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How to Become a Strong Candidate for Fellowships

Prestigious scholarships and fellowships reward a comprehensive, diverse, and profound undergraduate education. Your professors and mentors can help you design such an education, but you are its architect. With this in mind, plan to:

Strive for excellence in your coursework

Take challenging courses.
Select diverse courses that allow you to grow in knowledge outside your major.
Find in each course something about which you can be passionate-and make that passion evident in your work.
Go above and beyond what your professors explicitly require in your written work, and class preparation, and participation. Such excellence will inevitably be reflected in how your professors think of you when writing letters of recommendations.
Remember that grades are not “the end of the story.” A less than perfect performance in a course, or on a given essay or exam, can be rescued by a willingness to revise the work, or better understand the material-even when such improvements will not be reflected in your course grade. Faculty admire students whose ambitions extend beyond grades. Show that you are such a scholar.

Seek opportunities to know and be mentored by faculty

Go to office hours. What to say at first?
- Discuss with your professors aspects of their courses, course readings, or their fields of study that you want to understand better.
- Ask about your professors’ own experiences in graduate school and in the profession. Discuss with them your own intellectual, academic, and career plans.
- Ask how to improve or develop the quality of your coursework. Even if you produce “A” -level work, invite your professors to tell you what you can do to take your work to the next level of excellence. Be open to their input and try to use it. Check back with them for further guidance. Your goal is to develop an ongoing dialogue that (1) develops and refines your academic skills and work product; and (2) gives your faculty a perspective on your intellectual range and powers.
Take time to learn about your professors’ research. Read it, even when it’s mostly over your head, and discuss it with them. You will gain a greater understanding of their fields, and of graduate study generally, from your conversations with these authors and experts.
Actively seek opportunities to do research under the supervision of your faculty. If you are unsure of what types of research activities are conducted in your field – ask professors in your department. You might join an ongoing research program, or develop an independent research project of your own. Your faculty can help you refine your thinking about a project you propose in your major. Remember that you may be able to apply for funding for expenses associated with independent research.
For students who study abroad, take time to cultivate relationships with faculty at the foreign college or university with whom you might want to work after college, supported by an international fellowship or scholarship. Speak with your supervisors there about what unmet needs the organization has that you might address by returning as a Fulbright scholar or as under the auspices of another international grant program.

Etiquette matters

Reliability when you make commitments and graciousness in your communications go a long way toward encouraging faculty and other mentors to have confidence in you as a mature person to be enthusiastically recommended to the academy, future employers, and fellowship foundations. Consider sending an appreciative follow-up email or note for a helpful reference or an insightful meeting with a professor. Remember, too, that when you ask for letters of reference, courtesy demands that you explicitly thank your recommenders after they have submitted letters on your behalf, and that you keep them informed about the status of your applications.

Expand your knowledge of the world

Enrich your perspectives on people, places, and events. Consider travel and study abroad. Fellowship committees do understand that not everyone can afford study abroad, so at least: entertain fresh viewpoints by participating in intercultural events, attending lectures, following the news, and reading broadly. Read scholarly and professional journals in your field of interest. Consider volunteer work or an unpaid internship in an arena that exposes you to populations or social issues that are beyond the realm of your ordinary experience.

Conduct undergraduate study in your field

Whether working on an independent research project or as part of a team, you are positioned as a researcher to be an active contributor to knowledge in your field, rather than merely a recipient of knowledge. In the process of conducting research and writing about your ideas and findings, you will gain insight into your field and its methods far beyond what you could gain by classroom experience alone.

Gain Experience

Fellowship boards want to know that you not only have one or more interests, but that you are doing something-and preferably a great deal-about them. Intern to gain experience in your field. Use every summer productively. Start looking for such experiences now.

Be, in your own way, a leader

Work to improve the world beyond the classroom. Give generously of your time to support public service or volunteer programs dedicated to addressing social problems or needs about which you care most. Think about what you can do beyond “lending a hand,” and then dedicate yourself to doing it. If a service or program or does not yet exist to address a need you see, consider developing one that will. Seek out professors and other mentors to help you think through how to implement your goals. Convince likeminded folks to help. As needed, apply for internal or external funding.

Get involved in extracurricular activities that are meaningful to you

There are no formulaic “best” activities. What is important is how you think about these activities: what value you see in them. As you engage in these activities, take some time to think about why they matter to you.

Consider submitting essays for prizes, undergraduate conferences, and undergraduate journals

Faculty in your major are a good resource for these opportunities. Prior recognition by boards that vet other competitions can enhance your profile in the eyes of foundation selection committees. Such recognition is a mood enhancer! Revising your essays for submission will also have salutary effects on your writing. The Director of Fellowships and Grants is available to give you feedback on your essays in preparation for submission to journals and other venues.

Consider competing for smaller scholarships

Benefits are much like those for submission to prizes, conferences, and journals. Use scholarship search engines and browse Foundation Grants to Individuals, in the library.

Work on your communication skills

Many fellowships require interviews in addition to essays. In your liberal arts courses, you will gain competence in developing coherent and persuasive analyses in writing. In your interactions with peers and others, practice speaking your mind and articulating your positions clearly and succinctly. Your goal is to remain true to your own values and voice, while at the same time learning to better communicate yourself and your positions to strangers. Risk explaining your logic, while being open to radically different perspectives. Practice making your intellectual passions and ethical concerns transparent to all others, whatever their social status, and yet available for dialogue.

Reflect upon your credentials and goals

Take time to reflect upon what it is that most speaks to you and most nourishes you in your various activities and pursuits. Doing so will help you clarify your direction in life, and help reveal what steps you should follow to reach your goals. It will also help you determine which scholarships, fellowships, internships, or research opportunities best fit your situation.

Adapted with permission from: http://www.whitman.edu/content/fellowships/competitiveprofile