Can I use my SOP for a fellowship application as well?

[starofdawn]

Hello all,

Apologies if my question seems naive - I have never applied for a fellowship before.

 

I am applying for a fellowship that asks for graduate students "who express an interest in energy-related fields of study." My entire SOP for graduate applications talked about how I wanted to use my graduate studies for advances in alternative energy! It sounds like the perfect fellowship for me.

 

Am I able to use most of my graduate application SOP for this fellowship application, too? I was planning on adding a paragraph about how the fellowship would be of great use to me, but does the fellowship committee already have a copy of my SOP? Would it look bad to (almost) use the same SOP for both my graduate school application and this fellowship application? 

[Porshyen]

I would probably err on the side of caution and switch it up a bit, maybe going into more detail or bringing more focus to what you are interested in and how you think this fellowship can help you. It is hard to say for sure if the same people who admitted you will also be reading and deciding upon fellowships, but just to be sure, I would make it is a little different. 

Edited March 6, 2014 by Porshyen

[fuzzylogician]

I would ask the prospective department. My guess is that the grad school application and the fellowship application will be read by very different people (two separate committees, with likely very little or no overlap), but that's just a guess based on how these processes usually happen. I don't think there could be any harm in just contacting a POI at the school and asking them if they know about this fellowship and have any advice about how to craft an application. They may know who is on the committee, what is important for being selected, or have experience sponsoring students who got this fellowship in the past. Whatever happens, going after these awards shows initiative and I don't think anyone could find fault with asking for more information about it.