Each year the National Science Foundation makes about 1,000 awards to students with the potential to make significant contributions to research, teaching and industrial applications in science, mathematics and engineering. Fellowship awardees and honorable-mention recipients may apply to use 12 facilities at a Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure site. The fellowships may be used at any accredited U.S. or international institution of higher learning offering advanced degrees in science, mathematics or engineering. NSF also sponsors the Women in Engineering and Computer Information Science awards. Aside from the field restrictions, eligibility criteria are the same as for the regular NSF fellowships.
Competition is open to individuals who, at the time of application, are U.S. citizens or nationals.
The NSF Fellowships are intended for students at or near the beginning of their graduate studies in research-based master's or doctoral programs. Awards are not made for clinical, counseling, business or management fields, or for work leading to the attainment of medical, dental or other practice-oriented degrees. Application materials can be obtained in person from the Honors Office or electronically via the Internet. The most important part of the application is a two-page proposed plan of study or research. Selection is based on all available evidence of ability, including academic records, letters of recommendation and scores attained on the Graduate Record Examination.