About SGF

The Stanford Graduate Fellowships Program in Science and Engineering annually awards approximately 100 three-year fellowships providing tuition support and stipend to outstanding students pursuing a doctoral degree in the sciences and engineering. Supported by an endowment of more than $200 million given by alumni, friends, faculty, corporations and foundations who share Stanford's commitment to excellence in graduate education in the sciences and engineering. The goal is to continue to make graduate education attractive to the most talented students and to attract the best of them to Stanford.

SGF Fellows can explore labs in a variety of fields and make a compelling argument for acceptance by their first-choice lab, without being a financial drain on a faculty project. "Support for that first year is critical. With flexibility, students can take more time to explore options. This offers a tremendous matchmaking possibility to get the right students together with the right researchers," says James Plummer, the Frederick Emmons Terman Professor of Engineering and the John M. Fluke Professor of Electrical Engineering.

The Stanford Graduate Fellowships program is a means to partially free Stanford from the vagaries of federal funding for university research and, at the same time, provides it with a mechanism to attract more of the best students and faculty in the country. This ensures Stanford's future as one of the top research institutes in the country.

FAQ

NOMINATION PROCEDURES:  How are students nominated for Stanford Graduate Fellowships?
ELIGIBILITY: Who is eligible?
APPLICABLE FIELDS OF STUDY: Which fields of study are eligible for Stanford Graduate Fellowships?
FUNDING: What will Stanford Graduate Fellows receive?
NAMED FELLOWSHIPS: What are the named fellowships?
GRADUATE ADMISSIONS: How do I apply to graduate study at Stanford University?
OTHER FINANCIAL SUPPORT: What other fellowship support is available?
IMPORTANCE OF SGF TO STANFORD: What do the fellowships mean to Stanford University?
IMPORTANCE OF SGF TO FACULTY: What do the fellowships mean to Stanford faculty?
IMPORTANCE OF SGF TO FELLOW: What do the fellowships mean to Stanford graduate students?
HISTORY OF PROGRAM: When was the program established?
For Stanford Graduate Fellows: How do I bank my fellowship?

How are students nominated for Stanford Graduate Fellowships?
Graduate students applying for doctoral study at Stanford do not apply for this fellowship but are automatically considered for it once they have been admitted by their department. Nominees for Stanford Graduate Fellowships will be identified from among all applicants to graduate programs in the identified eligible fields. There are NO additional application forms or requirements for these Fellowships. Each department will submit their nominations to a Faculty Committee who will make the final selections.

Most of each new class of Stanford Graduate Fellows will be first-year graduate students in one of the eligible fields. The rest will be promising students who have already completed a year or more of graduate study at Stanford or elsewhere and have demonstrated their ability to perform research to doctoral standards.

"Despite all predictors used -- GREs, letters of recommendation, grades -- we know after one year who the winners are. We want to take advantage of that," notes Dean Kruger, Vice Provost and Dean of Research and Graduate Policy.

Which fields of study are eligible for Stanford Graduate Fellowships?
At Stanford University, graduate study is administered at the department level with each department setting its own criteria for admission and degree requirements. For more specific information about graduate admission and the field of study, each department and program has its own website.

Links below connect to the academic departments and programs in which Stanford Graduate Fellowships may be awarded.

SCIENCES
Applied Physics
Biochemistry
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Developmental Biology
Genetics
Geological and Environmental Sciences
Geophysics
Mathematics
Microbiology and Immunology
Chemical and Systems Biology
Physics
Statistics

ENGINEERING
Aeronautics & Astronautics
Chemical Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Energy Resources Engineering
Management Science and Engineering
Materials Science & Engineering
Mechanical Engineering

INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS
Bioengineering
Biomechanics
Biomedical Informatics
Biophysics
Cancer Biology
Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME)
Immunology
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources (IPER)
Neurosciences

SOCIAL SCIENCES
Economics
Education
Linguistics
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology

What will Stanford Graduate Fellows receive?
Each Stanford Graduate Fellow will receive an annual stipend ($32,000 in 2009-10; $31,200 in 2008-09), and tuition to cover Stanford's minimum full-time enrollment (8-10 units) for four quarters each year. The fellowship is a three-year award, with the second and third years' stipend and tuition payments adjusted for inflation.

The value of the tuition payment is approximately $33,000 (for 2009-10). Recipients of funding from other sources (e.g., NSF and NDSEG) may also be named Stanford Graduate Fellows, and their awards will be converted to a 5-year award, using both fellowships.

More significant though, is the freedom each student enjoys to choose a research project. There are no requirements to pursue a particular topic or to do research in a particular lab. Each Fellow is free to choose a mentor based on mutual interest rather than availability of funds. While experiences in different departments vary, it is not unusual for a Ph.D. program to encompass six years. With the benefit of three years of funding, these top students will be in a strong position to secure departmental and faculty research funds to complete their education.

Fellows may move to a different academic program during the course of their fellowship, as long as they meet the admission requirements for the chosen doctoral program. All Fellows are, of course, be expected to meet the same university and program requirements as all other students.

In addition, most Fellows in the program are assigned to named fellowships -- endowed by individual donors -- in some instances Fellows enjoy the opportunity to meet these donors and develop a personal relationship with people who are leaders in their industries.

What are the named fellowships?
Currently there are 339 endowed Stanford Graduate Fellowships, each individually named as specified by the donor. Wherever possible Stanford Graduate Fellows are matched to named fellowships based on mutual interests and backgrounds with the fellowship donor.

How do I apply to graduate study at Stanford University?
To find out more about graduate study at Stanford, contact the individual department or program to which you seek admission, or review the following information provided by the Registrar's Office about degrees and application information.

