Fellowship Information
There are two major categories of fellowship: those that students can apply for directly, and those to which students must be nominated by faculty. Most students will be more interested in the first category, since these are the fellowships that you can actively seek for yourself.
Fellowships Requiring Applications
NSF
NDSEG
CSGF
DHS
Hertz
Google (Anita Borg)
AT&T
AAUW
NASA GSRP
Ford
NVIDIA
Soros
Symantec
Facebook
NPSC
Qualcomm
Fellowships Requiring Nominations
ARCS
Google PhD Fellowship
Microsoft
Intel
IBM
HHMI
VMware
UW Departmental
Fellowships Requiring Applications: Overview
These are all national, well-known fellowships. In most cases (but not all--the Hertz is available to upper-years as well) students are eligible to apply during their senior year as an undergraduate, or at the beginning of their first or second year in graduate school. Unfortunately all of the fellowships listed here require U.S. permanent residency at a minimum; most require full citizenship. These fellowships all follow the same applcation format: 3-4 essays, transcripts, resume or awards list, 3- letters of recommendation, and a research proposal. Don't worry--none of them expect you to follow your proposal, they just want to see that you can think logically about problems in your field. Also, it's perfectly fine to get recommendations from both your undergrad and graduate programs (internships/summer jobs/research labs are another good source for these).
Fellowships Requiring Faculty Nominations: Overview
These fellowships come from a wide variety of sources, and are applicable to students at various stages in their careers: beginning, n-th year, and postdoc. Most of these are open to international students as well. Although you cannot apply to these directly, it can still be helpful to know about them so that you can discuss them with your advisor if you wish. Some of these put candidates through a post-nomination interview process, while others are awarded with no student involvement whatsoever.
Fellowships Requiring Applications: Details
NSF
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens; Seniors, 1st-years, 2nd-years
Yearly stipend: $30,000
Conditions: None
Duration: 3 years
App Deadline: Early to mid-November
Rec Letters: 4
Deferrable: Up to 2 years
Good to know: This one is well-known in CS departments all over the place.
NDSEG
Sponsor: Department of Defense (your work need not be related to the DoD in any way)
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens; Seniors, 1st-years, 2nd-years
stipend: $31,000
Conditions: None
Duration: 3 contiguous years
App Deadline: Jan. 7
Rec Letters: 3
Defereable: In special cases only
Good to know: The NDSEG's money comes straight to you instead of through the department, which means that if you TA while on this fellowship, you get your TA stipend in addition to your full fellowship stipend. Not a bad deal!!
CSGF
Sponsor: Department of Energy (your work need not be related to the DoE in any way)
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens & permanent residents; Seniors, 1st-years, 2nd-years
Yearly stipend: $36,000
Conditions: Summer internship at a DoE lab, and coursework in mathematics and natural sciences.
Duration: Up to 4 contiguous years
App Deadline: Early-January
Rec Letters:3
Deferrable: ???
Good to know: This fellowship is intended for cross-disciplinary students, such as in computational biology or robotics (for example).
DHS
Sponsor:Department of Homeland Security (your work need not be related to the DHS in any way)
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens; Seniors, 1st-years, 2nd-years
Yearly stipend: $27,600
Conditions: Summer internship with the DHS.
Duration: Up to 4 contiguous years
App Deadline:Jan 5-12
Rec Letters:2
Deferrable:No
Good to know:This one is brand-new as of last year. Many people don't know about it yet, so it's definitely worth a shot.
Hertz
Sponsor:Hertz Foundation
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens & permanent residents; any year of study
Yearly stipend: $25,000 (9 months)
Conditions: None
Duration: 5 years (renewed yearly upon satisfactory progress)
App Deadline:Nov. 2
Rec Letters: ??? (at least 3)
Deferrable:No, but if an alternative fellowship is used for 3 of the 5 years, Hertz will provide an additional $3,000 for each of those years and pay $33,000 for the two not covered by the other fellowship.
Good to know:This one is extremely competitive since so few are given out each year.
Google Anita Borg Scholarship
Sponsor: Google
Eligibility: Women enrolled in Ph.D program or an undergraduate senior. Must be studying Computer Science or Computer Engineering.
