axz

I'm just starting my second year of a PhD program and looking into some fellowships like NDSEG. I understand one of the benefits of a fellowship is that you have a little more freedom to research what you want. However, I was in contact with my adviser the summer before I started, and basically hit the ground running on a project last year. So at this point I've already read a lot of articles on the subject, already have a year's worth of samples and data, and I have presentation of some of my preliminary results at a conference next month. Also, I like the project, so at this point I wouldn't really want to significantly change my project. Given that, and the fact that my RA covers full tuition, fees, and health insurance, is there any benefit to an external fellowship, other than higher pay, that I'm missing?