Workshop Materials for How to Write a Successful Fellowship/Scholarship Application

Dear Colleagues

I have conducted a number of workshops for students in various contexts about how to write a successful fellowship application. For the workshops I have put together a short-power point presentation that provides some key tips and strategies for developing an effective proposal, and also some key fellowship resources.

I am uploading the slides to this site, as perhaps some faculty may want to use the slides to help conduct workshops for their own students and/or students may find it useful to read through the resources. The presentation is available here ScholarshipsPresentation.pdf

Some additional key resources for proposal writing include

http://fellowships.ssrc.org/art_of_writing_proposals
http://offices.colgate.edu/grants/graduate-fellowship.html
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/730.html
http://www.yale.edu/yalecollege/academics/fellowships/application/i...
http://www.uc.edu/global/Scholarships/Fulbright_Grant_Manual.pdf

A short summary is below:

This presentation is designed to provide key resources on how to obtain students can obtain fellowships and scholarships for study and research. Faculty members and staff are encouraged to use the slides to conduct workshops for their students. Some of the content for these slides (citations are provided) are taken from a wonderful guide to the Art of Writing Proposals from the Social Science Research Council http://fellowships.ssrc.org/art_of_writing_proposals

Please note, it can be very challenging to get a scholarship, but if you produce a strong application and apply for multiple opportunities this will significantly increase your chances. The rate of applicants per fellowship varies widely by opportunity and country, but in my experience reviewing fellowship applications in the US (and also advising students), the rates here are generally between 10-30 applicants per fellowship offered (some fellowships are much more competitive than this). For some fellowships in the US and opportunities in other countries the rate can be much, much higher, sometimes with maybe several hundred or more applicants per fellowship offered. Thus, to have a chance at the fellowship a strong application with a convincing purpose, strong letters, etc., is a must.

Feel free to add your own suggestions/resources.