Hi everyone! Just hoping to get some insight on university-wide/internal fellowships and how much they matter...
So I'm deciding between 2 very similar UC schools, and one has given me an internal/university-wide fellowship which would give me a stipend to replace a TA salary and is a bit more money than a TA salary, and the other one hasn't but offers a full funding package anyhow.
During visit day, I asked some faculty members at the school that hasn't offered me a fellowship in what ways having a fellowship matters, and they all more or less said that these internal fellowships really don't matter and don't mean anything on a CV or for other funding applications. But I feel like that's wrong? I think that while the money is maybe not a huge difference it's still big enough to matter a lot, and it is a good thing to have been nominated and awarded a competitive fellowship, right?! Like, I know these internal ones aren't of the same calibre as prestigious external fellowships but it must still count for something in the long run in addition to all the short term benefits...
I don't know, maybe they're right but it feels wrong so just looking for some insight...