The BMS Program holds a NSF Fellowship Workshop each Fall, sometime in early September. All eligible students are required to submit an application during their first year as a student.
The purpose of the workshop is primarily to help you prepare to write a NSF Predoctoral Fellowship Proposal that can also be used for your BMS 260 Cell Biology proposal. Even if you are not eligible to apply for the NSF (MSTP students, international students, and those with more than one year of completed graduated study), you'll learn a lot of things that will help with other fellowship proposals, as well as future grant‐writing. Diana Laird will be the faculty leader, and you'll also hear presentations from current NSF holders.
Part 1: Overview of the NSF Fellowship Application Process
- Overview of a grant proposal
- How to write a fundable grant proposal
- How to choose a topic and a mentor
- Timeline
Part 2: Essay Reading workshop. A senior student will review drafts of your non‐research essays (personal statement and previous research) and offer comments. You’ll be assigned a senior student reader to meet with on that day. We’ll ask you to email drafts of your essays to your assigned reader a few days prior, so that they can review it before the meeting with you.
Part 3: A faculty member will be assigned as your secondary faculty reader and review your entire NSF proposal (research proposal, personal statement and previous research). This secondary reader will offer additional comments.
NSF Fellowship Helpful Links
Fastlane
NSF Fellowship Workshop files: (Note: double-check the NSF website as requirements may have changed since these samples/presentations were posted)
Please contact Meredith if you'd like to see a sample NSF proposal.
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