Pickering Fellowship

[compost&recycle]

Last Friday, I received the unexpected e-mail notifying me that I am a finalist and am now trying to gather more information on the fellowship stipulations. I heard not all programs qualify (only certain IR programs, but not all policy programs), which affects my school decision to a certain extent. Would love to connect with other prospective fellows or people who know more about the fellowship.

Thanks!

[druthers]

Looks like you are in a very similar situation to me. I am in at SAIS, Fletcher, Maxwell and the Ford school (U of M). I am also a pickering finalist. The website is very vague about its requirements but I have looked at past winners and there have been some from SAIS, Fletcher, Syracuse...U of M? Not sure. I have the online essay exam tonight and my interview in two weeks (over skype! I currently live in Indonesia). Have you heard anything about how to prepare for these? Which school are you leaning toward?

[tapp49]

Hi, I am also a Finalist. I am not sure how to prepare for the interview but would love to hear anyone's perspective, I will be flying to DC for the interview on the 22nd. Good luck with the Skype interview! I'm also not sure on schools that qualify. I'm accepted to Monterey Institute of International Studies MPA, SAIS, and SIS. Looking forward to meeting those who will be in D.C. for the interview in a week.

[jvw123]

Congratulations to all of you!

I'm a current Pickering, so I thought I'd chime in with my two cents.

First, no one ever gave me a list of schools or programs that were/were not acceptable. I assume that if your programs were way off base you wouldn't have been chosen as a finalist, and really lots of different courses of study would be useful in the FS (economics, management, etc) so I can't imagine that a policy degree wouldn't be allowed.

Second, to prepare for the interview, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the FS, the 13 dimensions, and the cone you'd like to be in. Think of it like a mini oral assessment. There was a very detailed blog post that I linked to under another forum, http://clevertitle-comingsoon.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-as-pickering-fellowship-finalist.html. It was a little different back then because all fellows came to DC for the interview/test. But the content should be the same.

Good luck with the interview and written test. Also, I'm trying to put together some information about the process for future Pickerings, so once you've tested/interviewed feel free to post a debrief here.

~j