Tenable After College

The following fellowships are for post-graduation opportunities such as graduate school, long-term internships, and working abroad.

KEY: F = Freshmen, S = Sophomores, J = Juniors, S = Seniors, NGS = Non-graduating seniors (i.e. you have plans to return to Columbia to finish your bachelor's degree after benefiting from the fellowship opportunity), * = Open to non-citizens

General || Humanities and Social Sciences || Government ||
International Relations ||  Public Affairs ||  Foreign Languages ||
Work Abroad ||  Far East for the Uninitiated ||  Science ||  Teaching ||
Idealistically Minded ||  New Americans ||  Fine Arts
 

General

The Clarendon Scholarship* (Oxford) and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship* (Cambridge) will fund your study for any degree in any field offered, from astrophysics to business administration to studio art. Depending on the length of the degree program, your award can last for one, two, or three years.

The Marshall Scholarship will pay for graduate study in Britain in any field for a one- or two-year degree program (renewable for a third year).

The Mitchell Scholarship will pay for graduate study in Ireland in any one-year degree program.

The King’s International Graduate Scholarship* will contribute to your tuition and fees as you study for a master’s degree in any field at King’s College, London.

The U.S. Student Fulbright Grant will pay for you to follow your dreams abroad during an entire academic year. Your project may include coursework, independent research, and/or professional training in the arts or other fields.

The DAAD Study Scholarship will pay for a postgraduate year in Germany, during which you may study almost any field independently or complete a full master’s degree program.

The Institute of Current World Affairs* sponsors its fellows for two full years while they live abroad, carrying out self-designed programs of independent study on subjects of topical interest.

The Fifth Year Fellows Program* is Columbia’s attempt to re-think liberal education in light of globalization. Explore the earth’s far corners on your personal quest; touch base at the University’s Global Centers; teleconference often with other Fellows and faculty mentors.

Humanities and Social Sciences

The Beinecke Fellowship promises to contribute $30,000 towards your doctoral degree in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. You need to show not only that—as a college junior—you are already an outstanding scholar-in-the-making, but also that you have a very clear idea of the problems you hope to tackle in your graduate research.

Government

The NYC Urban Fellows Program* introduces you to all aspects of running a city by combining a 9-month internship in a municipal agency with a series of intensive seminars on NYC government.

The Coro Fellowship* offers you an intense year of internships, seminars, and introductions at the highest level. You would be a good candidate if you are a public-spirited individual seeking a career in government or non-profit leadership.

The City Hall Fellow Program* gives you a chance to work with a senior official in Baton Rouge, San Francisco, or other exotic locale while taking a year-long seminar in the operations of city government.

The Pew Leadership Year* offers a full-time, paid internship studying, analyzing, and writing about pressing problems in American public life, including land conservation, clean energy policy, and early childhood development.

The Capital Fellows Program* will place you in various levels of California’s executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government while you attend a weekly graduate seminar at Sacramento State. You need not be Californian, but must have a passionate interest in the Golden State.

International Relations

The Carnegie Endowment Junior Fellows Program* will give you the chance to do research in international affairs and public policy at one of Washington’s best-known think tanks—and will pay you a generous stipend along the way.

The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship* will place you as a junior staff member in one many NGO’s in Washington focusing on peace and security. Salaried (modestly) and insured, you will work alongside seasoned professionals investigating such fields as disarmament, conflict prevention, and climate change.

The Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship will finance your master’s degree in International Affairs, business administration, political science, foreign language, or any other subject useful in diplomacy. In exchange you must agree to work three years for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer.

The Rangel Fellowship will pay for your master’s in international affairs. As with the Pickering, you must promise to work for the State Department afterwards.

Public Affairs

The Truman Fellowship contributes $30,000 towards your master’s, doctoral, or professional degree in law, public administration, international affairs, or other public-spirited field. You need to prove that you have the makings of a leader in government, education, or the non-profit sector.

Foreign Language

The Language Flagship Program pays for your master’s degree in Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, or Persian. You spend one year stateside, studying the language at a designated American university, and one year abroad, learning the language where it is spoken. You must agree to work for the federal government for one or two years subsequently.

The Boren Scholarship sponsors you on a year-long overseas adventure as you study any one of several dozen “critical need languages.” You must agree to work for the federal government for a year. (For this fellowship only, you must defer your formal graduation date until you return to the U.S.)

The Kathryn Davis Fellowship* will pay all tuition and living expenses as you study Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese, or Russian in the Summer Language Schools at Middlebury College.

The Critical Languages Scholarships (CLS) will pay all your expenses, including airfare, if you can commit yourself to a summer’s worth of intensive language study overseas. More than a dozen critical languages are on offer, including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Persian, Korean, and Turkish.

The Blakemore Freeman Language Grant* will pay you to perfect your knowledge of any Asian language by studying it full time for a year in the country where it is spoken. Your academic, professional, or business goals must require regular use of the language.

