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Get Started with Fellowships

Smith’s fellowships team supports you through the process of exploring, selecting, and applying for nationally and internationally competitive awards. Below you’ll find a general overview of what that process looks like as well as suggestions for what you should do next. We look forward to working with you!

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Fellowships Process

This is the general timeline of the fellowships process. You’ll work with your advisers on the details of your particular journey.

Applying for a fellowship involves a large time commitment. These are suggested first steps that can be done in any order and can help you decide whether or not to invest your time in a particular application.

Build credentials and experience.

Look at the list of options.

Take a look at the awards that are popular with Smith students. Fellowships support a range of opportunities—from internships with access to valuable professional networks to international study experiences or graduate school—so don’t forget to ask faculty and friends in your department what opportunities they know of. You can also explore options using the Northwestern Fellowship Finder.

Go to an info session.

We host information sessions in the spring to help you identify fellowships you would like to apply for in the coming year. We also host info sessions about key awards (e.g. Fulbright) in the fall (just before the application cycles start) to give more detailed information on eligibility, award benefits, and what kinds of applicants the awards are looking for.

Personal reflection.

Fellowships are meant to help you build skills and experience integral to your goals. Think about what career pathway(s) you want to pursue. What do you want to gain experience in? What do you want out of this experience? We suggest talking to your faculty advisers, career advisers, and fellowship advisers about these questions.

Express interest.

By filling out an interest form, you are connecting with Smith’s fellowships team and letting us know that you may be pursuing a fellowship opportunity. Please review the common fellowships list and identify awards you are interested in before filling out the form.

Get feedback on preparedness.

Being prepared for a fellowship opportunity and application is all about understanding how the experiences you already have will help you thrive during your fellowship and how that fellowship will help you reach your personal and professional goals. Talk to your fellowship advisers and faculty members for their insights on how prepared you may already be and what experiences or skills you may want to seek out to be more prepared.

Make connections with faculty, mentors, and advisers.

Reaching for your personal and professional goals requires a lot of work and support from others. From advice on professional pathways to letters of recommendation for your applications, faculty members are important parts of your support team so make time to get to know them. Connecting with other mentors, career advisers, and fellowship advisers will give you a broader range of resources and insights for your development.

You have decided to go for it! You’ve picked some fellowships and now it’s time to focus on the details.

Narrow your choices.

Fellowship applications require a lot of time and attention. Most students can put together, at most, two to three strong applications. Think about which fellowships are most appealing to you. Make sure you have enough time in your schedule to balance working on the application(s) on top of your other responsibilities.

Understand requirements and selection criteria in detail.

Do your homework! Confirm you meet the eligibility requirements for your chosen fellowship(s) and that you will be competitive.

Within some fellowships programs, you’ll have additional choices to make before you can apply. For example, fellowships that provide funding for graduate school will expect you to identify the school, degree, and program(s) you will apply to; fellowships that offer lab or internship experiences will require you to select which project you want to be considered for.

Reflect on credentials and experience.

Beyond meeting the eligibility criteria of a given fellowship, every award is trying to find applicants that are the best “fit” for the values and mission of the fellowship organization. Your credentials and experiences will be considered more holistically.

All fellowships focus their pursuit of excellent candidates on what matters most to them. Some fellowships prioritize demonstrated leadership or public service with a record of impact as a changemaker. Others care most about academic success in courses relevant for the graduate program or research you plan to pursue while on your fellowship to help create new knowledge in their fields.

Your job as a fellowship applicant is to understand what your fellowship is looking for in a competitive candidate and to make a case for how you have demonstrated relevant strengths and achievements.

Consult advisers.

Make an appointment with a fellowship adviser to talk about your plan. In addition to reviewing the fellowships you’re interested in, the adviser will also help you understand your application timeline and will talk about how and when to submit your application for support (a Smith-specific application).

The application for support has several functions:
  1. It confirms to fellowship advisers that you have decided on a specific award(s) and are ready to begin work on the application;
  2. It gives you an opportunity put into words the skills, experiences, and plans you have already developed in relation to important fellowship criteria (including research, leadership, and professional trajectory);
  3. It acts as your application to be considered for campus nomination for awards like the Rhodes, Marshall, Goldwater, or Truman where Smith College is only allowed to have a limited number of applicants per year.

You’ve narrowed down your fellowship choices and you’re ready to start applying. What next?

Consult advisers.

Make an appointment with a fellowship adviser to talk about your plan. In addition to reviewing the fellowships you are interested in, the adviser will help you understand your application timeline, strategize about requesting letters of recommendation, and will talk about how and when to submit your application for support (a Smith-specific application).

Submit Smith’s application for support.

Whether you are applying for a fellowship that requires campus nomination or not, all Smith students and alums who would like application help from the fellowships office must complete an application for support. While you can submit an application for support at any time, if you are applying for a nominated fellowship you must submit a completed application for support by the posted campus deadline for that award.

The application for support has several functions:
  1. It confirms to fellowship advisers that you have decided on a specific award(s) and are ready to begin work on the application;
  2. It gives you an opportunity put into words the skills, experiences, and plans you have already developed in relation to important fellowship criteria (including research, leadership, and professional trajectory);
  3. It acts as your application to be considered for campus nomination for awards like the Rhodes, Marshall, Goldwater, or Truman where Smith College is only allowed to have a limited number of applicants per year.

Draft key parts of your fellowship’s application.

Your fellowship adviser will help you identify the most important parts of the fellowship application to work on first. Fellowship applications often require several rounds of drafting and edits, so starting early will give your adviser time to provide feedback and will ensure you have time to respond to that feedback.

Request a letter of recommendation.

You should anticipate requesting about three letters of recommendation for each fellowship application you plan to submit. It is important to give recommenders ample time to work on your recommendation letter. We recommend you ask for letters of recommendation at least four to six weeks ahead of the application deadline.

Refine, review, and submit early.

Fellowship application portals often get bogged down and slow on the day of the application deadline, so we encourage you to be ready to submit an application at least a few days ahead of the deadline. This means you should work on drafting and getting feedback as early as possible to give yourself, your fellowship adviser, and your recommenders enough time to see your application develop and see a final version before the deadline.