Obtaining funding BEFORE applying to graduate school?

[Hatusu]

Hello everyone! I am planning to apply to research oriented clinical psych PhD programs this fall, and I'm wondering if there are any of you on this board who obtained a fellowship or some kind of scholarship before applying to graduate school so that you were able to come to the table during interviews with some kind of funding. If any of you have done this, I have a few questions:

--Is this a feasible idea?
--Do you think it boosted your chances to have outside funding?
--What organizations did you apply to in order to get this funding? Your undergraduate university, universities you were applying to for grad school, an outside agency, etc.?
--How difficult was it to secure this funding?

Thanks for any input!

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[WisNeuro]

Hello everyone! I am planning to apply to research oriented clinical psych PhD programs this fall, and I'm wondering if there are any of you on this board who obtained a fellowship or some kind of scholarship before applying to graduate school so that you were able to come to the table during interviews with some kind of funding. If any of you have done this, I have a few questions:

--Is this a feasible idea?
--Do you think it boosted your chances to have outside funding?
--What organizations did you apply to in order to get this funding? Your undergraduate university, universities you were applying to for grad school, an outside agency, etc.?
--How difficult was it to secure this funding?

Thanks for any input!

For the vast majority of good clinical Ph.D. programs this isn't really how it's done. Your funding is generally guaranteed through either TA work or working on a research project. Most schools have in-school fellowships for a variety of things where you can solely focus on your own research without having to teach or work on another project, but those are a minority.

 

[Hatusu]

Thanks for the reply~!

I know that competitive PhD programs are usually fully funded, but I guess I am asking if obtaining outside funding before applying would actually make me a more competitive applicant? Because many universities have a policy where if you do obtain NSF, Fullbright, etc. fellowship during your first or second year in grad school, they will "replace" part of the stipend from TA/RA they would give you with that outside funding, hence spending less of their own grant money/university money to fund you as a graduate student. Does that make sense?

Maybe no one has gone this route of obtaining funding beforehand, or there aren't many fellowships/scholarships available for students not yet enrolled in a graduate program, but just wondering if anyone has done/tried this...

 

[bmedclinic]

Thanks for the reply~!

I know that competitive PhD programs are usually fully funded, but I guess I am asking if obtaining outside funding before applying would actually make me a more competitive applicant? Because many universities have a policy where if you do obtain NSF, Fullbright, etc. fellowship during your first or second year in grad school, they will "replace" part of the stipend from TA/RA they would give you with that outside funding, hence spending less of their own grant money/university money to fund you as a graduate student. Does that make sense?

Maybe no one has gone this route of obtaining funding beforehand, or there aren't many fellowships/scholarships available for students not yet enrolled in a graduate program, but just wondering if anyone has done/tried this...

My guess is it's more of the second paragraph you posted. I recall from my masters program that I wasnt allowed to apply for certain TA/GA spots until after my first semester. I've forgotten why, as that was many years ago now. On the flip side, last year my DCT expressed gratitude that I took a full time masters level therapist job (applying for internship second time around, done with coursework) so I could free up another GA stipend for them.

I think walking into the situation with your own funding would be a FANTASTIC idea coming out of postdoc into a academic job, from what I've heard.

 

[researchgirl]

I think it is done VERY rarely in clinical psychology, but I think you apply for an NSF before you actually get into graduate school (or at least that used to be true), and I bet a LOT of programs would see that as attractive if you were able to secure funding by the time you were applying/interviewing.

 

[LM02]

Federal grants are not going to work here, because when you apply for funding, you must provide significant detail re: your environment, where you intend to conduct the proposed research, and what resources will be available for you to successfully complete the work that you proposed. All of these factors are considered when evaluating a proposal. If you don't have a home institution, there is no way for the application to be reviewed.

 

[nessa34]

I think it is done VERY rarely in clinical psychology, but I think you apply for an NSF before you actually get into graduate school (or at least that used to be true), and I bet a LOT of programs would see that as attractive if you were able to secure funding by the time you were applying/interviewing.

You can apply for the NSF graduate research fellowship the year you apply- it's due in November. The NSF deliberately does not release awards until after people are notified of admissions decisions in March so as to not bias admissions, so all you can show is that you applied. However, it does look good to research-focused programs to be proactive about funding. Note that the NSF does NOT fund clinical work (that is for the NIH), so your proposal will have to focus on non-clinical applications of your research.

 

[PsychPhDone]

If you could apply for an NSF as you're applying for grad school, even sharing that you have applied with a prospective mentor on interviews could be attractive. I applied in my first year so it didn't make a difference in terms of admissions, but I told POIs that I wanted to work on getting external funding eventually. Shows you're forward-thinking!