Can getting a fellowship help admission?

[yoconman]

I am curious if and how getting a graduate fellowship could help graduate school admission.  I have been told from a few people that getting a fellowship was one of the reasons they got into their graduate institution.  However, I don't see how that could possibly make a difference since you apply for both at the same time, and, I am assuming, both send out admissions results at relatively the same time.

[guttata]

As an example, the NSF GRF is announced (for the last 2 years) before March 30th, and historically not later than the first week of April. The unofficial 'deadline' for grad school admissions is April 15, by way of the funding schedule which most schools adhere to. This leave usually at least 1-2 weeks between notifications, and of course since you're bringing your own funding theres no reason the school can't send you an acceptance letter later. I refer to it as a Wonka Golden Ticket of sorts. It's not 100%, but more often than not in cases where its tried, the GRF will get you an acceptance letter if you notify your school. I suspect its the same for many similar fellowships (STAR, NDSEG, etc.)

[Eigen]

I've heard of a number of cases where getting the NSF didn't turn around admission decisions, for which there are several reasons:

1) Even though your stipend is funded with an NSF, the COE doesn't cover nearly all of most tuition and requires the institution to cover fees. This means that you're not "free". Also, it does nothing to cover the cost of your research, which can be quite significant.

2) The NSF is only 3 years, and most PhD programs are significantly longer than that.

From what I hear, an NSF is nice- but most schools (sciences) aren't turning people away due to lack of funds for them, but because they've taken what they can sustainably handle.

They're not going to suddenly find a pile of money for the rest of your (years) stipends, your tuition waiver, and your research just because you got a fellowship, unless the only reason they didn't accept you in the first place was not having enough funding to fully fund you.

MIT stopped accepting more than a certain number of NSF fellows a few years ago, and you can still find articles on that back-and-forth.

If you go back through the archives here, you can find people who weren't able to get a position after winning an NSF.