Becoming a Strong Candidate for a Fellowship

•  Seek an undergraduate experience that maximizes your personal, intellectual and professional growth. You become a strong fellowship candidate by striving towards meaningful ends.

•  Pursue excellence in challenging classes. Good grades are prerequisite for fellowship success, but the best students seek more than the grade. Demonstrate a thirst for knowledge. Take challenging and diverse courses outside your major.

•  Work on your communication skills. Many fellowships require essays and interviews.

•  Get work, internship and volunteer experience in your field. Start looking for such experiences right after your freshman year. Use every summer productively.

•  Make time for public service and volunteerism in areas that you care about.

•  Expand your knowledge of the world. Enrich your perspectives on people, places and events. Accomplish this by following the news and reading books, by undertaking travel and study abroad, by participating in cultural events and attending lectures, etc.

•  Get involved in interesting extracurricular activities that are meaningful to you. There are no formulaic "best" activities. What you do with them is more important.

•  Seek out leadership positions. This does not necessarily mean holding offices in five different clubs. It means becoming an active player and contributor.

•  Consider submitting essays to essay contests and competing for smaller scholarships. These awards can function as building blocks.

•  Seek the opportunity to do undergraduate research in your field whenever possible. This may take different forms with different majors, but it will help you prepare for your academic future and complement your classroom experience.

•  Get to know people. Engage your professors, advisors, administrators and employers. They will be able to write more effective letters of recommendation for you, and you will gain the chance to discover their valuable life experience.

•  Start assessing and reflecting upon your credentials and goals. This will help you clarify your direction in life and reveal what steps you should follow to reach those goals. It will also help you determine which fellowships best fit your situation.

(This page is a modified version of the webpage:
http://www.k-state.edu/artsci/scholarship/tips.shtml#becoming and is used by permission of Jim Hohenbary, Kansas State University.)