What Reviewers Look For in the NDSEG Fellowship — Application Essays
This rubric reviews whether each response directly answers its own question: one on professional goals, preparation, and how fellowship support fits, and one on the personal path to the present. It also looks for clear, specific writing that protects identifying information, keeps claims within the writer’s role, and gives each essay distinct work.
What We Check
Whether each submitted response performs the explicit jobs in its own question.
Whether the professional-goals response connects short- and long-term direction to how those goals developed and to action already taken.
Whether the response explains what NDSEG support would enable and why that change matters to the stated professional direction.
Whether the personal-story response makes the writer's path to the present intelligible through decisions, effort, change, or learning.
Whether useful actions, methods, decisions, results, and lessons survive redaction without assigning team or organization work solely to the writer.
Whether the two submitted answers can coexist and use shared facts for different question jobs rather than repeating the same claim, example, or conclusion.
Mistakes We Flag
- Answering only part of a question
- The professional-goals question asks about several connected areas. Naming goals without explaining how they developed, what preparation is already in place, or how support would help can leave the response incomplete.
- Using labels instead of evidence
- Degrees, awards, job titles, or prestige language do not show what you did, learned, decided, or hope to do. Explain your actions and the connection between your experience and direction.
- Listing hardships or dates without your role
- A personal journey is more than a timeline or a list of obstacles. Show the decisions, effort, learning, or change that made your path meaningful.
- Including identifying affiliations
- Do not visibly tie yourself or someone in your record to a named person, school, employer, company, laboratory, or exact affiliation. Use a general role or setting while retaining the useful action, method, result, or lesson.
- Repeating the same essay twice
- The two responses can share background, but each should do a different job. Reusing the same claim and example without a new purpose leaves one response underdeveloped.
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I cover in the professional-goals essay?
Address your short- and long-term direction, how those goals developed, the foundation you have already built, and how NDSEG support fits that direction. A goal can involve a role, research problem, responsibility, output, audience, or field contribution.
Do I need a dramatic hardship story for the personal-journey essay?
No. The essay asks for your path to the present through decisions, effort, change, or learning. An ordinary educational path can work; examples about first-generation status, college access, or multiple jobs are optional.
How long can each essay be?
The provided NDSEG materials set a maximum of 500 words for each essay, not a shared 500-word total.
Can I name my school, advisor, employer, or lab?
No. The provided rule says names and details tying the application to a person or organization must be excluded. General descriptions such as a research group, an advisor, or a public university can provide context.
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