Professional Development

Fellowships and Grants
Financial support at Harvard is clearly one of the most important issues affecting every school and every student at GSAS. Several studies have shown that, nationally speaking, lack of funding is the number one reason why graduate students fail to complete their programs.

One of the best ways to help guarantee your financial security is to start early on your fellowship search. Fellowship applications often have to be submitted far in advance of the use of funds

Your best resource for fellowship information at GSAS is Dr. Cynthia Verba (496-5277, cverba@fas.harvard.edu), Director of Fellowships. From her office on the 2nd floor of Byerly Hall, Dr. Verba provides a number of essential services for GSAS students and alumni. She is an invaluable resource for students seeking financial support for their research and professional development. If you want to apply for fellowships or even if you are just beginning to think about it, don't delay in calling Dr. Verba's office to make an appointment. She will work with you one-on-one to teach you how to focus your energies and most effectively develop your skills for writing and winning fellowship proposals.

The Fellowships Office produces a number of extremely helpful fellowship publications for students in the process of preparing fellowship applications and applying for academic jobs.

If you are thinking of an academic career, you should consult Scholarly Pursuits: A Practical Guide to Academe. It offers advice on all aspects of graduate study, grantsmanship, and professional development in preparation for an academic career, in addition to giving samples of winning fellowship proposals and vitas.

The Graduate Guide to Grants is an annual publication prepared by the Harvard's GSAS. It is specifically designed to help graduate students locate grants and fellowships applicable to the wide range of fields represented in the arts and sciences. Most of the grants listed are to support specific projects, usually dissertation research, but there are some that support the earlier stages of graduate study as well. In either case, students usually must apply for fellowships or grants during the academic year prior to when support is needed, so planning ahead is essential.

If looking through literature on the subject sounds like a good way of getting started, the GSAS Fellowship Library is for you. The Library has two main components. One is a small collection of selected fellowship directories and guides, of particular relevance to scholars working in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The second consists of fellowship files full of detailed information on every entry in the published fellowship guides cited above. There is also a collection of winning fellowship proposals that may be viewed upon request at the Reception Desk in the GSAS Dean's Office on the 2nd floor of Byerly Hall.

Dr. Verba presents an annual series of meetings on "grantsmanship" and professional development for scholars. It covers such topics as how to write a grant proposal, delivering papers at professional conferences, submitting articles or book manuscripts for publication, and special issues of concern to women or under-represented minorities. These events are listed in the GSAS Bulletin, which you will be receiving monthly.

Career Services and Resources
The Office of Career Services (OCS, 495-2595), located at 54 Dunster Street, is a crucial resource in GSAS students' search for jobs and internships. Kimberly DelGizzo (M.S. in counseling) and Laura Malisheski are the Ph.D. and GSAS counselors. They are available for individual counseling (call to schedule an appointment), and for walk-in visits. OCS also provides specialized advising in a variety of fields.

Former OCS counselor Margaret Newhouse has published a very helpful book entitled Cracking the Academia Nut: Preparing for Your Academic Career. It can be seen as the counterpart to her earlier Outside the Ivory Tower, A Guide for Academics Considering Alternative Careers. Both are available for purchase for $5.00 at OCS, and for perusal at the Dudley House Library.

A dossier service is provided by Pat Pearson (495-2787). Your dossier is the collection of letters of recommendation which you have asked people to write in support of your application for academic positions and fellowships. The Dossier Service at OCS maintains your file of letters and sends them out at your request-even long after you're a graduate. The service is available to students of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and GSAS alumni, Visiting Fellows, and faculty members in Arts and Sciences. It is also available to students and alumni of Harvard College who are applying for teaching positions. It's a great way to request and store recommendation letters while your recommender's memory of you is still fresh.

Over 200 GSAS alumni answered the Graduate School's appeal to sponsor internships for GSAS students. GSAS internships offer experiences in a wide choice of fields, types of work, geographical (including international) locations, timing and compensation options, and experiences. Most are nonacademic positions; many are local. Internships provide invaluable experiences and networks for those considering nonacademic careers, but consider one also for leave or for exploring alternative academic fields and administration. Check out the internship binders on Shelf A5 in the OCS Reading Room, at Byerly Hall in the GSAS Dean's office, and in the Dudley House Library.

GSAS internship listings are also available on JOBTRAK. With over 35,000 hits per day and 3,000 new job openings daily, JOBTRAK is one of the largest and most popular employment sites on the internet. The key to its success is the exclusive content and unique partnership that JOBTRAK has formed over ten years with more than 750 college career centers nationwide

To access JOBTRAK's on-line job listings, select "Harvard College and GSAS" from the list of schools and type in the first eight digits of your student ID number as a password. Alumni/ae and those on leave of absence must call OCS's front desk at 495-2595 to set up a temporary password. There is a fee of $25 for three months.

Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and Company, Monitor Company, National Analysts, Inc. and Strategic Decisions Group all run formal recruiting efforts specifically directed at Harvard Ph.D.'s and, in some cases, M.A.'s. In addition, several other consulting companies and patent law firms have expressed ongoing interest in GSAS Ph.D.'s. These include Clark and Elbing, Dean and Company, Fish and Richardson, National Analysts, and Price Waterhouse. Refer to the OCS Newsletter for up-to-date information on recruiting and jobs not listed on JOBTRAK. Should you have specific questions about the recruiting process and dates, please contact Paul Boisselle, the assistant recruiting director, by phone 495-2595 or by email at boissell@fas.harvard.edu.

Preparing for an Academic Career
One of the most effective ways to get acquainted with the world of scholarship is through attendance at academic conferences and symposia in your field. Presenting papers and posters allows others (both in and outside of Harvard) to know your work and allows you to get feedback on your research.

Even if you are not delivering a paper, conferences are a great way to find out what others are doing and meet scholars and students in your field, often in an informal setting. In fact, conferences are as much a venue for exchanging new ideas as they are places to create networks of contacts. Attendance at meetings is especially important as you near the job search. Contacts become even more important, and meetings can provide an ideal opportunity for potential employers to hold interviews.

Keep a particular eye out for local and conferences. It is easier to attend close meetings and costs of attending them will be lower than for those far away. For large conferences held in the Boston area, you can often get free registration in exchange for working a meeting.

To help fund your attendance at meetings, the Graduate Student Council offers Conference Grants to individual GSAS students. (See the GSC Programs and Services section of the Survival Guide or the GSC website for more details.) It is also a good idea to ask your department about funding for graduate student travel.

When you go on the job market, you need to have documentation of your research and teaching qualifications. This means letters of recommendation in your dossier and CUE evaluations (see the guide on the dossier service and CUE evaluations).

Request letters of recommendation early. Ask for a recommendation when your relationship with the recommender is changing or ending. If you have had a good working experience with a visiting faculty member, you will probably want to get a letter before that person leaves. If you've had a good teaching experience with a professor, ask for a letter when the semester is over, so your performance will be fresh in their mind.

When you meet with a faculty member to request a letter, bring along a copy of any relevant information (such as related papers) and a copy of your c.v. for their information. You usually have the option of waiving your right to read letters of recommendation, and it is often seen as a good idea to waive that right since doing so tends to increase the credibility of the letter.