Prospective graduate students may want to review Stanford's Graduate Student Handbook. Additional information about Stanford University can also be found on the Stanford Home Page.

What other fellowship support is available?
Prospective students should refer to financial aid sections in the website of their field of interest for information about other sources of support for graduate study.

A note about NSF and other extramural fellowships: Highly competitive and prestigious National Science Foundation Fellowships are federally-funded awards that are granted for three years for Ph.D. study at the doctoral program of the student's choice. The awards do not cover Stanford's entire cost and for SGF recipients, the cost is supplemented by Stanford Graduate Fellowships funds. The same is true of other national fellowships.

What do the fellowships mean to Stanford University?
A COMPETITIVE EDGE

The students who are accepted into Stanford's Ph.D. programs in the sciences and engineering are among the best in the country and the world. Competition for students of this caliber is intense. The Stanford Graduate Fellowships are designed to improve Stanford's yield of the best students through a combination of secure funding, intellectual flexibility, and the recognition of being named a Fellow.

Richard Zare, Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Chemistry, recalls "I got a fellowship when I was a pre-doctoral student and it meant I had been selected. There was reason to believe I could have a promising career. This meant a lot to me. More than money was involved."

When Stanford Graduate Fellows are ready to seek employment, whether in industry, government labs or agencies, or the academy, this honor will be a distinction setting their resumes apart.

What do the fellowships mean to graduate education in the sciences and engineering at Stanford?

In the best universities, teaching, learning, and research are all equally important elements of the all-embracing search to know. The students' search to know and the faculty's search to know are interdependent: it is the faculty's task to inform and challenge the students, and it is the students' task to question and challenge the faculty. This synthesis of teachers and students has been widely understood at least since the beginnings of the modern university.

At Stanford University, doctoral students and faculty carry out that synthesis at the highest level. Their work goes well beyond research or passing on technical information to the next generation of scientists, engineers, or technology entrepreneurs.

Continuing to attract the finest graduate students and faculty, and to create such leaders, is the purpose of the Stanford Graduate Fellowships. Undergraduates also will benefit from their interaction with those exceptional faculty and graduate students.

What do the fellowships mean to Stanford faculty?
By continuing to attract the very best graduate students, Stanford can stay competitive for the very best faculty, since both recruitment and retention of first-rate young faculty are highly correlated with the quality of graduate students.

"Faculty like to be where the best students are for much the same reason that students like to be where the best faculty are," says Dean Kruger. "This can only make recruiting new faculty easier. In addition, having a Stanford Graduate Fellow work with you will give you more flexibility in your own research, because the Fellow will not be tied to the work statement of a particular grant or contract."

Likewise, the fellowships program will improve Stanford faculty's chances to compete for research support. Faculty are more likely to have their research proposals funded if fewer research assistantships are included in their grants -- especially when competing with public institutions that have alternative sources of funding. A further advantage is that Stanford Graduate Fellowships can be counted as matching funds toward federal grants, which is important because Stanford has less of this matching money than some other competing research institutions.

"The basic science and engineering contributions that permitted us to conduct meaningful research on the Martian meteorite ALH84001 come from many disciplines including geology, astronomy, chemistry, molecular biology, physics, paleontology, and materials science. The contributions made over the years by researchers in these areas have in common the fact that the ultimate value of the research could not have been anticipated at the time the research was conducted. That is not at all surprising. The basic nature of scientific investigation is exploration, and the value of exploration is learning things that were not previously known."*

* (From testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, House Science Committee, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, September 12, 1996. Professor Zare is chairman of the National Science Board, the policy-making body of the National Science Foundation.)

What do the fellowships mean to Stanford graduate students?
FLEXIBILITY

Graduate students sometimes find that their financial package ties them to a research grant in a lab not of their choosing. Because the Stanford Graduate Fellowship is independent of a federally-sponsored grant, it will provide maximum flexibility for our best students. The student can explore labs in a variety of fields and make a compelling argument for acceptance by the first-choice lab, without being a financial drain on a faculty project.

CREATIVITY

Uncertainty in federal funding has resulted in tougher competition for project grants. With a Stanford Graduate Fellowship, a student will not be tied to faculty research grants, and will be freer to explore new ideas that are not quite ready for the scrutiny of severely competitive research funding. At present, in some fields there is a 15-month minimum lag when a student proposes a research idea that is not already funded. The SGF Program provides a way to capture innovative research ideas immediately, helping to keep Stanford at the forefront in science and engineering research.

The future of science lies in interdisciplinary research, yet this is one of the most challenging areas to finance. The Fellowships enhance students' independence to pursue interdisciplinary research. That experience, in turn, can help guide a student toward a future in biotechnology or pharmacology or a newly arising field barely identified at the beginning of studies.

When was the program established?
In 1996, Gerhard Casper, then President of Stanford University, announced the Stanford Graduate Fellowships in Science and Engineering, a plan that, in its particular goal and ambition, was unique in the nation. The ambition was to raise $200 million in endowment, providing fellowships for at least 300 doctoral students each year in the sciences and engineering.

The Stanford Graduate Fellowships (SGF) fundraising campaign was officially launched on April 15, 1997 with gifts and pledges totaling $108 million. The Founding Donors, among them Robert M. and Anne T. Bass, John and Tashia Morgridge, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and a number of anonymous donors, provided the first $100 million, with the stipulation that their gifts be used as matching funds to help attract others to the program. It is no exaggeration to say that without the extraordinary generosity of the founding donors, the Stanford Graduate Fellowships would not have been possible. With the guidance and active involvement of the National Volunteer Leadership Council, chaired by John Morgridge, the fundraising was completed in April 2000, only three years after the campaign was launched.

For Stanford Graduate Fellows: How do I bank my fellowship?

Details about program administration including banking, can be found under the menu heading The Program.

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