Application Process
It's a reasonable question. Only 32 Rhodes, approximately 75 Truman Scholarships, and fewer than 60 Javits Fellowships are awarded each year, and hundreds, even thousands of qualified candidates apply for these and other prestigious scholarships. The odds are against you.
A huge number of applicants self-select out of the process precisely for this reason. Sure, it is a long shot, but the fact is that someone will win. Why not you? Each year, students at institutions with no previous scholarship winners garner a Marshall or a Goldwater Scholarship. Willamette students already have an impressive record of winning national and international scholarships over the years, and there is no reason you shouldn't add yourself to the list.
Applications are more than forms: they represent a process that includes research, homework, and self-evaluation. Why should you put yourself through a process that will take precious time from schoolwork and your already-limited personal life? Because the benefits are significant. Regardless of whether or not you're awarded a scholarship, you'll emerge from the application process with a stronger sense of who you are and a clearer vision of what you want to do. Like a long-distance runner who dreams of Olympic gold, or a novelist who hopes to win the Nobel Prize, the real triumphs will grow from the effort of becoming a better athlete, a better writer, and a better person.
When you apply for many national fellowships, you write a personal essay and study proposal: in essence, a selective life history and a short-term plan for the next few years of your life. For other fellowship applications, you will be expected to provide this same information in a series of shorter answers to questions about what you want to do and why. It's hard work-it requires time, sweat, and occasional tears, and some self-doubt--but it can also be a rewarding and intensely satisfying process. You will be required to put your deepest convictions into words, to step outside yourself, to think about what is ultimately of most importance to you. You must evaluate where you're standing now, and consider both what your ultimate destination might be and what you must do in order to get there.
When we talk about the "value of the process" we mean the value of self-reflection, exploration, and analysis. Take some time out to think about what really matters to you--not what's important to your parents, professors, or your boyfriend.
You may already have found your life's guiding passion, but if you're like most, you are taking courses that you like, in a major that you hope will help you to find a good job, and thinking vaguely about a career that will bring you wealth and happiness. So, ask yourself these questions-- When have you been so immersed in what you were doing that time seemed to vanish?
- Under what conditions do you do your best, most creative work?
- What errors or regrets have taught you something about yourself?
- Do your current commitments reflect your most strongly held values?
You may feel pressure, from parents, advisors, and from yourself, to compete for some of these prestigious national fellowships. It's an easy trap to fall into: after all, you've always been an excellent student, a campus leader. Why shouldn't the next step be: a prestigious national scholarship?
Are you up to the task? Before you take that step, think carefully. Do you really want to invest 60 hours or more crafting a personal statement and study proposal, and endure two or three mock interviews, on the off chance you could be one of 32 college students from across the U.S. selected for two years of study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar? Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
Why not think of the process another way? It's an opportunity to spend 60 or more hours crafting a statement that reflects who you really are, researching graduate programs and finding the right one for you, and thinking about your hopes and dreams. You'll receive hours of free advice from people who care about you, and invaluable practice honing your interviewing skills. And in the end, you could be recognized as a scholar-a distinction that you will carry with you for your entire career-on your resume or curriculum vitae, when you are introduced to other professionals, on the biographies of your book flaps!
Yes, the honor will be great and well worth it, but the value of self discovery and the rigors of the application process will-in and of themselves-be of lifetime benefit to you. A chance to know yourself.
It is far too easy to review the Truman or Rhodes criteria and browse through Marshall Scholar profiles, only to conclude that you are not scholarship "material." Many ultimately successful candidates devalue their exceptional intellect, superior research, and outstanding community involvement.
Certain attitudes, both positive and negative, affect and afflict the application process. First, the negative attitudes you must banish:
- I can't possibly win.
You don't know that. True, certain universities seem to dominate these competitions. But every year a student who attends a university where no one has ever won a major fellowship (or not in a very long time) wins. - I'm not scholarship material.
You may not be, but you are not the best judge. Until you thoroughly investigate the criteria and talk to those who know--advisors, faculty-you won't know whether it makes sense for you to apply. Let us help! - I must and will win a Rhodes/Marshall/Truman.
Instead of writing openly and honestly about your opinions and goals, you over-strategize, attempting to guess what a hypothetical committee might want to know. As a result, your application sounds insincere and unconvincing.