One-time award: $10,000 for winners; $1,000 for finalists.
Conditions: None, but they fly you to Google for a few days of events and will also pay for you to attend Grace Hopper in the year that you win.
Duration: 1 year
App Deadline: Feb. 1
Rec Letters: 2
Deferrable: No
Good to know: All finalists are interviewed over the phone to determine the winners.
AT&T Labs Fellowship
Sponsor:AT&T
Eligibility: U.S. Citizen Women & Minorities; Seniors and first-years
Yearly stipend: $28,560 (10 months)
Conditions: Summer internship with AT&T
Duration: 3 years
App Deadline:Jan. 15
Rec Letters: 3
Deferrable: No; but if alternate funding is used, the fellowship's yearly stipend can be replaced by a $2,000 grant.
Good to know: Finalists are interviewed in person. Additional perk is a $500 book allowance.
AAUW
Sponsor:American Association of University Women
Eligibility: U.S. Citizen or permanent resident Women beginning their dissertation work
Yearly stipend: $30,000
Conditions: None
Duration: 1 year
App Deadline:Nov. 15
Rec Letters: 3
Deferrable: No
Good to know: $20,000/year postDoc fellowships are also offered by the AAUW (the above information pertains to their Dissertation Fellowship
NASA Graduate Student Research Program
Sponsor:NASA
Eligibility: U.S. citizens in any year of their graduate study.
Yearly stipend: $18,000
Conditions: None
Duration: Renewable up to 3 years
App Deadline:Feb. 1
Rec Letters: Only ONE!!
Deferrable: No
Good to know: This comes with a potential internship at a NASA or JPL research lab, even though it's not advertised on the site.
Ford Foundation Fellowship
Sponsor:Ford Fund
Eligibility: U.S. citizen Ph.D candidates.
Yearly stipend: $21,000
Conditions: Attend a one-time Ph.D forum
Duration: 1 year
App Deadline:Nov. 14
Rec Letters: ??3??
Deferrable: No
Good to know: Dissertation Fellowships also available
NVIDIA
Sponsor:NVIDIA
Eligibility: Completion of the first year and continuing enrollment in a Ph.D program in one of the following (or a related) areas: Computer Science/Engineeering, System Architecture, EE. Nationality/citizenship is specifically not considered
. Stipend: $25,000 toward tuition/fees, plus an NVIDIA Quadro card.
Conditions: None
Duration: 1 year. Winners (and others) are eligible to apply each year
App Deadline: Feb. 22
Rec Letters: 1
Deferrable: No
Good to know: You need to be officially nominated by your school or advisor; the nomination is essentially the required rec. letter.
Soros
Sponsor: Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
Eligibility: New American (green card holder or naturalized citizen if born abroad; child of naturalized citizens if born in this country. Not yet 31 years old as of application deadline. College senior or holder of a bachelor's degree. Not beyond second year in a graduate degree program.
Stipend: $25,000 in maintenance grants and up to $20,000 in tuition support for each year of graduate study.
Duration: Up to 2 years of graduate study--in any field and in any advanced degree-granting program--in the U.S.
App Deadline: Early November (Nov. 9, 2012).
Good to know: Online application requires essays, letters of recommendation, resume, transcripts, test scores..
Symantec
Sponsor: Symantec
Eligibility: Enrollment in Ph.D program of a U.S. institution. Preference given to those with an interest in evenutal employent in an industrial research lab, or those working in areas relevant to Symantec's mission.
Yearly stipend: Tuition+Fees. $20,000 annual stipend (CSE would probably supplement this up to the standard CSE salary).
Conditions: None, but you are encouraged to to a (paid) summer internship at Symantec labs.
Duration: 1 year with a possible second
App Deadline: Dec. 12
Rec Letters: 3
Deferrable: No
Good to know: The fellowship provides you with a mentor from Symantec labs.
Facebook Fellowship Program
Sponsor: Facebook
Eligibility: Full-time Ph.D. students in topical areas (see fellowship page) represented by these fellowships who are currently involved in on-going research. International students may apply. Facebook is looking for students on a track to obtain tenure-track positions at top departments.
Award: Tuition & fees, $30K stipend (9 months), $5K conference attendance & travel, $5K for a personal computer, summer internship opportunity.
