Applying for the Stanford Science Fellowship

DISCLAIMER: These views are my own based on my personal experiences and do not reflect the opinions of Stanford University or the Stanford Science Fellows Program.

The Stanford Science Fellowship is a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship for recent PhDs across the sciences at Stanford University. The fellowship provides exceptional financial and research support with the goal of developing independent scientists and leaders working across the physical, mathematical and life sciences. I was fortunate to receive a Stanford Science Fellowship as part of the inaugural cohort of fellows.

Application Tips

  • Reach out to prospective supervisor(s) early with a brief description of your proposed research. I was a little late on this and my prospective advisor told me he had already heard from many people thinking of applying! Reaching out to prospective advisors early can also help with Stanford postdoc opportunities that aren't the SSF - there are other postdoc fellowship programs (both external and internal to Stanford), and faculty may have their own funding which could support you if the SSF doesn't work out. 

  • Do not expect your prospective supervisor to provide you with ideas – while they may be happy to discuss potential projects with you, as a postdoctoral fellow you should be prepared to write a proposal on your own unique research idea(s) that you could accomplish while at Stanford.

  • It is very helpful to identify multiple faculty you could potentially work with or collaborate with at Stanford. I reached out to multiple faculty when I started my application, mentioned 3 faculty specifically in my proposal, and then in my interview ended up discussing more faculty in the department with whom my research interests also overlap. They’re looking for independent and interdisciplinary researchers, so demonstrating that you are able to interact across different research groups at Stanford will help your application.

  • Similarly, it is important that you can explain exactly why the research you're proposing should uniquely take place at Stanford. This should be obvious, but you need to sell exactly why Stanford is for you and what unique resources at Stanford your project would take advantage of. I had an entire paragraph in my proposal that was specifically titled “Relevance to Research at Stanford” and also wrote about how my time at Stanford would further my future goals in my personal statement.  

  • If you make it to the interview stage, it is quite straightforward. They gave us 5 questions ahead of time (so we could prepare) and then I was asked those questions plus a few additional ones. The interview was brief (only 25 minutes) and fairly conversational.

My personal statement for my SSF application can be found here. I structured my research proposal as follows (although this is certainly not the only way to do it!):

  1. Introduction (1-2 paragraphs)

  2. Research Questions/Goals

  3. Proposed Methods (1-2 paragraphs)

  4. Anticipated Outcomes (1-2 paragraphs)

  5. Relevance to Stanford (1 paragraph)