Archive for fellowship – Page 15

Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program

house-underwaterDo you ever talk to your TV?  I know that sounds like a strange question, but when I am watching the news I will often shout out my suggestions for policy reform.  Of course the TV news people cannot hear me, but if I get riled up I just have to let it out.

Well, if you have an opinion on how to address what many have labeled ‘the foreclosure crisis’ in America, you can do more than talk to your TV, you can write about your ideas and possibly win a scholarship.

The Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program encourages students to offer innovative ideas and solutions to ‘solve the foreclosure crisis’ in the form of an essay. Essay submissions must be between 1,000 and 2,500 words and all accepted freshman and enrolled under-graduate and graduate-students are eligible to apply.

The basic details are as follows:

  • Deadline: Dec. 31, 2009
  • Requirements:  Original, previously unpublished work. Minimum 1,000 words, maximum 2,500.
  • Awards: Five winners will be selected. Top prize $5,000, second through fifth will receive $1,000 each.
  • Must be a U.S. Citizen

For full details click here.

New Scholarship Program

When I hear about new scholarship opportunities that might apply to our applicants I typically post them in two places – this blog and our Database of External Fellowships.   I am happy to report that last spring an incoming SIPA student was awarded a $23,000 scholarship that he found out about by reading this blog.  It can literally pay to subscribe.

Yesterday I became aware of a scholarship opportunity for graduates of Seoul National University that are admitted to SIPA.  While you must be actually enrolled in our program to apply, this is something to keep on your radar if you are a graduate of Seoul National University and are admitted and join us in the future.

For more information on this program, sponsored by the Seoul National University Alumni Association of Greater New York, you can contact Mr. Ki Ro Sung at kirosung[at]hotmail.com or Dr. Yule Kim at jongyulekim[at]yahoo.com.

For those of you that do not qualify for this program, I recommend you reach out to your own alumni association to find out if similar opportunities are available.

CICR Fellowship Deadline Extended

On April 6th I posted some information about a fellowship opportunity associated with the Center for International Conflict Resolution.  I am happy to say that the deadline to apply has been extended.  For full details of the fellowship, please revisit this post.  Over $20,000 is being awarded and this certainly is a wonderful opportunity if you qualify to apply.

The following is the communication I received:

The Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University has extended the deadline for all Masters and Doctoral students applying for Fellowships at The Fund for Global Environment and Conflict Resolution until 5pm on April 30. Please send all applications and application material to [email protected]. You can contact CICR Assistant Director, Josie Lianna Kaye at [email protected] for more details.

$2 Million to Help Fund The Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR): The Fund for Global Environment and Conflict Resolution Masters Fellowship Program, 2009-2010

If you have had the opportunity to attend an information session at SIPA that I have led you might remember that I take a minute or two to talk about applying for outside awards and scholarships.  Part of my speech is to always be prepared.  In the instance below, if you are qualified admitted applicant, you could earn $22,500 toward your costs at SIPA.

I talk specifically about two things.  One is that once you start applying for outside scholarships you might recognize that the essay questions might not sound all that different.  Thus if you apply for one or two scholarships and write an essay, you just may very well be able to use the essay again or modify it slightly for submission for another opportunity you discover.

Second is advice that I credit to my high school guidance counselor, Ms. Steele.  Ms. Steele encouraged me to continue to look for scholarships as long as I was a student (the process never stops), and to be prepared, to ask those composing a letter of recommendation for me to print multiple copies, seal them each in an individual envelop, and give them to me so that each time I found out about a new opportunity I would be prepared.  So if I found about ten different scholarship opportunities and I had ten envelops each containing a letter of recommendation, I did not need to bother my recommendation writer ten different times.

You never know when you might find out about an opportunity that fits you, and it helps greatly to be prepared.  It just so happens that I found out about a great opportunity for admitted SIPA applicants, and the deadline is next Wednesday.  Yes, not a lot of time.  Thus being prepared for opportunities like this turns out to be pretty good advice.

The details, application, and program guidelines are below.  Good luck!

The Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea of the Italian Government are pleased to announce the establishment of the Fund for Environment and Conflict Resolution (The Fund).

Over a period three years, the $2 Million Fund will provide support for research, teaching and fellowships. Thanks to The Fund, CICR will promote research conducted by prominent scholars at Columbia University, in Italy and other countries around the issue of the global environment and conflict resolution.

