Do Not Be Left Behind in the Funding Game
By Dana Ohren, GGC Consultant
For all graduate students, money is necessary for the successful completion of their programs. Whether you need money for coursework, research, or travel, graduate school is an expensive endeavor and the sooner you begin to plan ahead, the better your chances are of securing funding.
One of the most common mistakes made by graduate students in need of funding is waiting until it is too late to begin the search. Although application deadlines are scattered throughout the year, many external (non-IU) scholarships, fellowships, and grants are due sometime during the fall semester. However, students who apply for such funding will usually not find out whether or not they received any money until sometime during spring semester and may not actually receive the money until summer or fall. That means that if you need money to begin research in fall 2007, you must begin applying for funding in fall 2006. This situation takes some planning.
While external deadlines are often clustered in the fall, internal deadlines (from IU or individual departments and programs) are spread out over both fall and spring semesters. Like external funding, it may take several months before a student is notified about his/her success and even more time to receive the money. In general, it is best to begin searching for money six months to a year before you will actually need it. This way, you will not miss out on funding because of passed deadlines. In addition, you will have plenty of time to perfect your applications and ask for letters of recommendation.
While it is difficult to plan ahead for every contingency, graduate students should think about what they need to be doing at each stage of their graduate careers and how much money they will need to accomplish their goals. Some scholarships are only offered to students who apply during their first year of graduate study. Other fellowships and grants can only be awarded to students who are in a PhD program but have not yet taken their qualifying exams. Others are only awarded to students who have already passed their exams.
It is up to each graduate student to determine when s/he will need funding and when to apply. To do so, talk with your advisor(s), more advanced graduate students, and consultants at the GradGrants Center. They can all help you map out an annual schedule and help you discern what funding possibilities are open to you so that you are not left behind in the funding cycle.