How does Hopkins support fellowship applicants?

Every October thousands of students apply for fellowships to explore new opportunities in their field of study.

At Hopkins, many students apply to fellowships like the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which grants recent college graduates and graduate students the opportunity to study, teach or do research abroad.

In the 2016-2017 cycle, Hopkins was listed among the top schools in the nation with the most recipients of Fulbright scholarships. 52 Hopkins students applied for the Fulbright and 18 ultimately received the award.

The National Fellowships Program, a University office created in 2011, offers advising resources to help Hopkins undergraduates, graduates and recent alums prepare applications for many scholarships.

The office advises on 26 different scholarships, ranging from the Boren Scholarship for students studying underrepresented languages to the Baltimore Corps Fellowship, a year-long program in which fellows focus on social innovation in Baltimore City.

Kelly Barry, the director of the National Fellowships Program, said that they work with students over the summer to help them prepare for application deadlines in the fall.

“Many students aren’t on campus so we’re always working with them in other ways — Skype, email, phone, whatever it takes,” she said.

Arielle Kaden, who graduated in December 2015, participated in the Fulbright Young Professional Journalist Program in Germany, researching the modern-day Jewish community in Berlin.

“As a Jewish person, I always thought of Germany as the place where the Holocaust happened,” she said. “I wanted to challenge myself and view Germany as a home for myself rather than a place that I feared. It was as personal for me as it was academic.”

As an undergraduate in the Writing Seminars program, Kaden received several research awards, including the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. The summer after her junior year, she traveled to Poland, Germany and France to interview Jewish people about their postwar experiences. She said her Fulbright research built upon her undergraduate experiences.

Kaden credits much of her success to the National Fellowships Program. As a writer, she felt that the resources the office provided were valuable.

“I must have had 15 drafts of my essay read by Kelly Barry,” she said. “I think students at Hopkins have an incredible opportunity to improve their chances of getting a Fulbright by working with the [National Fellowships Program]. The people in that office know what they’re doing.”

For Barry, the number of students receiving scholarships each year is not the way she measures success.

“We have great students who become great applicants and it makes sense that we have so many winners. But that is not our mission,” she said. “Our mission is to help students learn and develop skills through the application process. That’s the only thing we can control because most of these competitions are so fierce.”

Barry elaborated that by applying for fellowships, students have the opportunity to reflect on their goals and their motivations, which she sees as a process that helps students long after the application process ends.

“The thing you can take away from it is, ‘oh wow I really learned how to write a personal statement.’ Or ‘I understand now why I’m doing what I’m doing.’ Or ‘I always thought those two things were so separate and I see a way to connect them now.’ That’s typically the feedback that we get from students. That’s the really valuable portable lesson,” she said.

The National Fellowships Program advises students in STEM fields as well. This year, senior Alfred Chin received two scholarships that recognize achievements in science research through the office. He worked closely with the fellowships office in preparing his applications.

“The Goldwater and Astronaut Scholarships are both very important programs that develop young American scientists for the future,” he wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “The two scholarships are for undergraduates who wish to pursue a STEM Ph.D., which is exactly what I intend to do.”

Chin emphasized that students should focus on pursuing their interests outside of the classroom and should take advantage of the resources available at Hopkins.

“Outside fellowships place a lot of emphasis on extracurricular activities. For Goldwater and Astronaut, this would obviously be lab research,” he wrote. “Hopkins students interested in outside fellowships should definitely make use of the plethora of research opportunities at Hopkins, whether it’s joining the world-class research groups or applying for undergraduate funding.”

Though Hopkins students are often competitive applicants for national fellowships and scholarships, Barry pointed out that Hopkins students may be disadvantaged when competing for awards that look for well-rounded students.

“The lack of really strong distribution requirements makes it possible to be quite narrow in academic terms and that is often a problem in competing for awards,” she said.

She also said that at many universities, including Hopkins, the curriculum does not require students to develop strong writing skills.

“Another thing I see as a structural disadvantage at times is the limited emphasis on expository writing in most majors. Being a proficient and compelling writer is a real strength in pursuing fellowships. That’s why one of the main things we do is provide solid writing tuition,” she said.

Junior Harsh Wadhwa recently applied for the Fulbright and the Gates Cambridge scholarships. In the year between graduating from Hopkins and enrolling in medical school, Wadhwa hopes to pursue a research opportunity abroad.

“I’ve been really involved in research throughout my undergraduate experience, and I know it’s something I want to continue into the future,” he said, “so I thought the Fulbright would be a great way to bridge graduating from undergrad and taking on a full-time project.” 

After attending information sessions in the spring, Wadhwa worked over the summer to prepare his personal statement and statement of grand purpose, an essay that outlines an applicant’s goals and motivations.

He said that the National Fellowships Program provided him with assistance throughout the process and that he went through several drafts. For Wadhwa, the Fulbright offers the opportunity to expand on his Hopkins education.

“I’ve studied Spanish here at Hopkins, and I’m a Spanish minor, so it made sense,” he said. “Out of all the Spanish-speaking countries, I picked Spain, because it had the best opportunities for the research I want to do.”

Barry emphasized that there are fellowship opportunities available for students from all backgrounds.

“Of the 26 awards we’re advising on right now, only five are STEM-only,” she said. “Most of what we do is open to students of any field. If anything, the awards that we handle skew toward non-STEM. We have a lot of STEM winners because we have a heavily STEM campus.”

She also pointed out that many people who end up receiving scholarships do not initially think they are eligible.

“Many of the students who have won a big award through our office, whether that’s the Rhodes or Truman, they often come in thinking, ‘I’m not sure if I should apply for this,’” she said. “But students shouldn’t rule themselves out of an opportunity.”