39: Ford and NSF Fellowships: What Are They and Tips for Applying

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi everyone. Today I am going to be talking about fellowships. I'm going to be talking about two fellowships in particular, the Ford Foundation pre doctoral fellowship and the NSF GRFP Fellowship, which is the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. That's what that stands for. I'm gonna be talking about those two fellowships, what they are, why you should apply, who actually is eligible to apply, and some tips for how to approach the application process.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So if you're applying to grad school this fall, I often strongly suggest recommend my students to apply to these two fellowships, along with others. But these are two very big ones that come up every year around the same season as grad school apps. They're due in October and December usually each year. They're great because they're external sources of funding for grad school. If you come into graduate school with these external sources of funding, it allows you to leverage your funding opportunities. It puts you in a position of power. It makes you much more competitive. It gives you more options to decide how you're going to navigate each year of graduate school with regard to TA- ships and research assistantships, and how much support, how much time you'll have to just be working on your research.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

We'll start with the Ford Foundation, pre doctoral fellowship. Through its fellowship programs, the Ford Foundation- this is based on their website- they seek to increase the diversity of the nation's college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. As you can tell, this fellowship primarily focuses on diversity, on supporting diverse scholars or scholars who are going to support diversity in academia. The Ford Foundation does this through providing three types of fellowships. One of them is the pre doctoral fellowship, another is a dissertation year fellowship, and the last one is the post doctoral fellowship. In your case, you will be applying for the pre doctoral fellowship. That fellowship is awarded to individuals who, according to their language, have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. It's great because this fellowship will provide you with three years of support for completing a PhD. Please keep in mind that the Ford Fellowship does not provide support for Master's degrees. That's something you want to consider because this is where it's different from the NSF GRFP. The NSF GRFP does allow you to use their funding for Master's programs. The Ford Foundation pre doctoral fellowship does not.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So who is actually eligible for the Ford fellowship? For that, you want to take a look at Ford pre doctoral fellowship eligibility. If you go to their website, you'll see there they have a fact sheet. On that fact sheet, it'll give you a list of bullets of who is eligible. You do have to be a US citizen or permanent resident. You have to show evidence of academic achievement, evidence of being committed to teaching and research. You should be enrolled in a research based institution. You should have at least three years of study to complete your PhD. Usually they're supporting folks who are in the early parts of graduate school. Once you are closer to graduating, you're applying to the dissertation fellowship. This is usually for first and second year PhD students who are applying. Of course, if you're a prospective PhD student going in to apply to grad school, you can also apply. Also, you cannot have already earned a doctorate degree to apply. So those are the eligible eligibility requirements.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

It doesn't explicitly say that you have to be underrepresented, although it's considered a positive factor for selection. If you are a member in one of the following underrepresented groups, being Alaska, Native, Black, African American, Mexican American, Chicanx, Native American, American Indians, Native Pacific Islander, or Puerto Rican- that's the language that they use. It's considered a positive factor for selection, but not necessarily an eligibility requirement. So if you see yourself and say, I don't fit one of those, but you are so committed to supporting diversity in academia, then you likely still can apply.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Then the other thing you'll want to take a look at are the eligible fields of study. This is very important to look at for both fellowships, because they're very different in terms of what fields they support. The Ford fellowship tends to be more broad in terms of the fields that they support. They have a list of programs that are on their website. Like for instance, they have biology, ecology, education, engineering, history, philosophy, literature. They have philosophy, physical sciences, psychology, social, cultural anthropology, sociology, and then within those are some fields. Just double check, make sure that your field is in there. If it's not, you want to reach out to them, because in some cases, you can petition- at least for the Ford fellowship- to see if you if your field fits another category. I remember when I applied, my PhD was in theater and performance studies. I am a former Ford fellow, and I don't think that performance studies was one of the fields, or it wasn't clear that my degree was exactly the same title as the fields that they were supporting. So I contacted them, and they told me, yes, you can apply within this field. They clarified that for me. When in doubt, ask them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So if you're eligible, the deadline is usually in December. Let's see if I can find the deadline for you for this year. I'm gonna go back to their main website, pre doctoral application instructions deadline, December 17th, 2022. You have plenty of time to apply, if you're serious about it. What do they asked for, for this application? They ask for a personal statement, that's typically two pages. They asked for a statement of previous research, that's typically three pages. These are double spaced. They ask for a proposed plan of grad study, that's two pages. Then they ask for three letters of rec and transcripts. This is not too bad, because if you think about it, a lot of these materials, you will already have drafts of based on your grad apps. Most graduate applications are going