Confused on the notion of a fellowship.....

[jimmy_01]

This may seem like a very dumb question to most of you, but I wanted to clarify the notion of what exactly a fellowship is...

 

I've been looking around in this site, and people assert that they got "NSF fellowships" or "2 week fellowship at a university". I mean what exactly constitutes as a fellowship (or fellowship award)? According to Google, a fellowship is basically a financial award that is given to an individual as part of a graduate/work program. If that's the case, then does being accepted into a fully funded PhD program constitute as a fellowship?

 

 

[Pauli]

A research fellowship always means fully funded.  Fully funded does not always mean a research fellowship.  There are other ways to be fully funded, such as a teaching fellowship (i.e., being a TA) or working under a professor or lab director in a funded project (i.e., being an RA).  What separates a research fellowship from other fully funded opportunities is that you work with a professor, while other fully funded opportunities means working for a professor or department.  In other words, research fellowships give you independence to work exclusively on a research project of your choosing in collaboration with your advisor, as opposed to working on a research project that is of your advisor's choosing.

[rising_star]

There's also a different level of competition and prestige. NSF Fellowships, for example, are highly competitive national awards that, when awarded, show that an external committee believes your research idea(s) are promising.

 

Also, there's things like dissertation research fellowships, which pay for fieldwork or equipment to help you complete your dissertation. Again, these are competitive awards that typically are awarded from external groups or are at the university-wide level.

[Eigen]

A research fellowship always means fully funded.  Fully funded does not always mean a research fellowship.  There are other ways to be fully funded, such as a teaching fellowship (i.e., being a TA) or working under a professor or lab director in a funded project (i.e., being an RA).  What separates a research fellowship from other fully funded opportunities is that you work with a professor, while other fully funded opportunities means working for a professor or department.  In other words, research fellowships give you independence to work exclusively on a research project of your choosing in collaboration with your advisor, as opposed to working on a research project that is of your advisor's choosing.

 

Not to nitpick, since this is a very good general description, but RA/TA is not a fellowship. A TA is a Teaching Assistantship, and an RA is a Research Assistantship. 

 

I clarify, because there are TF (Teaching Fellowships) and RF (Research Fellowships) out there. 

 

A fellowship is an award given without service requirements- it's given based on application, not as payment for services rendered. Assistantships are employment contracts that pay for services rendered, Fellowships are pay for you to do independent work. 

[fuzzylogician]

To make matters even more complicated, in my department your funding may be designated as a "fellowship" or as a (teaching) "assistantship" for tax purposes based solely on the funding source (=where the money comes from, a behind-the-scene issue that does not affect how much you are paid or what your responsibilities happen to be in a given year). This funding does not necessarily correlate with your teaching responsibilities for that year: you may be TAing but receive your funding from a fellowship source or you may not have any teaching obligations and be funded through assistantship money. In my department, no one is funded through research assistantships, so beside TA obligations (two semesters during our 5 years of residency) everyone -- on any kind of funding -- can work on whatever research project they want, independently of the advisor's project. 

 

These funding sources, as has already been noted, are department-internal and therefore not competitive. NSF grants (and other national grants), on the other hand, are awarded after an external committee which views applications from many students decides that your research is worthy of this external funding, and it's therefore much more prestigious. 

[jimmy_01]

Ok, thanks for the clarification guys

[Maleficent999]

This may be a silly question too, but is it pretty common for people who are not even accepted to a graduate program to apply for NSF or other fellowships? I haven't applied for any outside funding but I'm not sure if I should be.

[guttata]

Typically the fellowships require that you be accepted to or enrolled in a graduate program. You're allowed to apply for the GRF as a senior undergraduate, for example, but you must be accepted to a graduate school for the following fall to accept the award.