Advice for Predoctoral Fellowship Candidates

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Make sure your Research Plan presents:

• A thorough grounding in the design, methodology, and analysis of a research protocol.
• Research stages, including proposal, execution, presentation, and publication.
• Problem solving.
• Opportunities to interact with other members of the scientific community.

Peer reviewers will consider your academic record, which can be bolstered or undermined by your other credentials. Although there's no cutoff for acceptable grades and test scores, you should highlight your academic prowess. Ideally, you'll document previous research projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Applications for predoctoral fellowships do best at review when the candidate has performed research in a lab for at least a year or two. Investigators with this level of experience can write a state-of-the-art Research Plan. Investigators who haven't yet selected a lab cannot match the knowledge gained from research experience.

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