Outstanding Undergraduate Records for Fellowship? Advice, Experiences..

[Makeda]

Hello

 

So, I am in the process of applying for a fellowship for next school year and the application states that fellowships will only be awarded to candidates who have outstanding undergraduate records. I'm not exactly sure what that means...especially since they didn't specify a specific gpa. I am definitely in high need financially and my undergraduate gpa is only a 3.3...I go to a really renowned school and I don't want to discourage myself from thinking I am not good enough but I also don't want to waste my time.

 

Has anyone else had any experiences with this?

 

 

[TakeruK]

Hello

 

So, I am in the process of applying for a fellowship for next school year and the application states that fellowships will only be awarded to candidates who have outstanding undergraduate records. I'm not exactly sure what that means...especially since they didn't specify a specific gpa. I am definitely in high need financially and my undergraduate gpa is only a 3.3...I go to a really renowned school and I don't want to discourage myself from thinking I am not good enough but I also don't want to waste my time.

 

Has anyone else had any experiences with this?

 

Unless there are explicit minimums given, it's hard to tell what they mean by "outstanding". It also depends on the award too. Are you already in a grad school and is this an "internal" award for a second or later year of grad school? If so, then "outstanding" could just be a fancy word and they will probably award it to the best applicant. Especially for internal awards, all of the really good candidates might already have external awards or more prestigious internal awards, so I think it's worth it to apply to every single internal award that you qualify for because you might end up competing with only a handful of others!

 

I think it might be hard for another person to help you without more information about the situation. Also, does the award info give details of past winners (usually the big awards do this). Or, can you ask someone you know who might have applied to the same award?

 

Finally, fellowships are usually not awarded based on need--at least most of the things named fellowships in my field are generally awarded based on previous achievement, instead of current need.

[Makeda]

Thank you for this response! I have a lot to think about. the fellowship is external and the website states that past winners come from Brown, Dartmouth, Emory, MIT, Princeton, Cal and others. This fellowship does take into consideration your financial need--they ask for your financial aid records and income tax information.