Often funders will set low word count limits for essay within grant or fellowship applications. It eases the organization’s review process, but puts applicants in a bind. How do you sum up potentially years of complex field specific data into a clear and concise 500-word essay? My points below are drawn from my experience with the Hall Rothman […]
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The Art of the Abstract
Applications for competitive fellowships and grants often require a research abstract, but condensing big research ideas into a short blurb can be a challenging task. How does one go about writing an effective abstract? Think of the abstract as a highly compressed version of your research proposal. It should follow a similar structure and formula […]
Responding to Reviewer Comments
As aspiring academics, rejection is just one of those things we have to get used to- many excellent peer-reviewed papers, academic book proposals, and of course grant applications went through multiple rounds of “no” before the final “yes.” Within this process of “revise and resubmit,” the reviewer comments given for a previous submission can become […]
Preparing for your GradFund Meeting
At Gradfund, all members of the Rutgers University graduate student community are invited to schedule a meeting to discuss funding options and have application drafts reviewed. To get the most out of your meeting with GradFund, please see the tips below for both meeting types: Planning and Application Review. Planning Meetings During planning meetings, you […]
Where Do I Start? Finding Good Advice on Proposal Writing
When you think about writing the first draft of a proposal, you may have trouble finding a starting point. Indeed, the first step to writing any good funding application is getting past the first blank page. Along with GradFund’s resources, like blog posts (see Crafting the Research Question as an example), there are other online […]
Fulbright Application Process Series: What Goes into a Completed Application
Welcome to the first installment in an occasional series on applying for Fulbright support as a graduate student. As the Assistant Dean for Graduate Student External Support in the School of Graduate Studies, I am the GSNB’s advisor for the Fulbright IIE Research/Study and ETA grants and the Fulbright Hays. The focus of today’s post […]
How to Choose the Best Awards for You
Do you know what fellowship or grants you will apply for this year and in the coming years? In this blog post we will look at how to choose what awards to apply for and when. If you are eligible for multiple awards and you are trying to decide what to apply for, prioritize your […]
How to Search for Funding Effectively
One of the most common questions that fellowship advisors hear from students is “What can I apply for?” Even with the web resources available for searching, it can sometimes be challenging to find awards that are a great fit with a student’s research area and stage of study. Today, we will focus on using both […]
Relating Your Funder’s Purpose to Your Award Application
So you started working on your award application, but you are unsure of how your research project advances the goals of the funding agency. What do you do? In a grant or fellowship application, you will want to make a compelling connection between your research and the goals of the granting institution. However, to learn this […]
The Scholarship Breakdown
Graduate scholarships are awards that support academic expenses, such as tuition or fees, books, and research costs. They are usually smaller sums of money and are of particular importance for students completing professional and research-based master’s degrees, where little external funding may be available. They are usually provided by companies or professional societies to support […]
How to Juggle Funding Applications and Multiple Other Responsibilities: The Fall Application Season
Graduate students, new and advanced, have the task of juggling many responsibilities each semester: coursework, research progress, and professional activities, with a little bit of social time mixed in. Now, while we are in the middle of summer, say your advisor comes to you and asks that you apply for a fellowship with a deadline […]