Eligible applicants for Hertz Fellowships must be students of the applied physical and biological sciences, mathematics and engineering 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 http://hertzfoundation.org/dx/fellowships/commitment.aspx).

Eligible applicants for Hertz Fellowships must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States of America.

Yes, you are still eligible to apply as a first year grad student.

We generally do not award fellowships to students who are already beyond their first year of graduate study except in cases of "exceptional leverage".  Such awards are very rare—only three have been made in the past 10 years. (Leverage here means 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.)

If your master's degree is in a different field you can apply as a first year graduate student in this field. If it is in the same field, then it will apply. You can confirm this with your graduate school's department —if they consider you a first year grad student, list yourself that way if you choose to apply this year. For the purposes of the Hertz application, graduate level work performed before the award of a BS or BA degree is not counted toward years of graduate work.

If you are awarded a Hertz Fellowship, you may then petition the Foundation to have your desired school added to the list of participating schools. The criteria considered by the Foundation in evaluating such a petition include whether:

At the time the award is offered, you will have the opportunity to make a final decision on the school you'd like to attend. It is also possible to transfer your Hertz Fellowship to a different participating school during the course of your graduate work if this becomes desirable. At that time, you may also petition for your desired school to be added to the Participating School list, if it is not already included. (See the answer to the above question for the procedure involved.) 

The application will allow you to upload multiple documents. Please do not mail or email your pdf's directly to the Hertz office. They will not be guaranteed to make it into your file if you do so.

No. You can enter as much information as you like for the essays. Your essay in its entirety will be included in your Hertz application.

This page is to be used for submitting a personal essay that reveals your creativity beyond your research. This could include information about your favored extracurricular and leisure activities since your graduation from high school.

We expect that each of your recommenders will use our format to submit their information, answering our specific questions. Please register your four references using the system we have provided. We can accept any other letters as supplemental information only. 

Only 4 recommenders can be submitted electronically. Recommenders/references beyond the four entered through the embark website will not carry as much weight, but will still be reviewed and considered. If you have additional recommenders, then you can upload in the Supplemental and Other Information section a letter of recommendation.

We will continue to accept recommendations after the deadline. If we have not received all of your recommendations by the time the files are reviewed, your application will still be considered, although it is in your best interest to have all of them in. If your recommender is not able to submit, you could remove one and select a different one through the application.

Unless you are an MD/PhD student who took the MCAT test, then yes, 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. Our Foundation ID is #4366. We accept subject test scores, but do not require them.

We will continue to accept GREs after the deadline. Initial interview decisions will be made in early-November. If we have not received your GRE’s by then, your file will be reviewed without those scores.

Yes, please enter the score information you receive at the time of testing, and upload your test results to the application.

Current MD/PhD students may upload their MCAT scores in place of GRE scores if they never took the GRE. MCAT scores can be entered in your application at the MCAT Score Line.

Unless you have taken additional tests, we have your previous scores and you do not need to resend them.

The 2020-2021 Hertz Fellowship application season opens August 30, 2019.

Please email askhertz@hertzfoundation.org if you have any problems or questions.

Each program defines their upper division courses somewhat differently, so please detail those courses you feel are upper-division. With regard to cross-discipline classes, use your best judgment.

You do not need to send transcripts unless you have grades posted. Your undergraduate transcripts are all that's required in your case.

Please upload a copy of your transcripts where indicated on the application. Unofficial transcripts are accepted at this point. If you are selected as a Hertz Finalist, at that point you will be asked to submit your official transcripts. We do not accept transcripts via email to our office directly from applicants.

Interviewees will be selected by mid-November. You should hear from the Foundation regarding your status before the end of the November.

You do not need to turn it down. In most cases, we are able to coordinate with institutions such as NSF, NIH, NDSEG and others. We can also work with you to defer your fellowship if you are awarded a grant such as Fulbright, or a scholarship such as a Rhodes, Churchill or Marshall.

Yes, you should apply now and if you are awarded a Hertz Fellowship, we will work with you on deferring and/or coordinating support.