The Graduate School hosted a Research and Fellowships Week panel on the applying for international research fellowships and opportunities. Current USC PhD students working on dissertations that require travel and research abroad offered this advice on applying:

Victoria Montrose is a current Fulbright Graduate Fellow 2015-16. She has also been offered a Japan Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 2015-16 (declined for Fulbright) and was a Blakemore Freeman Fellow for Advance Language Study 2014-15.

I want to dispel the myth that you have to have the perfect proposal. The reviewers of your application know your research will morph.

Carolyn Choi dissertation project examines the expansion of global English education in Asia by comparing the experiences of adult South Korean educational migrants studying abroad in the developed country of United States and the developing country of the Philippines.

Utilize or organize writing groups within your department and workshop your application with your peers.

April Hovav is a PhD candidate in Sociology and Gender Studies. She was awarded the Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship.

Have non-academics review your application to ensure that it is readable by everyone.

Sandra So Hee Chi Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature with research specializations in critical ethnic studies and transcultural Korean/American studies.

Writing fellowship applications is not separate from your research project. They are mutually reinforcing and mutually beneficial.

For more Research and Fellowships Week activities, find the schedule at: http://ahf.usc.edu/rfw

The USC Graduate School has a lot of resources for students looking for fellowships. A Fellowships and Awards database was recently launched at http://awardsdatabase.usc.edu/.