Guide to Postgraduate Fellowships 2009-10
As you look to your senior year you begin to discover that there are many options available as pathways to your future. For some of you, it may be appropriate to go directly into the work world. For others, graduate school may be the next appropriate and even necessary step. For still others, there may be the lure of travel and an interest in exploring new environments. Postgraduate fellowships can offer exciting opportunities for you to take any of these directions.
Postgraduate fellowships are funds designated by their donors to support graduate study, enable internships or service, or facilitate postgraduate travel abroad. While many of these awards, like the Rhodes and Fulbright, are well known, some, like the Sachs, Labouisse, Dale and ReachOut56-81 are particular to Princeton. The Luce and the Soros are generous and prestigious, but are quite specialized. Some fellowships relate to specific fields, like the NSF, which supports graduate work in the sciences broadly defined.
In every case, winning a postgraduate fellowship is a mark of achievement, an honor that can open many other doors. Fellowships may lead to new networks of contacts and colleagues; they may facilitate study with great scholars in great institutions; and they may defray the expenses that could otherwise burden graduate education. They are worth the time and effort required for their pursuit.
Princeton students have a long tradition of success in winning these fellowships. We want to encourage you, our best, our most energetic students, to apply for as many of these awards as seem appropriate given your own goals and aspirations. Do not assume that they are not for you.
— Dean Frank B. Ordiway, Fellowship Coordinator 2009–10