Students uncertain about their postgraduate futures often see fellowships and scholarships as out of the question, but every year Dartmouth sees a steady flow of applications.
Dartmouth scholarship adviser Kristin O'Rourke said she finds that her primary obstacle is getting students energized when it comes to thinking about and applying for scholarships ahead of time.
"Some people don't realize that these grants are done a year in advance. Students need to think about postgraduation by the end of their junior year," she said.
Dartmouth submitted 52 applications to the Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell and Fulbright Scholarships this fall.
Sixty-five percent of applications were from seniors, 29 percent from recent alumni and 6 percent from graduate students.
Dartmouth's Scholarship Advising Office, which helps students through every step of the scholarship application process, coordinates the Committee on Graduate Fellowship, a diverse slice of the faculty organized to give students application feedback.
The campus-wide committee, made up of faculty from the sciences, social sciences and humanities, reads the whole group of applications and then picks the nominees for each scholarship, O'Rourke, said.
After reviewing all fall applications this year, the committee did not eliminate any candidates.
"Our goal is not to eliminate people," Scholarship Administrative Assistant Kim Wind said. "Our goal is to help people create the strongest application possible."
Last year, it selected four out of seven applicants to enter the national competition for the competitive Goldwater Scholarship. All four students were awarded the scholarship.
Once students are selected by the committee, they receive advising from several sources. Students who plan to apply for the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright and Mitchell Scholarship competitions can get a head start in the process by submitting optional preliminary applications in June and receiving subsequent feedback on these applications.
"They are thorough and they take the time to sit you down and go over important parts of the application, offering critical comments so that you can form the best possible application on your own terms," Pamela Lin '07 said.
Some students see the Scholarship Advising Office's recent efforts to become more involved in the application process as a response to criticism of their lack of assistance in previous years. However, many appreciate that the Office allows students to act independently and not merely be groomed to win.
"You learn about yourself by talking with professors, branching out to get opinions from a wide-ranging spectrum of people," Mike Amico '07 said.
The Committee on Graduate Fellowship then reviews all applications, interviews all candidates, and provides feedback so that students may fine-tune their applications.
"It is not uncommon for students to revise their applications anywhere from eight to 10 times," O'Rourke said.
Scholarships profiled on the Scholarship Advising Office's website range in breadth from foreign graduate school study in Ireland to internship employment in Asia.
The Rhodes, Marshall and Mitchell Scholarships finance study for students abroad at the University of Oxford, any British University and any University in Ireland, respectively. The Fulbright Scholarship allows 1,100 U.S. students in all fields of study to pursue graduate study, advanced research or any type of teaching.
According to O'Rourke, 80 percent of the people who work with the Scholarship Advising Office are seniors, alumni or graduate students. Accordingly, several scholarships exist for which juniors and sophomores are eligible.