Conditions: Must be enrolled during the academic year of the award.
Duration: Awards are one-time, selected annually for 9 months.
App Deadline: Feb. 15.
Rec Letters: Minimum of 2 letters of recommendation (one must be from the faculty sponsor).
NPSC
Sponsor: National Physical Science Consortium
Eligibility: U.S. citizens, emphasizing recruitment of a diverse applicant pool including women and minorities.
Award: Tuition & fees, summer internship opportunity.
Conditions: Must be enrolled during the academic years of the award.
Duration: Up to six years.
App Deadline: Opens Aug 25.
Good to know: You need to be officially nominated by your advisor. Provide name and CV of the faculty sponsor/advisorhttp://www.npsc.org/
Sponsor: Qualcomm Research Division
Eligibility: Teams of 2 Ph.D. students pursuing futuristic innovative ideas
Award: $100K ($50K each student) "for their fellowship work and research expenses for the academic year"
Duration: One year.
App Deadline: November 1.
Fellowships Requiring Faculty Nominations: Details
ARCS
Sponsor: ARCS Organization (Achievement Rewards for College Students)
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens in their first year of study
Yearly stipend: $7,500 in first year, $5,000 in second year, $5,000 in third year
Conditions: Attend an annual luncheon
Duration: 3 years
Application: None
Good to know: We are lucky to have an extremely active ARCS chapter in Seattle, so UW gets a lot of fellowships from ARC
Sponsor: Google
Eligibility:Ph.D. student in an eligible school (UW is)
Yearly stipend: $32K/9 months
Conditions: not family of Google employee
Duration: 2 years
Application: None
Microsoft Research
Sponsor: Microsoft Research
Eligibility: Students completing their 2nd or 3rd year; students at U.S. or Canadian institutions only
Yearly stipend: $20,000 plus tuition and fees. TabletPC and possible internship at Microsoft Research.
Conditions: None
Duration: 2 years with possible extension of one additional year
Application: Thesis proposal, resume, 3 rec letters. Finalists are interviewed in person at Microsoft.
Good to know: A maximum of three of these can be awarded to a single department in a given year.
Intel
Sponsor: Intel
Eligibility:Students within 18 months of graduating (this is very loose and people have won this with 2-3 years left to go). Students must have the legal right to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
Yearly stipend: ~$25,000 plus tutition, fees, and books. You also get a laptop and a potential internship at Intel.
Conditions: Fly to an Intel site to meet your Intel mentor & other fellowship recipients.
Duration: 1 year
Application: Research proposal, transcripts, resume, and 3 rec letters
Good to know: The department makes ~4 nominations to this per year.
IBM
Sponsor: IBM
Eligibility: Students worldwide in their 2nd year or higher
Yearly stipend: $17,500 plus tuition and fees (for U.S. and Canada; stipend varies elsewhere)
Conditions: You are also expected (but not *required*) to do an internship at IBM.
Duration: 3 years (renewed each year)
Application: Completed by a faculty member.
Good to know: None. :)
HHMI
Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Eligibility: International students (not U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals, or permanent residents of the U.S.) in the second (or third) year of graduate study.
Yearly stipend: $30,000, plus an educational allowance (tuition and fees), $3,000 fellow's allowance.
Duration: 3 years, based on annual assessment.
Application: Submitted to the Graduate School who will make the institutional nominations. Two per department; 10 for the UW.
Sponsor: VMware Academic Program
Eligibility: Currently enrolled, full-time Ph.D. students; nominated by departments invited to participate in the program.
Award: Stipend and tuition for 12 months, not to exceed $100K.
Duration: 12 months.
Application: Faculty nominate, department selects and submits nomination.
Departmental Fellowships
There are quite a number of endowed fellowships that come from or through our department here at UW. These include several "CSE fellowships" for first-years. These don't require applications and for the most part you'll just be notified if you've been chosen to receive one.
- Advising
- Graduate Student Affairs
- Courses
- The Ph.D. Process
- Qualifying Evaluation (Quals)
- General Evaluation (Generals)
- Dissertation and Defense
- Graduation
- Policies and Procedures
- FAQs

cs.