In the wake of Sandy, GradFund sends our best wishes to everyone affected by the storm and its aftermath. We know that many of you have looming deadlines, and that you may have lost a week or more of time to revise. If you are suffering from last-minute doubts, you may even be considering not […]
Advice
Advice
Arguing for the Importance of Your Research: The Literature Review
An effective literature review (sometimes called “background and significance” or “theoretical orientation”) is essential to every successful proposal, from art history to chemical engineering, and from early graduate study fellowships and small grants to completion fellowships and postdocs. True, the role of this section depends partly upon your discipline. In the humanities and social sciences, this […]
Parlez-vous français? The Ins and Outs of Funding for Language Training
Graduate students who conduct research on non-English speaking countries need to achieve a degree of fluency in a foreign language that will support their research. Many graduate programs require competency in one or more foreign languages. Even if your program doesn’t require this training, a language competency evaluation is part of the application package for […]
The Art of the Introduction
Where to begin? Introductions are tricky beasts: Part meet-and-greet, part sales pitch, and all balancing act, a good introduction can seem like more art than science. However, behind the rhetorical craft, effective introductions to fellowship and grant proposals generally follow a simple set of guidelines that every writer can employ. Generally, the length of an […]
Predissertation Research Grants as a Foundation for Successful Dissertation Research
In the last few weeks, our blog posts have focused on the early stages of graduate study, including early graduate study fellowships and general advice for planning award applications long-term. Today, to round out this picture of the first few years of a graduate student’s external, merit-based funding perspective, we’d like to discuss pre-dissertation research […]
External Funding Tips for Early Graduate Study
The first month (or even year) of graduate school can be both exciting and overwhelming. Looking back, for me that time was a blur of new faces, new places, and new ideas, all rushing past at NJ Turnpike speeds. The idea of tackling the process of applying for grants and fellowships in the midst of […]
Early Graduate Study Fellowships
Fall is upon us, campus is again flooded with students, and classes are already in full swing. To the new students in all programs, we at GradFund would like to say, “Welcome!” Especially for first- and second-year graduate students, we would also like to remind you that now is the time to apply for early […]
Give yourself an hour to think about postdocs…
As April begins, graduate students (even those of us who have been doing this for what seems like forever!) begin to shift into end-of-semester mode: Grading exams and term papers begins to take precedence over just about everything else. However, if you will be entering your final year of dissertation writing in the fall, now […]