I was awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship during my second year of my Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. at Purdue University. Honestly, I did not expect to get it. For context: I applied for the NSF GRFP in 2023 and did not even receive an honorable mention. At the time, I did not really understand how to write a good research proposal. I must have figured it out over the past couple of years, though. The NDSEG acceptance rate is typically somewhere between 2% and 5% depending on the year, so I applied mostly hoping for the experience of writing a strong research proposal. This page is intended to share what I know about the award, what the application process looks like, and to make my application materials available so they can be useful to future applicants.
If you have questions after reading through this, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page or reach out to me directly through the contact page.
What is the NDSEG Fellowship?
The NDSEG Fellowship is a highly competitive graduate fellowship sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD). It is awarded to U.S. citizens and nationals pursuing doctoral degrees in science or engineering disciplines relevant to national defense. The fellowship is intended to increase the number of U.S. scientists and engineers in defense-related fields. It is one of the most prestigious fellowships available to Ph.D. students in STEM, and it comes with substantial financial support over a three-year period.
The official application portal is at ndseg.sysplus.com.
Eligibility
Before applying, confirm you meet all of the following requirements:
- U.S. citizenship or nationality. Permanent residents are not eligible. Dual citizens may apply. Citizenship documentation is required upon a formal offer.
- Early career status. You must be in your first or second year of a doctoral program, or be receiving your bachelor's degree in the year of application. If you are entering your third year of graduate school or beyond, you are not eligible.
- At least three years remaining in your program. Since the fellowship provides three years of funding, you must have at least three years left in your PhD as of the fall the fellowship begins.
- Approved STEM discipline. Your research must fall within one of the 18 disciplines supported by the program: Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering, Astrodynamics, Biomedical Engineering, Biosciences, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Cognitive/Neural/Behavioral Sciences (excluding PsyD), Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Geosciences, Materials Science, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture, Oceanography, Physics, and Space Physics.
- Full-time enrollment at a U.S. institution. You must be enrolled or intend to enroll full-time at an accredited U.S. graduate institution for the duration of the fellowship.
- No simultaneous major fellowships. You cannot hold another major fellowship at the same time as the NDSEG. Internships and smaller scholarships are generally fine with prior approval.
There is no service obligation. The only programmatic requirement beyond the research itself is attendance at the NDSEG Class Conference at some point during your tenure as a fellow.
The program has awarded nearly 4,700 fellowships from over 70,000 applications since its inception in 1989. In the most recent cycle with published data (2020–2021), 159 fellows were selected from approximately 7,942 applicants, a selection rate of around 2%. The historical average across the program's entire history is closer to 7%, suggesting the pool has grown significantly more competitive in recent years.
Award Details
The NDSEG Fellowship provides three years of funding. Here is a breakdown of what the award includes:
The stipend is paid directly to you, not to your university, and it is pre-tax income. Tuition is covered separately and paid to your institution. The travel and professional development funds can be used for things like conference registration, field research, equipment, and training. Note that these budgets are annual, not a one-time sum.
About the Application
The NDSEG application consists of several components: a personal statement, a research proposal, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and a resume. The research proposal is the most substantial piece in terms of length and effort. Here is some general guidance on each part.
Research Proposal
Your research proposal needs to be clear, well-motivated, and relevant to DoD interests. You do not need to be working on something explicitly military. Basic science and engineering research qualifies as long as it falls within the eligible disciplines. The reviewers evaluating your proposal may not be specialists in your exact subfield, so write for an intelligent but non-expert audience. Avoid excessive jargon and make sure your motivation section is compelling.
Choosing a BAA to Align Your Proposal With
This is one of the more confusing parts of the application. NDSEG requires you to align your research proposal with a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) from one of the three supporting DoD agencies: the Air Force (AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO), or the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Each agency publishes a BAA that describes specific research programs and topic areas they are currently interested in funding. You can find links to all of them through the NDSEG portal at ndseg.sysplus.com/NDSEG/About/DoD-Agencies.
The key thing to understand is that you are not required to fulfill the requirements of the BAA you select. You are only using it to demonstrate that your research aligns with DoD strategic priorities. Think of it as finding the program description that most closely matches what you are already working on, not as a constraint on what your research has to be.