The Center for Arabic Study Abroad* will send you to Cairo or Damascus for a year to perfect your Arabic language skills.

Work Abroad

The Christianson Grant* will fund your dream of working—not studying—abroad for at least half a year, provided you make all of the arrangements independently and receive no academic credits for your endeavors.

The Princeton in Asia Fellowship* focuses primarily on teaching, but also offers opportunities for Asia initiates in journalism, international development, and business.

Far East for the Uninitiated

The Luce Fellowship may appeal to you if you have limited exposure to Asia but nevertheless wish to broaden your horizons by spending a year in an “immersive living and working experience” in one of a dozen Asian countries.

Science

The NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program* will support you as your pursue biomedical research in a fast-track PhD program at Oxford or Cambridge.

The Churchill Foundation Scholarship will pay for your year at Churchill College, Cambridge University, as you study for a master’s degree in engineering, mathematics, or the sciences.

The Pasteur Foundation Summer Internship Program invites you to Paris in the summertime to conduct research on infectious diseases at one of the world’s most cosmopolitan biomedical laboratories (J, S)

Teaching

The Teach for America* program gives you five weeks of intensive teacher training, then sends you off for two years to a school in a poor region of the U.S., where you will try to help the disadvantaged children there achieve as well as their better-off peers. Your salary will be the same as that of other beginning teachers in your district.

The Madison Graduate Fellowship will support you for two years as you study for a master’s degree in American history or government. In exchange you must promise to teach history for two years at the high school level.

•The Math for America Fellowship* pays for your master’s degree in Mathematics Education and gives you abundant financial and moral support as you launch into your teaching career. You must agree to teach math for five years at the high school level.

The Fulbright ETA (English Teach Assistant) Award will send you to teach English in one of many countries around the world, and will pay your way and support you while you’re there. You can use your free time to pursue a project of your choosing.

The China Education Initiative will send you to teach English for two years in an underserved Chinese school. You will be paid enough to live at a standard commensurate with that of your rural neighbors.

The Teaching Assistant Program in France* and the Teaching Assistant Program in Spain* are sponsored by the respective Ministries of Education in these two neighboring countries. Each program recruits over 1400 North Americans every year to teach English part-time in K-12 schools. The work pays a modest stipend plus health insurance. To apply, you will need mere proficiency in French, or intermediate Spanish; experience working with youth is an advantage, of course. (Soph., J, S)

The Japan Exchange & Teaching* program takes you to Japan for a year or more, to assist in the teaching of English at the elementary through high school level. You get the chance to learn Japanese and earn more than a million yen for the year.

The Teach and Learn in Korea* program invites native English speakers to lead after-school English classes for children in the rural provinces. In exchange for your six- or twelve-month commitment, you get a stipend, insurance, airfare, and a free pass to the palaces in Seoul.

The Princeton in Asia Fellowship* offers over a hundred opportunities each year to teach English in Asian countries from Indonesia to Kazakhstan. You pay will be modest, but your workweek brief, so you will have time for cultural immersion and independent projects.

Idealistically Minded

The Echoing Green Fellowship* will pay you a salary and health insurance, and provide you with abundant moral and technical support, as you try to launch your own organization that works for social betterment anywhere in the world.

The Huntington Public Service Award* and the Simon Fellowship for Nobel Purpose both give cash grants to support you as you work for social betterment after college.

The Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program* invites you to join the fight against hunger by serving half a year in a community-based organization and half a year in a Washington-based agency or non-profit.

The William J. Clinton Fellowship of the American India Foundation* invites you to join the struggle for economic development in India by accepting a year-long assignment in an Indian NGO.

The Princeton in Latin America Fellowship* has ties with NGO’s throughout Latin America, allowing you to spend a year working for the good in Buenos Aires, Asuncion, or some other southerly locale. Fellows have, among other worthy endeavors, studied population trends, advocated for human rights, and fostered entrepreneurship at the village level.

The NYC Service Fellowship* invites you to help the City run its new volunteerism initiative. You will earn a real salary while supervising a cadre of volunteers and developing skills appropriate to government service.

The Reynolds Foundation Graduate Scholarship at NYU* offers a generous tuition grant to support you during two years of study in almost any field at NYU, including the arts, provided your ultimate motive is to advance the public good.

The Humanity in Action* fellowship offers you a five-week intensive summer seminar in human rights in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, or Warsaw.

New Americans

The Soros Fellowship for New Americans* will pay a good portion of your tuition and expenses in any graduate program. You must be a permanent resident, naturalized citizen, or child of naturalized citizens.

Fine Arts

The Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship* will send you abroad for a year to film your exotic documentary, paint your dream landscape, study your favorite architect, or pursue some other independent project in the arts.

The Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award* will generously subsidize up to three years of postgraduate study in the arts. You must demonstrate financial need.

The Worldstudio Foundation* gives cash grants to financially needy students who are working towards graduate degrees in fine arts or photography. (Minority status, if you can claim it, is a big plus here).