Saturday, December 10, 2011

Fellowships Programs For Graduate Students Studying Agriculture

When it comes to agriculture, the real action starts when one obtains a post-graduate degree. After all, what the world really needs now is research into bio-engineering, land depletion, and nutritional research. If a person wants to head those kinds of projects, he or she needs to add several other sheepskins besides a Bachelor's.

Surprisingly, one of the two best sources for fellowships is universities themselves and the government. True, governments are usually not the best source for this kind of financial aid, but apparently, they make an exception when it comes to solving world hunger and nutritional considerations.

For example, probably one of the biggest underwriters of fellowships is the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is responsible for the Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate Fellowship Grants (NNF). The NNF will provide minimum stipends of $18,500 per year for Master's degree candidates and $24,500 annually for Doctoral and post-Doctoral studies. It can also throw in a $3,000 stipend for such expenses as travel, if it's deemed essential. These fellowships can also go as long as two years each.

Another government agency that is seriously invested in agriculture, particularly if it can be STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) related, is the National Science Foundation. It offers a program called the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Each year, it administers over 1,000 fellowships to Master's and PhD candidates. To apply for this, one must come up with a proposal offering original research in an area of need. Final determination of the amount of the grant is dependent on the proposal.

There are also other sources of fellowships, too. For example, the American Society of Agronomy has its own Pioneer Fellowship in Plant Science. It is open to any post-graduate who obtained a Bachelor's degree in an appropriate field with a 3.5 grade point average. It then awards a stipend of $25,000 a year for up to four years as long as each year the recipient files a progress report on their studies.

Another interesting source is the Sigma Xi fraternity. Its Grants-In-Aid of Research program will provide post-graduate students up to $1,000 for the purchase of needed research equipment or such expenses as travel. It is open to all students of the sciences and engineering, and that means it includes agricultural subjects.

For those with strong intentions of pursuing a career in the dairy field, there is the Kildee Graduate Scholarship. Each year, it puts out a call-out to post-graduate students throughout a number of accredited universities. From there, the top 25 students are awarded a stipend of $3,000 to assist them in completing their core studies and/or research.

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