Hey all! Greetings from the sunny pastures on the other side of my fellowship applications. Absolute hand-wringing, nail-biting, panic-attack-inducing stress has given way to a blissed-out and placid sense of completion. I turned in both my Watson and Fulbright applications today, and though I don’t pretend to be an expert on either application – especially since I don’t know whether I’ll make it past the first round of selections for either one – I have some tips to help you all if you choose to undertake these in the future.

1. Give yourself time. This is so easy to say, and so easy to ignore. I don’t even like writing it, because it sounds so condescending – of course you need to give yourself time, you’re thinking. Why are you even writing this, Rose? However, I know all too well the dangers of setting aside an entire evening – not to mention a regular date every evening – for writing, only to find that you productively procrastinate by doing everything but what you set out to accomplish. It’s one thing to have a night off – these are necessary and can be hugely recharging. It’s quite another to have a document full of ideas and the time to develop them into applications, only to think Well, I have a month. I’ll worry about this tomorrow. I don’t even know where to start. If I do this tomorrow/over the weekend/after talking to my (adviser/professor/friend). I got sucked into this spiral – waiting until a weekend I was on RA duty to write and subsequently not getting much done; waiting until I spoke with every professor I could think of, several times, about the nuances of the application; waiting until genius struck. In the end, you have to buckle down and write. The only way out is through, and at some point in the past little while I grasped that, sat down, and wrote out the worst, most disjointed text I’ve ever written. Draft gave way to draft, and I feel really good about what I turned in. Which brings me to my next point…
2. Use the writing center!! It is incredible! I visited the WC as a first-year, bringing in my Writing 50 and Core papers, but didn’t realize that I could go to them for fellowship help as well. Many of the tutors have helped seniors – seniors who have gone on to receive the fellowships for which they applied – and are experts at clarifying and reorganizing ideas. Seriously, all – I went in with a disjointed outline and left an hour later with a clear game plan that became a compelling and (at least I think) unique statement of grant purpose.
3. Use the resources available to you, but stop if they’re stressing you out. This is key if you’re like me and think you need to follow every opportunity offered you whenever one is presented. This meant I ran over to the library yesterday and searched through the binder containing Scripps students’ past Fulbright-winning applications. My research helped me focus my ideas, gave me a few ideas for how to make my essay stand out, and induced a massive panic attack that lasted the rest of the night and well into the morning. Whenever someone advises reading something and then forgetting about it, I (inwardly, hopefully) roll my eyes and scoff – forget about something so potentially helpful! Yeah right! After yesterday, though, I think I finally understand what’s meant by this advice. Use what you can to your advantage, to be sure. That’s why it’s there. But when it begins to stress you out – and it’s likely to do so – step back and remember how you felt before reading it. Hopefully you were confident about your proposal and sold on the ideas you wanted to convey. Remember that feeling. Remember that just because a winner opened their statement with a great question, or closed with the perfect life plan, or described their millions of years of teaching experience (English Teaching Assistant-specific here, sorry), doesn’t mean your application is weaker because you don’t do the same thing. Avail yourself of these opportunities, but only once you feel confident in what you yourself have written.
4. Talk it out! Again, the easiest thing to say. Had I not gone to the writing center, though, I wouldn’t have thought to discuss some of the reasons that make me uniquely qualified for the fellowships for which I applied. I forget, sometimes, that not everyone grew up doing x, y, or z; that not everyone had the same experience abroad; that not everyone saw the letter ß in a music book and decided to learn a language because of it. What makes you weird? What makes you light up and bores your friends when you talk about it? Write about that, because your words will convey the passion you feel.

Signing off now so I can work out, do laundry, and all those other little things that fall by the wayside when I get stressed. Happy start of the week, and to all the seniors and post-grads who sent in their applications – great work!