These seminars are well worth your time AND you get free lunch out of the deal. The fall quarter workshops will cover the following topics:

-   How to write an NSF

-   How to make the most of your first year

Keep an eye out for more detailed information. Be sure to check out the BioAIMS website. If you’d like to be added to the BioAIMS mailing list, contact Diego Ramallo.

BioAIMS wants YOU!

BioMASS Mentoring Program

The BioMASS Mentoring Program pairs incoming Biosciences students with current PhD students to facilitate one-on-one (or small group) mentoring. The program commences in the fall with a Welcome Event*, in which all program participants gather for food and a chance to get to know each other. During the remainder of the year, students and mentors meet once a quarter for lunch.

Why should you participate? Free food! That should be reason enough. It’s also a great way to meet people outside of your class and department. For incoming students, this is a valuable opportunity to ask questions and receive advice pertaining to anything related to life as a Stanford grad student. Mentors were once first-year students and have likely gone through a lot of what you’ll experience your first year at Stanford. For current students, mentoring is a worthwhile experience, and a nice way to contribute to the Biosciences community. Wouldn’t you have wanted a mentor your first year? If you did have a mentor, I bet you learned a useful thing or two.

If you’re interested in participating (as an incoming student or mentor), contact Moria Chambers, who has created and directed this program for the past two years. Thanks for making this possible, Moria!

*Information for this year’s Welcome Event:

-  When: September 29^th, 2010 at 4 – 5:30 pm

-  Where: LKSC 4^th floor balcony

-  What: snacks, socializing/group activities with all program participants

Hope to see you there!