to ask you for personal statement. The statement of previous research, and the proposed plan of graduate study, those are materials that you can pull from your statement of purpose for grad school. It's not going to be too different except for you're going to want to tailor it and make sure that you address the bullets of the prompts, so that you emphasize you know, diversity, you emphasize your commitment to teaching and research. But you'll have something to work off of, you're not going to be starting from scratch. Then the three reference letters will be the same recommenders that are writing you letters for grad school. You need three recommenders for grad school, so the same three will be more than happy to write you letters for these fellowships. It's really just another letter. They're already going to write eight to 12 letters for you anyway, and they're going to be using the same template so it's not going to be a big deal for them to add a few more. Then transcripts, like I said, you're going to be sending transcripts for grads might as well send transcripts for the Ford fellowship. Alright, so that's the Ford fellowship.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now I'm gonna move on to the NSF GRFP, Graduate Research Fellowship Program. I couldn't remember it earlier. Alright, so what is the NSF? The NSF is an independent federal agency that according to their website, was created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science, to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare and to secure national defense. Then they go on and on. So it's a federal agency, and they're trying to promote science. NSF provides funding to undergrads, grad students, postdocs, K through 12 educators, small business programs, veterans, and so on. It's much more expansive in terms of who they support then the Ford fellowship. In your case, you will be eligible as a prospective graduate student to apply for the GRFP, Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What is the GRFP? The GRFP program provides fellowships to individuals who are early in their graduate careers, based on their demonstrated potential for significant research achievements in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics or in STEM education. Like the Ford pre doc, they provide three years of support. In their case, they do provide support for research based Master's programs, not just PhD programs. And what's interesting is that even though their emphasis is STEM, their definition of science is a broad definition. They do include social science programs, and at least one humanities programs. They include programs like anthropology, sociology. Linguistics is a humanities field that they support. So that's why I say don't say, oh, I'm in x field. I'm not doing hard science research. I shouldn't apply for an NSF fellowship. Actually, you should check to see what fields are supported, and you'd be surprised your field might be supported. Unfortunately, in my case, PhD in theater, it was not a field that was supported. Literature, I don't think, is a field that's supported. That's why I applied to the Ford instead. But they do support a wide range of fields. So when in doubt, double check their website.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Alright, let's see. I'm gonna see if I can find some eligibility information for you. I believe their eligibility requirements are pretty similar to the Ford, with the exception that they're not really prioritizing diversity. They're prioritizing science and the progress of science. All right, so applicants, am I eligible. To be eligible for the GRFP, you need to be, again, a US citizen or permanent resident. You need to be pursuing either a Master's or PhD in a GRFP supported fields, so check what disciplines are allowed. Be at an early stage in your graduate career. Again, first year or two of grad school. You don't want to be finishing up your dissertation when you're applying for this. For that, you'll be applying to different types of fellowships. It says here you have completed no more than one academic year of full time graduate study. No more than one academic year of full time graduate studies. So you want to apply now, like at the same time that you're applying to graduate school, or after your first year of graduate school. Because you can actually age yourself out and if you wait too long, it might be too late to apply. It also says that grad students are limited to only one application, submitted either in the first year or in the second year of graduate school. If you're already a graduate student, you can only apply once. That's my interpretation of that. So that's the eligibility. Now in terms of deadlines, the deadlines actually vary for the GRFP. It depends on the discipline. Their deadlines range from October 19th to October 30th this year. Actually, no, October 19th through the 22nd. Reference letters are due October 30th. And it just depends. So October 19th for Life Sciences, October 20th for engineering, psych, social sciences. October 22nd for chemistry, math, physics and astronomy. You'll want to check to see which deadline applies to you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And what does the NSF GRFP ask for? What are the application materials? They too ask for a personal statement. They ask for a relevant background statement. Well, it's called personal statement, relevant background statement and future goal statement, and it's all one. It's three pages. So that's one essay. Then the second essay is the graduate research plan statement, and this one's two pages. Like I mentioned earlier, you can work off of material that you're already writing for your grad apps, but you will have to tailor it a little bit more. You'll want to tailor, especially your graduate research plan a little bit more for the GRFP, because they introduce two sections. One of them is called the intellectual merit section, and the other one is called the broader impact section. They tell you how their defining each section, and what to include. So you want to take a look at that, to make sure that you address both in your statements. But again, work off of what you have. Don't make your life difficult. Don't try to start from scratch.