Sperling Studentship Internal Application Instructions
Overview of application process for a Sperling Studentship:
- Applicants submit an internal application to Reed by the internal application deadline.
- Reed's Fellowships and Awards committee meets and selects nominees from these applicants.
- All applicants are informed of status and nominees submit applications to Cambridge in October.
- Reed College sends list of Sperling nominees to King's College.
- Nominees wait for Cambridge department decisions and King's College admission decisions.
- King's College selects a Sperling Studentship recipient (typically by April 15th).
Spend some time on the Cambridge postgraduate course directory, looking at some of the course offerings and identifying which might be a good fit. You can apply for a master's degree or a doctoral degree (except for any degree in medicine or education). If you are a current Sperling awardee in a master's program and applying to Cambridge to continue into a doctoral program, you must reapply to Reed's Sperling Studentship to continue your funding for up to three years for the doctoral program.
You have to apply to be based at King's College (in the UK system, colleges are more residential/social, so King's College is less an academic entity, and more where your life would be based).
We recommend you reach out to previous recipients of the Sperling Studentship, as they may have insights about Cambridge and King's College that could be helpful to you. You can look up contact information for alumni in Reed's Alumni Directory.
Internal Application Deadline
September 18th, 2024 at 12:00 PM noon, Pacific Time
Application Steps
Your application consists of submitting application documents via email, internal recommendation letters, and filling out an online waiver. You will also need to be prepared to submit a complete application to Cambridge in early October.
Application Documents
Please attach your application documents as PDF files to an email and submit to clbrfellowships@reed.edu by the internal application deadline. Application documents include:
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CV or resume (the Cambridge application will also require a CV or resume).
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Personal statement outlining your reasons for wishing to study at Cambridge and how this program relates to your future goals—no more than 500 words.
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Project statement: Provide a research proposal or outline of your academic plans and goals, not to exceed 500 words. If the department to which you are applying has a required academic statement, you can use that statement for this purpose (though you must still honor the 500 word maximum). If not, please convey what you hope to accomplish at Cambridge academically and why you have selected this particular program.
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Separate from your project statement but in the same document, list the name of the course to which you are applying, along with the url for the course from the course directory.
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Your unofficial Reed transcript (if nominated you can order a free copy of your official Reed transcript for your Cambridge application via these instructions).
Letters of Recommendation
Have two faculty, at least one of whom is at Reed, send internal letters of recommendation to clbrfellowships@reed.edu by the internal application deadline. Your recommenders should know you and your academic work well enough be able to make an academic judgement of you in the following areas:
- your academic performance to date;
- your potential to be original, creative and/or independent of thought;
- your suitability for the course you are applying to.
Make sure to give your recommenders several weeks notice and read our guidance on requesting letters of recommendation.
Waiver
Complete this online waiver form as the final step in submitting your internal application.
Prepare to Apply to Cambridge
You will need to be prepared to quickly apply to the University of Cambridge, listing King's College as your primary college. Because of Cambridge’s rolling admissions, you'll need to submit your application to Cambridge by the deadline for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which is in October. Your final letters of recommendation for Cambridge will also be due at this time, as applications are incomplete without the letters. Cambridge's application process opens in mid-September. If you wish, you may submit your application to Cambridge before you hear back about a Sperling nomination; this will not be factored into consideration of your internal Sperling application.
Funding at Cambridge
Since Reed will nominate more applicants than there will be available Sperling Studentships, having a backup funding plan will increase your chances of being able to study at Cambridge. We recommend also applying to the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and/or applying to funding sources available through Cambridge.
Applicants submitting application materials electronically by email will generally receive a confirmation within twenty-four hours. If you do not receive a confirmation during this time, please follow up with the Center for Life Beyond Reed at clbrfellowships@reed.edu to ensure that the application was successfully submitted.
Next Steps
The Reed fellowships and awards faculty committee will meet the week after the deadline to consider applications. Notifications are typically done within a week of the internal deadline. If you are selected as a nominee, you will be notified by email with your next steps outlined.
Reed can nominate multiple nominees, but only one studentship will be available at Cambridge most years. Reed's nominees must also apply directly to the University of Cambridge and must receive an offer of admission from Cambridge's Postgraduate Admissions Office before King's College sees their application. Once a nominee has received this offer of admission from the university, King's College will then review the application and decide whether or not to offer admission to King's. If more than one of Reed's nominees is admitted to King's College, then King's College will make the final decision, with input from Reed College. You can review Cambridge's timeline of admissions on their "What Happens Next?" page.
Important: If you receive an offer (or conditional offer) of admission to Cambridge, tell CLBR staff as soon as you can via email at clbrfellowships@reed.edu. We can help to ensure that staff at King's College receive your application.
Remember that if you are accepted for a master's program, and if you plan to apply to continue into a doctoral program, you will need to reapply for the Sperling through Reed for that doctoral program.
In most years, final Sperling Studentship decisions will be made by April 15th.