Second, positive attitudes to cultivate:
- Even if I don't win, I'll learn so much about myself in the process that it's worth my time, energy, and hard work.
- I might as well. What do I have to lose? Just some free time.
- The work I do on this application will make it easier for me to craft successful graduate school or job applications, and to make better choices about where to apply.
- Just getting to the interview would be an accomplishment. The other finalists are equally talented and deserving.
Finally, some words of advice: Focus on both the process and the goal. Winning a Rhodes or a Marshall (or a Truman, etc.) is not your reward for a job well done; it is a sometimes dubious privilege, somewhat arbitrarily bestowed, where your selection depends partly on your performance in a 20 minute interview, which can provide you with an incredible, incomparable experience of study, and will open many doors, but it does not guarantee you long life, success, or happiness. Hundreds apply each year and do not win; most go on to accomplish their goals and live productive, happy lives. Don't stake your identity on the outcome of the scholarship process.
- I can't possibly win.
The criteria for success in national scholarships vary. Programs intended to fund study for a graduate degree (like Truman or Javits) will typically have different criteria than those intended to fund international study (like the Fulbright grant) or an independent project (like the Watson). For specific eligibility requirements, you should consult individual scholarship guidelines; read them carefully and pay special attention to any FAQs for candidates included in the application materials. Websites for some programs, like Rhodes and Truman, have a wealth of information for applicants to help you begin answering the question of whether you are a viable candidate.
The most universal criterion is academic excellence. National fellowships are highly competitive. To have a fighting chance, you should:
- be in at least the top quarter of your class;
- have a GPA of 3.5 and above, exclusive of freshman year (higher for many scholarships);
- be likely to gain admittance to a top-ranking graduate program (for those programs intended to fund graduate study).
These criteria are necessary conditions, but are not necessarily sufficient for success. The Watson Fellowship, for example, rewards creativity and initiative in planning a year of self-directed discovery abroad. The Goldwater Scholarship, a more explicitly academic scholarship for science -oriented undergraduates, requires academic achievement and potential far beyond classroom requirements. Scholarships such as the Truman and Rhodes demand academic excellence but also seek applicants who have demonstrated the potential to make a positive contribution to their community, such as:
- a record of public service and community involvement.
- an assumption of leadership roles, through activities on campus and in the community
Planning the Process
Finding the right scholarship opportunity can demand a significant commitment of your time. Pour yourself a cup of tea, put on some comfy clothes, and prepare to spend significant time surfing. Some questions to ask yourself before you begin:
- What kind of support do I really need (tuition and books, research or creative project support?
- How much support do I really need?
- How much time can I devote to searching for and applying for scholarships without impairing my ability to do well in my schoolwork?
If you are facing a significant gap between your school needs and your funding capability (or are just trying to reduce the amount you have to borrow to finish college or begin graduate or professional school), then you will probably want to focus your energies on scholarships offering larger amounts-say, $1000 and up. National scholarships and scholarships offering large amounts of funding are more likely to be more competitive, so don't put all of your hopes on one particular application. You are putting a lot of effort into even one application, so why not get more use out of that terrific personal statement? Your best strategy is to make a list of the programs for which you think you are a good fit, look at their due dates, then think realistically about how much time you can devote to applications. Decide how many for which you can apply given the time and effort you are prepared to spend.
The keys to your best candidacy
- Plan ahead. Organize your applications by deadline and requirements; a spreadsheet might be helpful here.
- Be realistic about your time. Applying for two or three programs that require extensive applications, and completing strong and polished applications, can take up nearly as much time as a class. So,
- Look for programs that are the best fit for you. Read their guidelines carefully and make sure you meet their minimum requirements in terms of major, gpa, or experience. If you don't fit, it's best to focus your energies elsewhere. Close, or questioning? Contact SAGA.
- Communicate with your recommenders early in the application process, and be clear with them about when the deadlines are and what the requirements are for submission of recommendations (remind them that the SAGA office is here to help with questions and concerns of any and every sort).
Don't forget to visit the SAGA office early and often-contact the Student Success Hub in 103 Matthews, at 503-370-6737 or email student-success-hub@willamette.edu. We can help you decide which programs might be the best focus for your energies, and assist in every phase of the application process from editing assistance to coordinating hard copies for mailing.