To choose a BAA, read through the program descriptions across the three agencies and find the one whose stated research interests most closely match your work. Each BAA is broken into sections covering different research areas, so read carefully. When you reference it in your proposal, cite the specific section number, not just the agency name.
Important: Do Not Contact the DoD About BAA Questions
The NDSEG program explicitly prohibits applicants from reaching out to any member of the Department of Defense regarding their application or BAA selection. If you have questions, direct them to the program office at NDSEG.PMO@sysplus.com.
For my own proposal, I aligned with the AFOSR Dynamical Systems and Control Theory program (BAA Section A.2.c). My research on a machine learning-enabled model predictive control framework for autonomous systems fits within AFOSR's emphasis on rigorous methods for control of nonlinear, uncertain, and adversarial systems. If your work touches on control theory, autonomous systems, or related areas, this section may be worth looking at.
Personal Statement
The personal statement is your opportunity to explain who you are as a scientist or engineer and why you are a strong candidate. Focus on your research experiences, what you learned from them, and how they have prepared you for doctoral work. The NDSEG reviewers are looking for evidence that you can think independently and carry out research.
Letters of Recommendation
Letters of recommendation are optional, but you can submit up to three. I would strongly recommend including them if you have good recommenders available. Give them plenty of lead time (at least a month). Some people share their research proposal and personal statement with their recommenders so they can tailor their letters, though I did not do this myself. Strong letters speak specifically to your research ability and potential, not just your grades.
Resume
Keep it clean and focused on research experience. Publications, conference presentations, and lab experience are the most relevant items. GPA and test scores are less important than demonstrated research ability.
⚠ Warning: Budget Extra Time for the Application Website
The application portal at ndseg.sysplus.com is genuinely painful to work with. Expect to encounter confusing navigation, unexpected session timeouts, file upload issues, and form behavior that does not match your expectations. I strongly recommend budgeting at least an extra week beyond when you think you'll be done writing, purely to deal with the submission process. Do not leave the final submission for the last day. Start uploading and reviewing your materials well in advance, and save or screenshot confirmation of each completed section as you go.
Beyond the portal itself, be aware that when I applied, several parts of the NDSEG website had outdated documentation, broken links, and instructions that contradicted each other. Do not assume that everything you read on the site is current or consistent. If something is unclear or seems to conflict with something else you have read, email the program office directly at NDSEG.PMO@sysplus.com rather than guessing. They are the authoritative source.
The Redaction Requirement
NDSEG uses a blind review process, which means all submitted documents must be free of personally identifying information (PII). This includes your name, your institution, your advisor's name, the names of journals you have published in, the names of places you have worked, and anything else that could identify you or your affiliation to a reviewer.
How this plays out in practice depends on the document. For the personal essays, the requirement is straightforward: simply do not include any PII when writing them. If you write them correctly from the start, no after-the-fact redaction is needed. For the research proposal, it is harder to avoid PII entirely, since your institution, advisor, and affiliated labs tend to come up naturally. The application allows you to submit both a redacted and an unredacted version of your research proposal. The approach I used for the redacted copy was to write the proposal normally, then go back and physically draw over any identifying information using a black marker on my iPad before saving it as a PDF. For the resume, the same applies: remove your name, address, institution, and employer names.
Tip: Do the Research Proposal Redaction Last
Write and finalize your research proposal first, then do a single pass to cover PII at the end. Trying to write around PII as you go tends to make the proposal read awkwardly. It is easier to write naturally and redact cleanly than to contort your writing to avoid mentioning your institution or advisor.
My Application Materials
Click either document to view it in full. Use the download icon to save a copy. The personal essays contain no PII because they were written that way from the start. The research proposal has PII, which was then phyiscally drawn over on an iPad for the redacted proposal submission. Both serve as concrete examples of format, length, and writing style.
Final Thoughts
Apply even if you are not sure you'll get it. I was genuinely surprised when I received the award. The acceptance rate is low enough that it is easy to talk yourself out of applying. The exercise of writing a serious research proposal is valuable regardless of outcome, and a fellowship of this magnitude is worth the effort.
If you have specific questions about the application (the essays, the research proposal, the website, or anything else), feel free to leave a comment below or contact me directly. I am happy to share what I know.
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