What Are Fellowships?

Fellowships are awards of money, granted by foundations and other institutions that enable deserving students to explore their academic interests and pursue their dreams after graduation from college. These grants can offer the opportunity to travel, do research, study at a foreign university, attend graduate school, or pursue an internship. Some fellowships are highly specialized, and can only be used for research in a specific country, for study at a specific school or in a well-defined area of academic interest. Others are very broad, and are available to applicants with imaginative proposals. Examples of fellowships that can only be used a specific university are the Rhodes and Gates Fellowships, tenable, respectively at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The Bundeskanzler and DAAD Fellowships are for use in Germany. The Fellowships Office will help you to find the fellowships that best fit your interests.

Why Would You Want to Apply For One?

Winning a fellowship can be of great assistance in your future career. Fellowships signify the success that you have achieved at the College, and indicate your promising future. They provide lifelong contacts with colleagues, and help you begin your career either in academics or in the professional world. They can provide money for your research and the time to pursue it. Having earned and successfully completed one will certainly help you get a place in a graduate school. Although the application process can seem arduous, it is certainly worth the effort!

What Kind of Student are You?

To be a successful candidate you:

• Have good grades. 3.7 or above is recommended.
• Write clearly and with style.
• Have demonstrated success beyond the classroom. Depending on your area of interest, this can be in the form of research, community activism, leadership roles in campus organizations, or internships.
• Have academic interests beyond those of a single major. These can be demonstrated by a serious minor or a double major.

            If your interests are in the humanities and social sciences, or if you are a scientist wishing to compete for a Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright or similar fellowship, you will be interested in and conversant with contemporary culture and contemporary events. Your reading will go beyond Time, Newsweek, and The Post and Courier to a newspaper like The New York Times, and periodicals such as The New York Review of Books, The TLS, The Nation, Commentary, The National Review, and The New Republic.

What Can We Offer You?

The Post-Graduate Fellowships Director’s Office is located in Room 216 of the Vlosky-Yaschik Building (on the corner of Wentworth and Glebe Streets). Richard Bodek, the director of Post-Graduate Fellowships, will help you to identify potential fellowships and prepare yourself for the application process. Professor Bodek is a German Historian at the College, and has been awarded fellowships by the Social Science Research Council, Nation Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright Foundation, and German Academic Exchange Service.

What Should You Do First?

1. Look through the website and the linked pages to see what seem to be most appropriate fellowships
2. Come and talk to the Post-Graduate Fellowships Director
3. Attend one of our scheduled fellowship presentations
4. Talk to the campus representatives for the fellowships that interest you.
5. Look at the links to other postgraduate fellowship programs for some very good, specific advice.

Other Useful CofC Links

The Honors Program: http://www.cofc.edu/~honors/
Career Services: http://www.cofc.edu/~career/
Office of Undergraduate Research: http://www.cofc.edu/ur
Office of Financial Aid/Undergraduate Scholarships: http://www.cofc.edu/finad/scholarships.php