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And one thing that actually is true for the NSF is that they don't hold you accountable to working on the project that you proposed for the GRFP. So if you say you're going to work on something in grad school, and then you actually go to grad school, and change your mind and change your topic, it's okay. They'll continue to support you. They'll continue to give you funding. You're not going to get in trouble. They're not going to take it away. Just keep that in mind. They want to make sure that you can write a successful proposal, but they're not necessarily invested in you following through with it at the end of the day, so don't worry too much about that part. Aside from those two statements, they ask for three reference letters. Again, same people who are writing for grad school can write for the NSF. And they ask for transcripts. Hopefully, you're starting to see a pattern. A lot of these statements overlap, and a lot of these applications ask for the same number of recommenders, and they ask for transcripts.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now I want to share some tips, because I did apply for fellowships. I know how stressful and overwhelming that can be. Oh, you're gonna hear me clicking. I just want to share kind of what worked for me, what didn't, and hopefully some of these tips will will help you out. So the first thing is try to set up some sort of study group, working group, Buddy System, study buddy. The point is, you don't want to do this alone. Find someone else who's also going to be applying to fellowships, or applying to grad school, and work with them. Exchange materials, set up study sessions, study dates with them. You can do this all - it's fine, you can do it over zoom. You can do it over a Google document, where each of you is in the chat checking in on each other every half hour to see you know what progress you've been making. Don't do it alone.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Next is you want to try to draft your materials early on. You don't want to wait until the last minute. This gives you time to be able to revise and edit it, so that way it doesn't feel like a rushed or incomplete draft. These are very competitive fellowships, so you do want to take them seriously, which is why you want to give yourself more time. If you give yourself more time, it also allows you the ability to work on very messy first drafts. You know, it's okay for it to be a messy draft. It's okay for it to not be perfect, because I still have time to work on it. You wanna get help from your faculty mentors. This both kind of provides you with accountability and they'll give you valuable feedback. The fact that you're telling them that you're applying, that you're gonna send them a draft for feedback, kind of forces you to work on that draft because they're going to be waiting for it. That's why I say request help. It'll be enforced accountability. You want to create application packets for your recommenders, kind of like how I often tell my students when they're applying to grad school, you want to have a letter of recommendation packet for that as well. In that packet, you give them drafts of your application materials. And they can be rough drafts. They don't have to be perfect. You give them a draft of the personal statement, the research plan. You give them a copy of your CV, a copy of your transcripts. Unofficial is fine, don't waste your money giving them official transcripts. And you want to give them a list of the fellowships you're applying to, and your own internal deadline. I recommend making the deadline a week or two before the actual deadline. That way they turn it in on time. See if you can access any samples of successful statements. You can do that by reaching out to people who you know who have been awarded this fellowship and asking them if they feel comfortable sharing materials, or if they'd like to share advice on how to apply.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

A good way to learn how to draft a strong app is by looking at a successful one. Also, you want to find role models. Is there someone in your discipline and your department and your program and your extended network who received this fellowship? And if so, reach out to them for advice. Make sure that when you're writing your statements, or when you're tailoring them, you want to address the mission of each organization or the foundation that's funding it. If the mission is diversity, you want to stress diversity. If the mission is promoting science progress, you want to really emphasize that as well. If they're using a type of terminology, you want to kind of mirror that term terminology. So tailor things to their mission. You want to follow their exact guidelines. Definitely keep to the page limit. Read and closely double check the prompts. If the prompt is just one prompt, make sure you answer everything that's on it. If it's a prompt that has a lot of bullets under it, you want to make sure that you're checking off each bullet and addressing each bullet. What else would I say? You want to make sure that you are very clear and direct in your language. You don't want to try to build suspense. You don't want to sound wishy washy, like you're not sure what you're going to do. You want to be confident in your language, so state your plans with certainty. I am going to do this, I am going to study, I am going to complete a PhD. Even if you're not sure, you want to sound confident and you want to be as clear as possible with your language. That's something that obviously, you might have trouble doing during your first draft. But as you're revising, make sure that you're revising to make sure that you sound as clear and as confident as possible in your language.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think that's all I'm gonna say in terms of tips for applying. I hope that you found this helpful, because I know that not enough students apply for the NSF, or for the Ford Foundation Fellowship when they're applying to grad school. It's one of the things that every year I hear from alumni. Like if there was one thing you wish you could do when you're applying to grad school, what would that be? Time and time again, they say, I wish I would have applied to external sources of funding. I wish I would have applied for the NSF. I wish I would have applied for the Ford. Even if they don't get it, you'll get feedback. Oftentimes, people get it the second time that they apply. So it's just a really good experience. You'll gain a lot from it. You're learning, actually, a skill of how to apply for these types of fellowships. You're going to be doing this for quite a long time. So the earlier you learn how to do this, the better off you'll be. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.