External Funding

[researchnerd]

Hey all-

Since most of us are freaking out about the costs of these crazy programs--I thought we should start a thread on funding. If you have external funding, would you mind posting the source and how you found it? From my research it looked like most funding was for second year of studies--i.e. you had to know where you were going. However, judging by some of the info on here, I see that that might not be the case.

Maybe this would also be a good place to post various external funding sites and databases? I used the Cornell Database.

[mab9ve]

You should probably keep this to a minimum, do you honestly want all the obsessed gradschool cafe student population knowing about funding opportunities to make competition that much more stiff? Help yourself and keep the knowledge to yourself~ My two cents.

[coaks]

You should probably keep this to a minimum, do you honestly want all the obsessed gradschool cafe student population knowing about funding opportunities to make competition that much more stiff? Help yourself and keep the knowledge to yourself~ My two cents.

Haha, what grad affairs program are you attending? I'll cross it off my list. Valid point, though, but one I hope few adhere to. I'd rather compete for funding with ten times the applicants and lose knowing the most-deserving candidates won then "earn" scholarship money because I was the only one to apply.

[researchnerd]

Agreed--besides there's plenty of strange varied funding out there that not everyone meets the criteria for.

[econister]

You should probably keep this to a minimum, do you honestly want all the obsessed gradschool cafe student population knowing about funding opportunities to make competition that much more stiff? Help yourself and keep the knowledge to yourself~ My two cents.

If you actually believed this, wouldn't you still encourage others to share and pretend to cooperate, or at least stay quiet? If you're going to be selfish, you may as well be a freerider...

[mab9ve]

I get a "minus 1" for being honest, lolz.

[Batignolles]

I get a "minus 1" for being honest, lolz.

But in all honesty, the application cycle for 2010 funding is pretty much over anyways, so retrospectively sharing what you applied for can't really hut anyone. I've posted a few of the scholarships I applied for (and others I found but didn't apply for) over in The Bank forum, where they're captured under the sticky "Sources of Funding 2010". My advice to next year's applicants is to look through this list, and to add to it as you find new opportunities to share.

Also, I did a really thorough search of fellowships and other funding opportunities back in September when I was beginning my applications process, and my conclusion is that - aside from the obvious big public service fellowships that everyone knows and that are highly competitive - there aren't many big funding opportunities specific to public policy or international relations.

Instead, I ended up applying for a few that applied to specific but still fairly broad groups of graduate students. As an example, I applied for one through the American Association of University Women that funds women returning to graduate school after a significant stretch of work experience. There are others I found for ex-military, for minorities interested in grassroots efforts, etc. etc. There are tons of these kind of opportunities, but you have to seek them out based on your profile rather than based on your graduate program choice.

Anyways, I encourage everyone not to be petty but to share your successful (and unsuccessful) fellowship applications from the 2009-2010 cycle! That way, next year's applicants will be able to apply to those same opportunities - which in my opinion is good for the community, and is really no skin off your back.

[Cornell07]

Off the top of my head, some of the popular ones for next year are the Pickering (for future FSOs), FLAS (foreign language studies), and DHS (for national security). And, of course, WWS offers a full ride & stipend to everyone offered admission (sometimes, I think, waitlist people don't get this offer, though).

[Putoots]

Is it possible to apply for some of these awards during your first year in a program? Most are talking about posting for the sake of next year's applicants, so does that mean many of these are only open to students entering (as opposed to continuing) a graduate program?

I only ask because funding isn't really an pressing issue for me in the first year since I'm brining some savings, but second year will be tough. Any thoughts on second chances for external funding next fall/winter?

[Batignolles]

Is it possible to apply for some of these awards during your first year in a program? Most are talking about posting for the sake of next year's applicants, so does that mean many of these are only open to students entering (as opposed to continuing) a graduate program?

From my research, it seems like it's a mix (though for the big two-year scholarships listed by Cornell07, I think you have to apply for at the beginning of your studies). Many of the others, which tend to be smaller awards from individual associations, are often renewable after you receive an initial year of funding, but you can apply for a second year as well.

The thing I would say is if you're looking for second-year funding, it might be good to start this summer. Many of the bigger scholarships I found have October-November-December deadlines, which could be hard to manage when you're just getting into the swing of things during your first semester. You might want to start putting together statements as early as you can to ensure you've got really strong materials together for a real shot at the cash - many scholarships or fellowships open to multiple graduate fields are pretty competitive. (The general rule I've seen is the bigger the amount of scholarship, the more competitive it is.)

[Batignolles]

Just to help people get started, when I was looking through for potential resources, I started with the lists compiled by the schools themselves. I focused on HKS and Fletcher, since I was applying to their programs, and found they had very thorough lists of potential scholarships. The Harvard list is quite searchable, but overall it took me a few hours to go through the lists, though, and see what could apply to me and my particular profile. If you're keen to get funding, though, I recommend you do the same!

Harvard's list of opportunities:

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/sfs/prospective-students/assistance/domestic/external

Fletcher's list of opportunities:

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/admissions/resources.shtml

[Cornell07]

Is it possible to apply for some of these awards during your first year in a program? Most are talking about posting for the sake of next year's applicants, so does that mean many of these are only open to students entering (as opposed to continuing) a graduate program?

After you have been accepted, finding external sources of funding is nary impossible, from what I have seen. FLAS is the exception and you can get ~18k (I think) towards a year of graduate study. Technically, FLAS is managed by individual schools who receive X number of FLAS fellowships from the federal government to dole out, so it is only pseudo-external.

Edited March 31, 2010 by Cornell07