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Honors College

Post Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships

Summary Information is given as a general overview. For complete details, please go to the actual web site of the Fellowship/Scholarship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Helpful Tips on Writing a Personal Statement

PRESTIGE SCHOLARSHIP SUMMARY

Please direct your inquiry to the appropriate contact person. You should study the guidelines for each scholarship for which you are applying. Most scholarship applications ask you to prepare a resume, a personal statement of your academic and career goals, and a list of references. They also require that you submit a copy of your transcript, and they may call for an interview.

The deadline for application varies with each scholarship/fellowship. Those dates are crucial and are available at each web site. Note: You must have materials ready for review by the appropriate local contact at least one (1) month before the national deadline. For instance, if the deadline for the scholarship is October 20th, Boise State University's deadline to review materials would be September 20th.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Who should apply?

For students who wish to apply for national and international fellowships, the overall grade point average (GPA) plays an important role. For these prestigious fellowships, it is difficult to be competitive with less than a 3.7 GPA. The Marshall, Rhodes, and Mellon require a 3.8.

2. Are these the only fellowships available?

No. Most graduate school aid will come from the host institution rather than these national and international competitions.

3. When should I apply?

Nearly all of these fellowships require that you complete your materials during the autumn prior to the fall semester in which you will begin graduate work. This usually, but not always, coincides with the senior year. One major exception is the Truman Scholarship, for which you apply as a Junior. Some competitions, such as the Fulbright, Rhodes, and Marshall, have local deadlines that come at the end of the junior year, so you will need to prepare your materials during the spring and summer. The general rule for all competitions is that you should prepare your materials as early as possible.

4. Will I need recommendations?

Yes. You will need at least three recommendations — and often four or five. These recommenders should almost always be faculty members who know you well. It is vital that you have a sufficient number of conversations with your recommenders to enable them to write with obvious familiarity about the many facets of your talent and work.

5. How do I get to know faculty?

There are several ways. The most obvious is to involve faculty in the research and scholarship you are planning for your senior year. While it is likely that only one faculty member will be your official project adviser, you would serve yourself well to include three or four in planning your project. Second, you will be writing several drafts of personal/academic essays as part of your applications. You should begin these as early as possible in the spring of your junior year, and you should call on faculty to critique them. By involving faculty in the writing of your essay, you will give them the opportunity to come to know you well.

If you find yourself in a situation in which you need a recommendation but have not cultivated a faculty member previously, schedule an appointment with one and take a copy of your transcript and your resume with you. Explain that you are making a preliminary inquiry about whether or not that faculty member would be willing to write a recommendation for you, and indicate that you brought these materials to give him/her an overview of your performance and that you would be pleased to answer any questions they have.

As a courtesy, when a faculty member agrees to serve as a recommender for you, you should indicate the number of recommenders you will seek, to which institutions or fellowship competitions you are applying, and when you will need these recommendations. You also should supply the faculty member with all materials (information about competition or institution, envelopes, a list of deadlines, copies of your academic record, addresses to which the letters are to be sent, postage, etc.) necessary for writing the recommendation.

6. How do I obtain Official transcripts?

Nearly all competitions and institutions will require an official transcript. They are available through the Transcript Office in A101 of the Administration Building, phone 208-426-3486. There is a cost for these transcripts, which increases if you need them quickly. If at all possible, you should complete the transcript order form and turn it in with payment at least three weeks prior to the date you need the transcript to be either in your hands or to have arrived at a particular institution or competition address.

7. Is the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) required?

Most competitions and nearly all graduate schools require the results of the Graduate Record Examination. This examination, which has both general and subject tests, is offered throughout the year. Go to the GRE web site for specific information on test dates. You will want to plan when you take the test keeping in mind the deadline of the fellowship(s) for which you will be applying.

One does not study for the GRE in the sense that you attempt to acquire more knowledge at the eleventh hour — you should be confident that a challenging education will have prepared you well. However, getting familiar with the GRE's structure and type of questions is extremely useful. Take the interactive practice test questions on the GRE web site. In addition, the small cost of purchasing further sample tests through area bookstores is a wise investment.

8. Are other applications or forms required and how do I proceed?

Besides transcripts, recommendations, and GRE scores, each competition and institution will have an application. You should take each part of each application very seriously. Complete drafts of all answers and information before you type on the actual application. Neatness does count! Review these drafts for accuracy of information, and be certain that your spelling, punctuation and syntax are correct. Be certain that you meet all deadlines and that you follow all directions on the application to the letter.

9. How do I prepare the essay or personal statement?

Most applications for fellowship and graduate school competitions require one or more essays detailing the applicant's academic development and research interests. These essays are extremely important.

