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About ONSF

ONSF Candidate Mixer with Dean Martin, March 2017

U-M's Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships is located in the LSA Honors Program, but is a service provided to all students at the University.  Our applicants come from all 18 U-M schools and colleges, graduate and professional as well as undergraduate.  

Most of the opportunities listed on this website (e.g. the Rhodes, Marshall, Goldwater, and Truman Scholarships) require U-M endorsement.  In these cases, students cannot apply directly and must follow the instructions and deadlines posted for the U-M nomination process.  For programs that do not require U-M nomination, students may apply directly with or without assistance from ONSF advisors.  In many cases, ONSF keeps a lists of U-M alums who have completed these programs and would be willing to mentor future U-M applicants. 

Our Mission

Madeline Huberth, 2012 Gates Cambridge Scholar

ONSF's mission is to increase both the diversity and competitiveness of U-M students applying to major national scholarships and fellowships while helping all applicants to develop into self-aware leaders and citizens who have specific plans to challenge the present and transform the future.

ONSF is committed to providing equitable access to information about national scholarship and fellowship opportunities to all U-M students.  We pursue this goal through broadly advertised information sessions, direct outreach to students, and through partnerships with a wide variety of U-M units, communities, and student groups.  Please contact us to talk about ways we can better serve your community's specific advising needs.

ONSF is also committed to promoting scholarship and fellowship opportunities that are broadly accessible to applicants from all backgrounds.  When opportunities are limited to a particular applicant pool by eligibility criteria (e.g. US citizenship) we actively seek to provide alternative opportunities whenever possible.

Finally, ONSF is committed to the principle that the application process itself has tremendous educational value. Given the competitiveness of national scholarships and fellowships, even highly qualified and well prepared applicants often will not receive the awards to which they apply.  Nevertheless, we are committed to designing processes that encourage deep reflection about applicants' values and sense of mission/purpose as well as articulated plans for their post-graduate education and early careers.