Essay Writing

Your essay is the single most important piece of your fellowship application. It is where you get to tell your own story, control how people see your accomplishments, express your passions, show the obstacles you’ve overcome, demonstrate the scope of your ambitions. It is where you get to really wow your readers.It is also the only piece of the application you still have full control over, so spending time on your essays is the best thing you can do now to strengthen your application.

Begin working on these essays just as soon as you think you might be interested in applying for a fellowship, and you can expect to continue working on them until the day you submit your application. You’ll want to spend 2-3 months or more on your essays, drafting, reworking, rethinking, evaluating your thesis, getting outside readers to review your draft, rethinking again, revising again. Getting outside readers again. Revising. Again. Every good essay goes through this process.

You want to keep working your essays until you recognize yourself in the essay. Is it you? Is it your best you? Is it compelling to your readers? Is it honest? Does it implicitly reflect the goals and values of the foundation or award you are applying for?

Writing fellowships essays is time-consuming, no doubt about it. But the really hard work of writing these essays is, above all, introspection. They are an exercise in self-reflection and self-understanding, all about understanding and being able to articulate who you are, what you are about and how you got that way, where you want to take your life, why, and how you think you can get there. Once you’ve gotten on handle on these elements, writing additional essays becomes much simpler. So do grad school applications, job interviews, and the like. Once you are actively applying for fellowships, we encourage you to apply for multiple awards rather than just one.

That said, Don’t Recycle Your Essays. While it is not illegal, immoral, or unethical to do so, it’s just not a good idea. The stakes are high for these awards, and the competition is extremely tough. It’s best to craft your essay around the purpose and criteria of each individual award.

In this section, you'll find tips for writing the two kinds of essays you are most likely to be asked to write for a fellowship application: personal essays and research or project proposals. These essays should be different from one another, and you should use each to reveal different sides of yourself. You'll also find advice here on Essay Writing more broadly, giving you concrete ideas for pre-writing strategies, for evaluating and revising your thesis, and for revision, all with an eye to your fellowship application process.