Graduate Women's Scholarship Program

The Microsoft Research Graduate Women’s Scholarship is a one-year scholarship program for outstanding women graduate students and is designed to help increase the number of women pursuing a PhD. This program supports women in the second year of their graduate studies. Women who are interested in this scholarship must apply during first year of graduate studies. Scholarships are granted by Microsoft Research at the discretion of Microsoft.

Current Schedule

• Microsoft will begin accepting applications: Tuesday, August 16, 2011.
• Completion date for all applications: Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time.
• Late and incomplete applications will not be considered.
• No notification of incompleteness will be made.
• No exceptions to the deadline will be approved.

Provisions of the Award

• The scholarship recipient award includes US$15,000 for the 2012–2013 academic year.
• A conference and travel allowance of US$2,000 is provided for recipients to attend a conference in their field of study.
• Scholarships are awarded to recipients for one academic year only and are not available for extension or renewal.
• The recipient must remain as active, full-time student, enrolled in graduate programming during the academic year of the award or forfeit the award.Please direct any additional questions to your university department chair or contact Microsoft directly at:
  Microsoft Research
  One Microsoft Way, 99/4123
  Redmond, WA 98052
  msrsch@microsoft.com
  http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/awards/fellows-women.aspx

• Nominees for the Microsoft Research Graduate Women's Scholarship Program must be nominated by their universities, and their nominations must be confirmed by the office of the chair of the department. Direct applications from students are not accepted.
• Student must attend a U.S. or Canadian university and be enrolled as a full-time graduate student in the Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics departments (if your department is within the scope of these areas, but is titled differently, you are eligible).
• Students must be enrolled in their first year in a graduate program in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics for academic year 2011–2012. If a student has already completed graduate-level coursework in any subject area, prior to their first year in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics, then the student is not eligible for the Scholarship program.
• A maximum of three applicants per department, per university will be accepted. (For example, if you have three separate departments as listed above, you may submit up to three candidates per department or up to nine applicants from your university.)
• Payment of the scholarship awards, as described above, is made directly to the university and is not transferable to another academic institution or department. The recipient must remain enrolled in a graduate program during the 2012–2013 academic year or forfeit the award.

Required Information and Application Process

• Applications must include: Applicant's curriculum vitae, a copy of the student's undergraduate transcript, and three (3) letters of reference from established researchers familiar with the applicant's research. Of these letters, one (1) letter of recommendation should come from the student's graduate advisor, one (1) letter of recommendation should come from the student's undergraduate advisor or another academic familiar with the student's undergraduate work, and one (1) letter should come from another academic within the nominating institution.
• Applications must be submitted online via the application tool in any of the following formats: Word document, text-only file, or PDF. All application materials must be submitted by the person designated as the application contact by the departmental chair's office and must not be the applicant.
• Applications are accepted only when submitted via the online application tool by eligible university department chairs or their designee (students may not apply directly). Emailed or hard copy applications are not considered.
• Applications submitted to Microsoft will not be returned. Microsoft cannot assume responsibility for the confidentiality of information in submitted applications. Therefore, applications should not contain information that is confidential, restricted, or sensitive. Microsoft reserves the right to make public information from applications that receive awards, except those portions containing budgetary or personally identifiable information.
• Incomplete applications cannot be considered and notification of incompleteness will not be made.
• Due to the volume of submissions, Microsoft Research cannot provide individual feedback on applications that do not receive Scholarship awards.

Please direct any additional questions to your university department chair or contact Microsoft directly at:
Microsoft Research
One Microsoft Way, 99/4123
Redmond, WA 98052
Mail: msrsch@microsoft.com
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/awards/fellows-women.aspx