Panel on fellowships

Objectives:

• Debunk misconceptions about professional writing
• Teach students about fellowship opportunities and what they are for
• Debunk misconceptions about fellowships: for example:
  • That it’s important to get a fellowship to succeed
  • That the goal of applying to fellowships is to get a fellowship (e.g. a more productive goal is to apply for the experience/practice of writing a research proposal)

Pre-class work

1. Peruse information about fellowships (see course website). Think of questions to ask the panel. Submit one of these questions.
   • Skim the fellowship advice from Harvard and by MIT (click on left-pane links).
   • Peruse the list of fellowships compiled by John Girash, by CMU, and by NC State.
2. Watch Larry McEnerney: The Craft of Writing Effectively. We encourage you to watch this talk in groups! Answer:
   • According to the lecture, what is the writing process useful for? Hint: what are the “horizontal” vs. “vertical” axes? Explain.
   • In what ways does writing differ between high-school/undergraduate and doctoral programs? What are the implications of these differences? (list at least 2). Hint #1: where does “value” lie. Hint #2: what are “explanations” for?
   • What is the goal of professional writing?
   • What’s the “positivistic” model of knowledge vs. the second model he introduces? What’s the significance of this distinction?
   • Why is it important to know the “codes” of your community?
   • What does the lecturer mean by “instability” vs. “stability”?

Insight: Students found the lecture both engaging and polarizing, leading to great class discussion.

In class

1. [10min] Get food, sit next to folks you haven’t met and introduce yourself using your slide
2. Recap: how do you you do a lit search for whether a paper is relevant or not if you are confused about your problem?
3. [30min] Small-group reflection on “The craft of writing effectively”. Determine questions based on their pre-class work responses. Ideas include:
   • According to the lecture, are “knowledge” and “value” objective or subjective? What are the ethical implication of this?
   • Was there anything that surprised you? Was there anything that you disagreed with?
   • Why is professional writing hard?
4. [5min] Re-group
5. Panel for the rest of class, balancing previously submitted questions, questions from the bank below, and questions from students in class.
6. [5min] In-class survey
   • What did you take away from class today?

Question Bank

• Timing:
  • How much time should we spend on fellowship applications?
  • When should I start applying for fellowships?
  • How do I balance applying to fellowships, focusing on research, and classes?
• Strengthening your application:
  • Is there any difference between applying for a fellowship as an incoming grad student vs. as a current grad student?
  • What does an internal faculty committee for selecting nominees look like?
  • If your fellowship application is rejected, do you assume that your applications themselves were then still the issue, or would this be a good indication that your direction of research does not gauge interest and needs to change?
  • How can we talk about interdisciplinary work/interests effectively? How do we talk about a range of interests and experiences without sounding indecisive?
  • What are the evaluation criteria for applying for fellowships? The number of publications in the top conferences?
  • What is the level of technical detail you should go into? Should you assume the reader is someone who is generally informed of the field?
• Deciding whether to apply:
  • Is fellowship important for people interested in going to the industry after graduation?
  • What is a good reason NOT to apply for a fellowship?
  • What are the advantages of being externally funded?
  • As an international student, what are the primary fellowships available for us?
• Fellowship-specific questions:
  • Do you have any advice on deciding whether to apply to the NSF GRFP in your first year or your second year?
  • For the eligibility of Google PhD Fellowship, the website mentions the applicants must have completed their graduate coursework. Does that mean I am only eligible to apply after completing my 16 half-courses requirement? Which year of their programs do students usually apply for this fellowship?
  • If I get the fellowship from industry and work there for a period of time, do you need to continue your research involvement at the university at the same time?
• Funding logistics
  • When a fellowship provides partial funding, does the university supplement it, or will our advisor need to supplement it?
  • Is there an upper limit for the amount of fellowship that a student can receive yearly?
  • If I am lucky enough to get the fellowship, will the stipend I receive at the university decrease?