GRE Fee Waivers

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many programs have canceled the requirement to take the GRE exam. However, if you are interested in taking and wants an additional piece of strength on your graduate application, you may consider taking this exam. If cost is a concern, check out the GRE fee waiver.

Fellowships & Scholarships

The information below comes from a blog post written by Alyssa Hwang on, A Very General Guide to PhD and Fellowship Apps.

In general, PhD students will be offered admission with full funding. This means that the university will pay you a stipend of about $30,000 a year to cover the cost of living while you are a student there. The university will also cover your tuition and possibly some other fees, so this essentially feels like you are being paid to go to school. The source of all this money, however, is very important. This money will come from one of your future advisor’s grants, and these grants are awarded to accomplish specific goals. This means that if you are paid by a grant, you need to conduct research that contributes to that grant’s goals. This limits the scope of your research. Fellowships, however, pay you. With a fellowship, you are free to research pretty much whatever interests you. You might also become exempt from any TA or RA duties. To your advisor, you are a free student, so your advisor saves money. When your advisor saves money, the university saves money. Money makes people happy.

On top of that, fellowships are usually a prestigious addition to your CV, and winning fellowships now helps you win fellowships later. Review boards like to give money to people who have already been trusted by others with their money. I should note that prestigious fellowships are often extremely competitive; many qualified candidates are not awarded simply because there are not enough awards. This is a recurring theme in academia (and, honestly, life). If you don’t receive fellowships, don’t take it too personally. Dust yourself off, look for feedback, and try again. Here’s an overview of what fellowship applications usually require. Note that fellowship applications are typically due in October, which is quite a bit earlier than PhD applications (due in December).

To apply to a fellowship, you will typically need:

    1. The personal statement (2-3 pages single-spaced) describes your experiences and motivations to pursue research.
    2. The research proposal (2-3 pages single-spaced) describes the specific research questions you will investigate, methods you will use, and results you expect to generate.
  1. Letters of recommendation (3+) can come from research professors, professional supervisors, or anyone who knows you well in an academic sense. Note that some fellowships (like NSF or Ford) care about more than just research, so you may need to think about looking for people who can highlight your whole character. PhD programs emphasize research a lot more.

Here are some fellowships that undergraduates are eligible for. Note that many research fellowships do not provide funding for professional degrees, like the MD, so most of these would not cover medical school. Also note that many fellowships provide a number of years of funding over a certain time frame. For example, the NSF GRFP awards $34,000 per year for three years, but you have five years to use this money. You don’t have to take money from the NSF GRFP for three years in a row. This is helpful because you are not allowed to take fellowship money from more than one source at a time. So if you were awarded the NSF one year and the Ford Fellowship the next year, you can “take a year off” from the NSF and receive money from Ford, which would allow you to benefit from two fellowships at once even though you are only receiving money from one at a time. Did that make sense?

NSF GRFP

  • Very prestigious and well-known fellowship for wide range of STEM disciplines
  • College seniors, first-year graduate students, and second-year graduate students are eligible to apply (with some complex caveats)
  • Focuses on “funding the person, not the project”: the NSF is interested in your “intellectual merit” and “broader impacts,” so the personal statement is quite important
  • Awards $34,000/year for three years over a five-year period

Ford

  • Highly selective fellowship for students who have contributed to expanding diversity in STEM fields and are committed to teaching and research at the university level
  • Predoctoral (requiring minimum of three years to finish first doctoral degree), dissertation, and postdoctoral competitions available
  • Awards $27,000/year for three years over a five-year period

Hertz

  • Extremely prestigious and selective fellowship for superior academic achievement in STEM fields
  • College seniors and first-year graduate students may apply
  • Awards $34,000/9 months, renewable annually for up to five years

Stanford Knight-Hennessey

  • Scholars program that fully covers three years of graduate study at Stanford (including professional programs like MBA, JD, and MD) and provides a stipend for living expenses
  • Admissions to the graduate program and the scholarship are separate!

Other fellowships

Personal Finance Tips

See tips about managing personal finance as a Ph.D. student.