Essays are often undermined by the failure of applicants to understand what they are being asked to do and by procrastination. The finished essay is the product of continued and revised effort over time. A good essay can not be written overnight. Though sometimes called an "autobiographical statement," the essay is not intended to be an account of the applicant's life.

Your purpose in writing an essay should be to stake out an area of study, to describe how you became engaged with this area of study, and to indicate how you will build on what others have done in studying your topic or area. The selection committees reading your essays are composed of either graduate faculty or distinguished professionals who want to know the specifics of how you selected your intended field of study, why the topic interests you, why you think it is worth studying, and what you have done in pursuing your interest thus far. You must be knowledgeable enough about your area of interest to discuss it convincingly and to demonstrate your understanding of the issues involved. To reach this point, you must survey the published literature pertaining to your interest and you must discuss your interest and intentions with faculty advisers.

In the natural sciences and engineering, this will result in a fairly technical essay in which you spell out a research project in considerable detail; in the humanities, business, and social sciences, this essay may be equally specific, but it will be of a more expansive, exploratory nature. You also should tailor the essay to the competition. Some will focus on intended research; some will focus on a general area of intended study; some will focus on your long-term goals.

Do not misunderstand the point of the essay. It is not a final or formal commitment to an area of specialization. No one expects you to enter graduate school certain of your dissertation topic, or to attend Cambridge knowing exactly what you will learn and what you will not. The essay is, rather, a formal rhetorical occasion, an academic assignment in which you are expected to engage in serious discussion of a scholarly topic you want to investigate or a serious learning experience you expect to have. As subtext to that discussion, what should come through everywhere (without being said explicitly anywhere) are the rigor of your intelligence (reflected in, among other things, your command of the issues, your argument, and your language), the liveliness of your mind, and the depth and enthusiasm of your interest.

Your essay should be well organized and argued (whether about Socrates, benzene rings, or market economics), and your discussion should be grounded in specifics. You must talk the language of the profession (or of the competition in the case of fellowships like the Marshall or Rhodes), but you should avoid jargon and cliche. Your essay also must resolve complex problems of tone. You must sound confident but not arrogant, humble but not timid, and you must write about yourself without sounding self-centered.

Source: Edited and abridged from materials written by Dr. Linn D. Van Woerkom, Department of Physics, Ohio State University. See www.honors-scholars.ohio-state.edu.

MORE ABOUT WRITING A PERSONAL STATEMENT

By Dr. Susanna Finnell, Past President, National Collegiate Honors Council

You would think that writing a personal statement is the easiest thing in the world. After all, you are the one person who knows yourself best. Yet every year when scholarship application time rolls around, or the personal statements are due for medical or law schools, I am surprised how difficult it is for students to put their life down on paper. The hints described below are clear and to the point. If you take the time to follow these instructions it won't be quite as difficult.

Helpful Tips About Writing a Personal Statement

A 500-1000 word personal statement is an essay about yourself. It should result from extensive soul-searching and deep deliberation. It is a personal invitation into your mind that reveals that you understand yourself and know where you are going. You need to consider three questions: Who am I? How did I get that way? Where am I going?

The audience should be able to read your personal statement ONCE, understand your main points, and remember you!

How should you begin? Think about the major areas to which you devote your time, energy and effort. What are the major influences in your life? What are you passionate about? What have you learned about yourself from those experiences? What are your plans after college? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? Think in specifics. Include details and anecdotes. Think. Brainstorm. Ponder.

Consider your audience. You give personal statements to professors who write letters of recommendation to the selection committees of major scholarships and to the admissions committees of med, vet, law, and graduate schools. These people read numerous documents every year. Your purpose is to distinguish yourself from the countless "others." What sets you apart or makes you special? Give the reader hooks to remember you by. Your tone should be honest, sincere and factual.

Do not repeat information that your audience can glean from your curriculum vitae or application. Avoid being pompous or boring.

Be organized. Remember the parameters that your freshman composition teacher talked about: introduction, topic sentences in paragraphs, and conclusion. The audience should be able to read your personal statement ONCE, understand your main points, and remember you!

Editing is vital. Realize that you will need to rewrite and rewrite. Louis Blair of the Truman Foundation reports that successful Truman scholars edit their applications 7 to 11 times. Misspelled words, punctuation errors, and grammatical mistakes send the wrong message about you. Pay attention to the smallest detail. Let a variety of people read and give suggestions about your personal statement. Encourage input from parents and friends.

Be creative. Use your imagination. Use a metaphor or analogy or motif to give your paper cohesion. Look for recurring ideas and themes to emphasize. Make reference to specific people and incidents and books that have influenced your life. Include a favorite quotation. You want to communicate the flavor of your personality. You can best accomplish this goal by including specifics from your personal experiences that reveal new information about you not available in your transcript or resume.