Predoctoral Fellowships

[fallen625]

Has anyone heard about predoctoral fellowships, and whether it would make sense to apply to them while applying to graduate school? Or do people generally apply their 1st year in graduate school? I am applying for 2014 and I thought it might make sense to start researching some fellowships to make my application more competitive if that is an option.

 

[Usmivka]

Applying to fellowships at the same time as grad school is normal. Major federal fellowship awards are often restricted to those in their first two years of grad school, which means you only get two shots--the year you apply to grad programs and the end of your first year in your program. The NSF GRFP is the obvious one to look into. I don't know any others that award fellowships for psych students specifically, although depending on the proposed research you might be able to fit the Behavioral Sciences category for NDSEG.