Selection and Endorsement Committees

Faculty Engagement

Getting involved in fellowships gives you the chance to shape the academic life of our undergraduates.

Undergraduate Research and Fellowships invites you to get involved in the review process for selection and endorsement. Students apply from all departments, so we seek faculty from all divisions and schools. You do not need specialized experience of fellowships to make productive contributions.

As faculty members on selection and nomination committees, you will:

• interact with some of Columbia’s strongest and most interesting students;
• better understand the breadth of our students’ engagement across the disciplines; and
• make meaningful contributions to students’ development.

Selection for Columbia Fellowships

Undergraduate Research and Fellowships administers fellowships that support a variety of activities, including postgraduate degrees and summer research projects. Your input is key to determining which students present the most compelling profiles and proposals.

Nomination and Endorsement

For some fellowships, students must receive the endorsement of their institution before they can apply. This is also called nomination. In these cases, Undergraduate Research and Fellowships runs a preliminary internal competition, using the following guidelines:

• Endorsements come from faculty committees who review students’ applications.
• URF administers the competition for endorsement and provides institutional knowledge to faculty committees.
• Applications for endorsement include the same materials that students submit to external competitions.
• Students must be in good academic and disciplinary standing to represent Columbia.
• Deadlines for endorsement are usually three or four weeks before national deadlines.
• Some fellowships ask for institutional assessments that are different from endorsement and may not need faculty input.

How to Get Involved

Please refer to the chart below to figure out where you might like to get involved.

We are happy to talk with you and to connect you with currently serving faculty members for more context.