Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF)

Eligible applicants must:

• Be Harvard College sophomores;
• Concentrate in the humanities or humanistic social sciences;
• Be committed to conducting an independent research project within their concentration under Harvard faculty guidance;
• Have a serious interest in pursuing graduate study, particularly a PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences;
• Demonstrate commitment to MMUF’s program goals;
• Be a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, or DACA/undocumented student; and
• Adhere to URAF’s Principles and Policies for Applicants, including its good-standing requirements.

The fellowship is not intended for students planning to pursue law school, medical school, or another form of professional education.

Fellows receive:

• Mentoring towards research goals and graduate school preparation
• Guidance on mentors and mentoring relationships, building research skills, applying to graduate school and more
• Access to a cohort of scholars doing research in humanities and humanistic social sciences
• Opportunities to network and present research at the regional MMUF conferences
• Fellowship support:
  • Term-time stipend (for two academic years)
  • Summer stipend (for two summers – summer before junior year, summer before senior year)
  • Additional financial support for graduate school (PhD) application preparation and other scholarly development, as needed and requested

All funding awards are contingent upon satisfactory program participation and serious commitment to doing scholarly research while a fellow and remaining in good standing within the College.

In the spring of their sophomore year, applicants will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Academic achievement and scholarly promise
• Commitment to independent research and scholarly work in humanities and related fields as an undergraduate and in the future
• Well-articulated research proposal/plan
• Commitment to the goals of MMUF
• Interest in pursuing graduate study, particularly the PhD in humanities/humanistic social sciences and a professorial (research and teaching) career
• Strong letters of recommendation that validate the candidate's capabilities, scholarly promise, and potential contributions and growth through participation in MMUF

Students who accept the opportunity must remain in good standing with the College for the duration of their time in the program until graduation.

The selection process involves application review by faculty committee and interviews of semi-finalists. Applicants who are selected for interview will be notified after spring break; typically, interviews will be scheduled shortly thereafter. Applicants will be notified of their final status in late March. 

Applicants should carefully read the full application instructions, manage their time and preparation accordingly, and adhere strictly to the formatting instructions and deadline.

All materials must be submitted to the Harvard University Funding Portal (HUFP), linked below.

Application Components

1. Four Essays. MMUF aims to elevate a broad range of scholarly perspectives in the U.S. academy and to support scholars whose perspectives enrich research and teaching in their fields.

Essay 1: Academic Interests || 500 words maximum

Briefly describe your academic/intellectual interests. Discuss two to three concrete and significant experiences (e.g., courses, jobs, community service, research projects, or other experiences) that have shaped your current intellectual interests.

For each experience, describe your role, the actions you took, the skills, knowledge, and insights you may have developed, and the impact on your interests.

Essay 2: Research Project || 750 words maximum

Discuss the research project you plan to undertake as a fellow, including:

• Your specific topic and research questions;
• The methodologies, approaches, and theoretical frameworks you would use;
• Examples of the resources or sources you would use; and
• Challenges or obstacles you may foresee in pursuing the work.

Briefly explain your academic preparation for this research and your plans for building additional skills and knowledge related to this research pursuit.

Finally, discuss three (3) Harvard faculty members who might serve as your faculty mentor and why any one of them—or all of them—may be a good mentor fit for you and/or your ultimate research project.

At the end of this essay, students should cite their sources if sources have been referenced in the description of the research project. The citations should take up no more than one page. Works cited are not included in the word count.

Essay 3: Your Contribution to Program Goals || 500 words maximum

How will your scholarly interests and research advance the MMUF program’s mission to broaden scholarly perspectives in the U.S. academy and expand the knowledge taught and produced in the humanities and related fields?

Essay 4: Goals ||300 words maximum

What are your career goals? Why are you particularly motivated to pursue graduate study—particularly a PhD—in your field of interest and/or related fields, and why are you interested in a career in research and teaching?

What steps have you already taken toward these goals, and what do you hope to learn from this program that relates to these goals?

Essay Formatting and Submission Instructions

• Font size should be 11 pt and no larger than 12 pt.
• The essays should be single-spaced and labeled by the essay heading.
• Each page of the essay document should be labeled with the applicant’s last name and first name.
• All essays should be generated as a single document, saved in PDF format, and uploaded to HUFP.

2. Two Academic Letters of Recommendation

• At least one letter should be from a professor who has taught you or mentored you in an academic context at Harvard.
• The second letter may be from another member of the Harvard academic or research community. Alternatively, students who have pursued research or other academic-related activities outside Harvard may choose to have a mentor from one of those experiences write the second letter.
• Letter writers may be members of the full-time faculty, graduate teaching fellows, postdocs, librarians, scholars who are Radcliffe fellows, visiting researchers, or members of Harvard’s Society of Fellows.

Letters should describe:

• How the letter writer knows you;
• Your fit for the program and how the program will help you grow;
• Your ability to pursue research independently;
• Your determination, initiative, and motivation toward understanding a topic, building an argument, and following through—i.e., your research potential; and
• How you would contribute to and benefit from being in the program and the MMUF scholarly community.

3. Unofficial Transcript. Download your transcript from my.harvard and save it in PDF format. The file should not be password-protected.

4. Two-Page Résumé. Indicate significant activities, achievements, and experiences in college that demonstrate your interests and potential achievements. Save the résumé in PDF format.

Expectations of Fellows

• Conduct independent research in the humanities and social sciences under the guidance of a Harvard faculty member. It is expected that undergraduate research culminates in a thesis or capstone paper.
• Participate enthusiastically in weekly cohort meetings (~1.5 hours long) on topics such as: faculty research, research communication, graduate school admissions, the life of a graduate student and professor, and more.
• Attend and participate one Northeast MMUF conference per fellowship year (MMUF conferences are typically scheduled for one weekend (Friday and Saturday) every Fall semester.
• Meet with the campus program coordinator each semester for a check-in advising meeting.
• Submit program deliverables: research progress reports, draft statements of purpose, research abstracts, and final capstone papers/theses.
• Present their research, as seniors, at the annual Harvard MMUF Research Symposium.

Being a Mellon Mays program fellow is a serious time commitment. We recommend students deeply consider their academic and co-curricular commitments, personal and academic goals, and weigh whether enthusiastic commitment to the program's requirements can be achieved before applying and committing to this program.