Getting Started
Does your major have a professional association? Don't forget to check their website-they may offer scholarships or support for research or conference travel. Do you belong to an honorary society such as Alpha Lambda Delta, or a sorority or fraternity? Check the national organization's website-many offer scholarships that are open only to members.
The Financial Aid Office at Willamette has tips for where you can search for scholarship opportunities that are private or outside of Willamette University. You can check out their tips at their Private Scholarships page.
Don't forget to consult the SAGA website for lists of programs geared toward specific interests: there may be excellent opportunities there for you.
Getting Support
Whenever you are ready to talk about options, and whenever you need assistance with any part of the funding process, contact the SAGA office:
Student Success Hub
103 Matthews
503-370-6737
student-success-hub@willamette.eduSome more web resources at Willamette that can help you get started:
- Writing a personal statement
- National Scholarships and Deadlines
- Internal programs
The answer to the second question is, sooner than you think!
Ideally, you should stop by the Office of Student Academic Grants and Awards sometime during your freshman year. Many fellowships and scholarship opportunities have application deadlines from six months to a year and a half in advance of the actual deadline. Your best strategy is to start thinking at least two years ahead.
Applications requiring institutional nomination have campus deadlines up to several months in advance of the foundation deadlines. You must go through the campus nomination process, or your application will automatically be rejected by the scholarship foundation. Don't run that risk!
Virtually all major foundations now make their scholarship applications available on-line; a growing number including Fulbright, Voyager, Marshall, and NSF can be submitted partially or entirely online. Program requirements and internal deadlines vary, so before you set pen to paper or finger to computer key, get some advice.
And if you aren't yet well-organized for life after college, come in and visit anyway-there is a wide world of funding and opportunity out there that we are here to help you explore.
So you need to submit a cv (curriculum vita) with your application for graduate or professional school, or for a grant or scholarship. What now? Let's start with the basics.
What is a cv?
Most simply, it's a resume, but it's shaped to highlight your academic qualifications. The most important considerations that apply to a resume also apply to a cv: clarity, readability, and good organization. The cv, just like a resume, should provide a relatively brief and easy to understand overview of your training and experience-your personal statement, essays, and (if expected) cover letter will focus on aspects of your experience and flesh them out to give the committee a fuller sense of your interests and accomplishments. While the advice presented here is intended to be helpful, these ideas intended to provide a flexible set of guidelines rather than a template: you will always want to consider the contents and order of your categories in relation to the requirements and preferences of the opportunities for which you are applying. With the exception of education, which should always be at the top, you might want to arrange the categories slightly differently to emphasize the areas of your background that might be most relevant to a particular opportunity (research above presentations, for example, or the other way around).
What do I include?
The most important categories are education, research, presentations, and publications. You should have a section for employment, too, but early in your career you won't have much relevant experience (academic employment), so it's OK to place that at the end. Do include your service activities (you can place them at the end, after employment), whether they relate to your proposed program of study or not: they are indications of your passions and your character, and are helpful in giving readers a sense of who you are. You may include professional memberships.
What do I leave out?
In general, you don't need the following: an objective at the top, information on how much of your education was self-financed, computer skills, hobbies, personal information, or references (these will generally be listed in the application form somewhere else; if not, they should be on a separate sheet).
How long should it be?
As long as it takes to do the job. Think carefully about which experiences are most relevant and important to include, and when you are assembling the items in each category be careful to include the most important responsibilities and accomplishments for each opportunity without unnecessary detail. Readers do not need to know what you learned-that's what your cover letter or essays are for. Since you may have been out of school for several years before applying to a graduate program, you may have amassed significant experience in employment or in service; while these are not the most important parts of your application, these opportunities and accomplishments speak to your maturity and motivation, so committees want to know about them. If this means your cv is longer than a page, so be it.
What goes into each category, and how should information be presented within each category?
When thinking about how to establish and organize your headings, it may be helpful to think first in terms of the skill sets desired by the opportunity for which you are applying. If you are applying for a program in journalism, you may want to have a heading for journalism experience, in which you could list your stints at the student newspaper, your freelance work for the local newspaper, and the op-ed piece you published in the local independent or neighborhood paper or magazine. Applying for a job or graduate program to which lab experience is vital? A separate category for laboratory experience could be useful. Heading for a career in the arts or museums? You may want to have a separate heading for exhibitions you have curated, designed, helped mount, or in which you have shown your work. Have experiences that don't clearly fit into any of these categories? Make a new heading (think carefully about whether the experiences in question can fit into an existing heading first, though).
