They say Harvard smells like money, and with $25 billion in the bank,
the University can’t help but agree. Still, it’s not just the size of
the endowment that matters—it’s what the Harvard diploma can help us
kids bilk from outside donors. Grant opportunities are now centrally
listed at www.funding.fas.harvard.edu, so go forth and get to lootin’.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Rhodes Scholarships
Haul: Avg. $35,000
Deadline: Sept. 12—You missed it, but you weren’t going to get it anyway.
Facts: From a pool of 1,000 highly competitive applicants, up
to 32 of the best are selected for this, the Holy Grail of academic
scholarships, funding one to three years of study at Oxford University.
Keasbey Scholarships
Haul: $35,000
Deadline: Oct. 3
Facts: It’s no Rhodes, but on the up side, it’s more flexible
and even more elitist. Keasbey draws from a few top American
institutions, offering to fund study at Cambridge, Oxford, Wales, or
Edinburgh. According to the Keasbey website, “the Scholarship may not
be held by a married scholar. A nominee should not have expectations of
marrying before completing two years of study abroad. If the scholar
marries, the scholarship is forfeited.”
Harvard-Cambridge Scholarships
Haul: $35,000
Deadline: Nov. 29-Dec. 15
Facts: There’s a fast track from Cambridge, Mass. to Cambridge,
U.K. Six scholarships send Harvard students to different colleges at
the University of Cambridge for advanced study. So go long and drown
the Type-A personalities that got you there in pints of bitter.
TRAVEL
John Thomas Patterson Traveling
Fellowship
Haul: $2000
Deadline: Feb. 9
Facts: Want Harvard to foot the bill for espresso and sambuca?
Travel around Italy for two to three weeks on such jaunts as a
“self-guided tour” or “genealogy research.” Peep the description: “The
proposed travel should be intellectually purposeful and personally
enriching, but need not contribute in any way to an academic project.”
Anton Segal Memorial Fellowship
Haul: $2500
Deadline: Mar. 9
Facts: The Segal Fellowship funds “purposeful travel in
non-Western countries.” Information for the fellowship includes clutch
phrases like “broaden
ing horizons,” “getting to know people [as much as] seeing
well-known sites,” and “Academic performance, while important, is not
as vital…” After you get back from Borneo, the Fellowship requires that
you write a travel article or short story with intent to publish.
George Peabody Gardner Fellowship
Haul: $18,000
Deadline: Feb. 14
Facts: A Harvard-only fellowship with a Harvard-only name, the
Gardner sends one graduated senior abroad for a year of travels “in an
unfamiliar culture with an unfamiliar language.” So don’t try to go to
Germany if you have a German grandpa. And don’t make a play for
Australia if that is where you were born. Those two situations would
not be ideal for this grant.
INTERNSHIP FUNDING
IOP Summer Stipend and Director’s Fellowship
Haul: $2,500-$3,500
Deadline: Apr. 20/Feb. 16
Facts: If you’re going to be working on a losing campaign
anyways, you might as well let Harvard compensate you for your lost
time and heartache. Past recipients of the Director’s Fellowship have
worked for the Lord Mayor of London (jolly), New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer (strategic), or Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (astounding).
On the Summer Stipend, students can work for political campaigns, take
non-lucrative government internships, or go abroad for unpaid State
Department jobs.
Harvard Committee on Human Rights Summer Internship
Haul: $4,500
Deadline: Feb. 21
Facts: A summer internship puts the theory-minded Harvard
student in the real world. Won’t the personal satisfaction involved in
working for the Hague offset having to pass up on traveling in Italy?
Also, if you’re doing it in Russia, Central Asia, or Eastern Europe,
you can work through the more sexily named Andrei Sakharov Internship
through the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
Caroline Isenberg Fellowship
Haul: $2,000
Deadline: Mar. 17
Facts: One of many Radcliffe Fellowships, the Caroline Isenberg
sends an enterprising dramatist with plans to return to Harvard for at
least another semester for half a year’s worth of practical theater
study abroad.
Luce Scholars Program
Haul: Travel, insurance cost
Deadline: Oct. 28—try it next year.
Facts: If you’re interested in Asia, want to get a job in the
area, and have no academic or travel experience in the region, the Luce
might be your ticket. They’ll take care of finding an organization or
institution in which to place you.
LANGUAGE STUDY
Teodoro Raffaele Diaco Memorial Grant
Haul: $300-$3,000
Deadline: Apr. 6
Facts: Study in Italy for the summer. If you get this grant,
you’ll have to write a letter to the Diaco family describing your
experience in Calabria.
The National Security Education Program
Haul: Varies
Deadline: Feb. 10
Facts: You can get big bucks to study abroad to learn a
geopolitically important language in a geopolitically important area.
If there’s a downside to the program or a reason why the scholarship is
so concerned about national intelligence, it’s because Uncle Sam is
footing the bill, and he’ll be expecting service with the defense,
intelligence, or national security services after you’re done.
Radcliffe Fellowships
Haul: Avg. $2,000
Deadline: Mar. 17
Facts: Consider it finishing school—if you want to refine your
French and café-hop across the Continent, go for one of many Radcliffe
Fellowships. This grant tends to favor purposeful travel, language
study, and fine art. There aren’t interviews, so your application had
better show just how important it is for you and the state of human
knowledge that you get two grand to explore the links between
Baudelaire and absinthe culture in nineteenth-century France.
THESIS
Harvard College Research Program
Haul: Avg. $1,400
Deadline: Varies
Facts: If your department doesn’t throw money at your senior
thesis, which they probably will, the College just might step right up.
The Harvard College Research Program funds student-initated research
with faculty; the Let’s Go Travel and Research Fund sends them abroad
for thesis research, and the Dean’s Summer Research Award keeps them
here the summer before senior year. It’s a shame you won’t start
writing your thesis until three weeks before it’s due.