Founded in 1989, the Graduate Fellowships for STEM Development (GFSD) program was created to expand access to advanced STEM education and cultivate the next generation of scientific and engineering leaders.

Eligibility: GFSD welcomes applications from any qualified U.S. citizen who has the ability to pursue graduate work at a GFSD university partners. Applicants at any stage of their graduate program may apply, as long as they will be available to accept two summers of paid internship. Those who already possess a doctoral degree are ineligible.

Employers may nominate GFSD fellows directly, obviating the selection process. These fellows may enroll for either a Master’s or a PhD degree.

Selection Process: GFSD employers select fellows based the following factors, not in order:

• Whether the applicant’s field of study matches the employer’s needs
• Undergraduate and graduate coursework and grades
• Research experience at a university or in industry
• Letters of recommendation from professors and employers. These can be decisive. The most effective letters are from persons who have supervised or observed the applicant’s participation in research.
• The GRE General tests are optional but suggested; the Subject test is suggested and may be required by your university.

Using these criteria, employers review the pool of applicants and advise GFSD of which students the employer wishes to support. GFSD then makes the award.

• senior
• graduate

• US Citizen

You can prepare to complete the GFSD application by having at hand the following information and materials:

• Institutions of higher education from which you have received or will receive a degree:
  Name of institution and address; dates attended, date graduated, major, overall GPA, GPA in major, and GPA Scale of Institution.

• Employment History
  (Maximum of three professional positions):
  Dates from and to, employer’s name, employer’s address, supervisor’s name, supervisor’s title, your title, reason for leaving, and a brief description of duties. Discuss any research projects in which you participated and your role.

• Professional or Technical References (minimum of three maximum of five):
  Begin thinking of the professors and employers who will give you a recommendation. Discuss with them the importance of a good evaluation and ask whether they will write such an evaluation for you. Once you enter your recommenders in the application they will receive an email about how to enter their recommendation.

• Scholarships, honors and awards you have received: title, date, and from which organization

• Publications, presentations, poster sessions, etc., created or presented by you:
  (use standard bibliography format)

• Research Experience:
  Include on-campus research with a faculty member, summer research institutes, and other experiences outside of course work. Include a paragraph on each describing the nature of research, your role, and whether you presented or published. This is an especially important part of the application.

• Personal statement and professional goals:
  Explain why you want to go to graduate school, what are your expectations regarding the GFSD and its mentoring support, what will be your graduate program, etc.

Further application information and tips found at: https://stemfellowships.org/applicants/

Applicants must be accepted at a participating GFSD-member university or college and progress through a full-time study program leading to a graduate degree in the physical sciences or related engineering fields. Fellows must complete one or two summer internships, as the sponsoring employer requires. To continue in good standing, fellows must submit a transcript annually as well as any forms and information that GFSD requests. Fellows must perform satisfactorily in their summer internship and during the academic year. A fellow who switches his or her field of study to one not of interest to the sponsoring employer will likely have support terminated.

National Security Agency (NSA): Requires Fellows to pass a background investigation if interested in doing summer internships. 

Contact Tech Support at gfsd@stemfellowships.org if you have any questions.