Eligible applicants for Hertz Fellowships must be students of the applied physical,
biological and engineering sciences who are citizens or permanent
residents of the United States of America, and who are willing to morally
commit to make their skills available to the United States in time of
national emergency (see our Moral Commitment section).
College seniors wishing to pursue the Ph.D. degree in any of the fields
of particular interest to the Foundation, as well as graduate students
already in the process of doing so, may apply.
We screen Fellowship applicants for qualities the Foundation believes
are essential ingredients of future professional accomplishment and/or
reasonably reliable leading indicators of future professional success.
These include:
• Exceptional Intelligence and Creativity
with particular emphasis on those aspects pertinent to technical endeavors
• Excellent Technical Education
evidenced not only by transcripts and reference reports from senior technical
professionals, but also by the results of a personal, technical interview
• Orientation and Commitment to the applications of the physical
sciences
as is typical of most applicants
• Extraordinary Accomplishment in technical or related professional
studies
which may offset slightly lower academic records, or add luster to outstanding
ones
• Features of Temperament and Character conducive to high attainment
as a technical professional
the assessment of which is difficult, albeit important to the Foundation
• Appropriate moral and ethical values
of considerable interest to the Foundation in the furthering of our basic
goals
• Leverage
what difference the award of the Hertz Fellowship is likely to make in
the kind, quality, and/or personal creativity of the student's graduate
research
We do not support students pursuing advanced professional degrees other
than the Ph.D., such as enrollees in M.D., LLD or MBA programs, although
we will support the Ph.D. portion of a joint M.D./Ph.D. study program.
For a list of general fields of study in which Graduate Fellowships are
offered by the Foundation, see Fields.