Here are some general suggestions for headings and their contents:
Education
For each institution you have attended, you should list the name, the location, the years attended, and major area of study. Whether you include a gpa is up to you, but it is certainly unnecessary.
Honors and Awards
Here you can list both merit-based and need-based scholarships (national or regional), internal awards from the school or from your department, and awards for either academic accomplishment or for service. For each, you will need to include the name of the award, a brief description of its purpose if it is not clear from context, and the date of the award.
Research
If you have done any independent research either during the academic year or in the summer, it should be listed here: topic or title, sponsoring or funding organization, and date. If your undergraduate program included a thesis or senior project, it should be listed here.
Publications
Provide the title, co-authors if any, location, and date. You may include peer-reviewed journals and electronic publications, but be sure to specify if they are electronic.
Presentations
You may include presentations to the public as well as academic presentations. For each you will want to include the title, the format (panel presentation, lecture, poster) the sponsoring organization or event, and the date. Do not include all class presentations, but do include presentations of independent research whether that is part of an internal student conference or at a professional or academic meeting.
Employment
You may decide to list all employment or only those jobs that seem most relevant to your academic interests and development. For each job you will list the title, the organization, and the dates, with a bullet-pointed list of responsibilities underneath, just as you would in a conventional resume.
Service
Here you may include both academic service (search committees, task forces, etc.) and community service. If you have more than a few service opportunities of each type you might want to divide them into separate categories for academic service and community service. For each include the service performed, sponsoring organization (the university, the community group), and the date. If you feel extra detail is needed, you can provide a brief bullet-pointed list of the responsibilities for each, just as you would under Employment.
Random Thoughts on Scholarships . . . from Finalists and Scholars
On the application process . . .
Realize that your writing will be intensively critiqued-more so than in any class. Accepting criticism was my biggest challenge.
Approach the process as an exploration of career options, not as if you're finding a career. It's possible to be exceptionally gifted and want to make a difference in the world, but not know what you want to study for the rest of your life. When you're a wet-nosed kid barely out of high school, it's hard-and unreasonable-to say, "I want to be a physicist, studying the interactions between mu mesons and charm quarks" or some such nonsense.
This process will challenge you in many different ways. You will be pushed, intellectually and emotionally. You'll be forced to re-evaluate everything: your sense of self, your commitment to service, your priorities, your goals-not an easy experience. But it's also extremely rewarding and exciting. Occasionally you'll feel frustrated, confused, and overwhelmed, and that's completely normal.
As with any major life experience, the process of applying can be a catalyst for introspection and personal growth. Be open to it. Expect that the process will change you-but don't attempt to change yourself in order to win. It's difficult, it's rewarding-it shouldn't put you in therapy.
Ask as many questions of as many people as you can; take advantage of your professors, advisors, and Scholars who have some knowledge of the process. But keep all the advice in perspective. After all, it's your application.
Don't get married to your application at the campus nomination level. Be flexible-you will change it many times before you're finished. On the other hand, make sure that you are proud of your application; don't include or exclude something important just because you think that is what the committee wants.
Read the entire Truman biography (by David McCullough); it really is interesting and you may get an interview question on it.
On interviewing . . .
I wish I had met more Truman Scholars before I applied. At TSLW (Truman Scholars Leadership Week) I saw that while activities and grades are outstanding across the board for all scholars, something far more intangible separates them from people with similar resumes. It's love of humanity, a magnified empathy. I know these are clichés, but I'm trying to describe a feeling in the gut, that life is beautiful and wondrous. A feeling that lets you laugh or cry honestly, to live authentically as Sartre would say. I believe that this is why they have the interviews: to see this in person.
The Truman process should overtly stress introspection. Sure, in the writing stage we wax eloquent about our love for humanity and passion for service; preparing for the interview, we generate trite sound bytes to answer probing questions: "What makes you tick? What makes you sad?" Rarely, though, do we sit at home and really think about the answers. Having bashed sound bytes, I must add that they have their usefulness. I found it comforting during the interview to have some prepared phrases to fall back on if my mind went blank. They are also useful tools to facilitate introspection. Kind of a Socratic monologue.