Requirements

College/School Eligibility:

  • Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • Arts and Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Human Ecology

Class Year Eligibility:

  • Fourth Year + (undergrad)

Open to:

  • Cornell Graduate/Professional Students

Graduating seniors and graduate students in any area of applied science may apply. U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Not for students applying to medical school or those in joint professional degree programs, (although the Foundation may support the Ph.D. portion of a joint M.D./Ph.D. study program). Evidence of exceptional creativity, broad understanding, and potential for innovative research is expected.

The Foundation's interests extend from applied math through applied physics and chemistry, encompassing all of the engineering disciplines, and include those aspects of modern biology which apply the physical sciences intensively. For an illustrative list of the fields supported, see the http://hertzfoundation.org/. It is up to each applicant to defend his or her field as an "applied physical science."

  • October 27: submission of application and transcript(s)
  • Fall 2017: submission of references
  • Between November and February: foundation interview(s)
  • Early April: announcement of winners

In addition to the application itself, applicants are required to submit the following:

  • Transcripts of academic work. The foundation also looks for evidence of unusual creativity. Outstanding achievements in scientific or technological developments will be favorably noted—papers published as an undergraduate, patents, and the like—and may balance a lower undergraduate GPA. The transcript should reflect breadth of academic work, as well as depth in the chosen field.
  • Four reference reports by senior technical professionals and/or faculty with and for whom the Fellowship applicant has worked or studied.
  • Reports by one or more interviewers from the Foundation (many of whom are former Hertz Fellows).

The Foundation's selection process differs from that of, say, the National Science Foundation, in that it includes personal technical interviews, which are intended primarily to provide a degree of normalization between the varying standards of different institutions and the diverse educational experiences of different disciplines. The interview is an oral question and answer session. Topics are not restricted to the applicant's field, but will include other disciplines. From 30-60 minutes in length, these interviews substitute for the GRE in terms of comparing candidates from different majors, different schools, and different student standing. They test technical ability, ability to handle pressure, ability to think broadly, and to speak articulately.

Every Fellowship applicant is required to take at least the aptitude portion of the Graduate Record Examination and to have the results sent to the Foundation. The Foundation does not require the GRE Subject test scores, although they will accept them.

Fellows must attend one of the Foundation's http://hertzfoundation.org/fellowships/schools or must petition the Foundation to include a school that he/she desires to attend.