<p>I am currently a engineering MS student, and I am applying to engineering PhD programs for next year at different schools. I am wondering if also applying for fellowships for next year will improve my admissions chances or not. Does saying you've applied for external funding help you? Do admissions committee members care about this that much? Can anyone comment?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Just applying for external funding won’t increase anything - lots of people enter, few will win. Now, if you are <em>awarded</em> external funding, then that can be a significant bump.</p>
<p>Yes, but I think in general fellowships are usually awarded after you select a program, not while you are applying.</p>
<p>Yes, that’s true. But there have been cases where students were rejected or waitlisted at a program - not because they were unqualified, but because they were borderline and the program simply didn’t have enough funding. They win funding after they find out about the rejection or waitlist, and use it to get off the waitlist or to reverse the rejection decision.</p>
<p>I think honorable mentions might be helpful.</p>
<p>
what kind of funding sources are these? Are they full funding for all years, or just the first? The only sources like these that I can think of are the big name scholarships that are really hard to get, like Hertz, Rhodes, NSF, NDSEG, etc.</p>
<p>That’s what I was talking about - Hertz, NSF, NDSEG, those kinds of things.</p>