The Fund has three major focus areas. First, it will look at the relationships between sustainable development and post-conflict in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Peru and Colombia where the Italian Ministry has on-going activities. Second, the research will focus on the prevention of potential conflicts in the use of natural resources, paying particular attention to China, the Middle East and North Africa. Third, the research will focus on the relationship between climate change and international security. The Fund will also give the opportunity for fellowships and scholarships, for scholars and students interested in these areas.

The student must be from one of the following countries/regions in order to be considered for this fellowship: Italy, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Peru, Colombia, China, the Middle East, and/or North Africa.

For more information on teaching, research and fellowships related to this grant please contact CICR’s Assistant Director, Josie Lianna Kaye, [email protected].

CICR Italian Overview

CICR Application

SIPA Fellowships

I like to try to be as transparent as possible concerning admissions and financial aid at SIPA – I am not a cloak and dagger type of guy.  I like two button sport coats, bright ties, and sneakers . . . but this is not about my fashion sense.

I know that paying for school is a big issue, both from a personal and professional standpoint.  Personally, I attended graduate school and borrowed a substantial amount of money to do so.  Professionally, it is almost impossible to talk with a prospective student and not have the topic of the cost of education come up.  In order to provide some additional insight into the situation at SIPA I thought I would post some basic information about fellowships.  There are a lot of words in this entry and no pictures, so hang in there and read carefully and I think you will find the information valuable.

First I will note that we are not able to give out near the amount of money we would like to give to first year students.  Each year we award approximately 10% of incoming students funding and the average award is around $15,000.  Below are two examples of common emails we receive after admission decisions have been sent out:

  • I am very happy to have been admitted to SIPA, however is there any way that the admissions committee can reconsider me for fellowship funding (or increase an award I have been given)?
  • I have been admitted to SIPA and to another school and the other school is offering me funding.  Can SIPA match the funding provided by the other school?

The SIPA Admissions Committee actually spends twice the amount of fellowship money we have.  Why do we do this?  Because history shows that not everyone we award funding to will attend.  Thus we greatly overspend which means that if an applicant declines their award, we cannot simply shift that money to another applicant.

Regarding the second question, each school has a different committee, different applicant pool, and different budget.  In my Apples and Oranges entry a while back I talked about how comparing an offer from one school to another may seem like a logical thing to do, but the comparison is fraught with complications and variables.  And as stated above, as much as we are excited about having you come, we simply cannot base our decision on the capability of another school to provide funding.

So what about the second year?  I am happy to say that the majority of second year students at SIPA that are qualified to apply for fellowship do receive funding.  So how do you qualify?  In order to apply for second year funding at SIPA a first year student must have a 3.2 GPA at the end of the first semester.  If you meet the GPA requirement, you will submit an application to the Office of Student Affairs at SIPA in March of your first year.  Roughly 70% of those who apply are awarded funding and the average award is around $20,000.

Second year students who are awarded fellowship funds typically have some sort of work requirement associated with the fellowship.  This can include working for a professor or in administrative department such as admissions, career services, or institutional technology.

This is a good time to put in a plug for our summer math tutorial.  Since second year funding is so dependent on academic performance, it behooves you to do all that you can to make sure you do well in the first semester –  a semester in which you will be taking a heavy dose of core requirements which are quantitatively heavy.  In May admitted applicants who have chosen to enroll will be sent instructions on how to participate in an on-line summer math tutorial.

I cannot recommend highly enough that applicants who plan on enrolling participate in the summer math tutorial.  Even if you took many quantitatively oriented classes in the past, it would do you well to knock off a little bit of rust.  Again I can speak from personal experience.  I started my graduate program when I was 28 and boy was it a shock to my system when the syllabus of the first class hit my desk.

And for those who might not have completed an economics sequence, high level math class, or a statistics class, taking a summer class from a college near you is a great idea.  Courses might include microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics, linear algebra, precalculus, or calculus.

I hope this gives you a bit of insight into the process at SIPA and please click here to explore information related to cost of attendance at SIPA.  The financial aid staff in my office are working fast and furious and will be sending out financial aid letters with more information.  We try to send out an estimated award letter shortly after the admission offer is made to give you an idea of what aid you might be eligible to receive, but it does take us some time to give specifics regarding government and private aid you may be eligible to receive in an official award letter.  Thank you in advance for your patience.

"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."

—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs

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