Start Looking for Fellowships
Whatever your interest or research area, there’s a scholarship, grant, or fellowship you can apply to! It can be overwhelming to search for what’s right for you and your research. The Graduate Division can help in directing you to potential funding opportunities.
What you should know before you start applying
What to look for?
- The full ride: multi-year packages that cover educational and living expense for two to six years. These can be:
- Institutional: specific to a university, usually part of an admissions offer; or
- Portable: able to be taken to the university of your choice
- Small grants for specific purposes, such as travel, language study, conference attendance, summer research, or professional development.
- One-year fellowships for specific phases of graduate study, such as for research, an internship or mentorship, or dissertation writing.
Tips for being successful:
- Be on time! Applying by the stated deadline is essential. Individuals who don’t meet deadlines reduce their chances of obtaining funding by 100 percent.
- Plan ahead! The average turnaround time from application to acceptance runs six to nine months.
- Don’t stop applying! Be persistent. Your chance of receiving a fellowship or grant will increase the more you continue to apply. The process of applying will also improve your grant-writing skills.
Fellowships Databases
Many funding opportunities are available to graduate students at UC Berkeley. Below are various databases to help you get started. Please also check the Graduate Division’s Fellowships, Grants and Awards page for funding from UC Berkeley and beyond.
National Databases
- UC Berkeley Pivot Funding Opportunities Database
- UC Berkeley Scholarship Connection
- FinAid.org
- National Coveted College Scholarships
- GRAPES, UCLA’s Graduate and Postdoctoral Support Database
- FastWeb.com’s Graduate Scholarships
- Petersons’ Graduate Scholarship Search Engine
- MSU’s Graduate Scholarships, Fellowships and Loans
- StudentScholarshipSearch.com’s Graduate School Scholarships
- Profellow
International Databases
- UC Berkeley International Office Financial Aid Additional Resources
- ETSU’s International Student Scholarships
- Fulbright Programs
- Social Science Research Council’s Fellowships and Prizes
- InternationalScholarships.com
- International Financial Aid and Scholarship Search
- Boren Fellowships for International Study
Other Resources
A good overall reference book is The Annual Register of Grant Support.
Professional associations for a variety of disciplines, such as the American Psychology Association and American Meteorological Society, for example, list on their websites grants and fellowships.
Postdoc Funding Database with opportunities across a range of STEM disciplines, funded by NSF, NASA, NIH, and university and research labs across the country. Also includes tips on applying, interviewing, and negotiating a postdoctoral position. Pathways to Science Portal.