Wall Street Journal Asia Fellowship at NYU

We encourage those who are applying for the WSJ Fellowship to also apply directly for admission to NYU’s program in Business and Economic Reporting. The fellowship is very competitive, and inevitably a number of highly-qualified candidates will be disappointed. However, by applying simultaneously to NYU, those who are not offered the fellowship can compete for admission and potentially a scholarship award directly from NYU. The school’s scholarship awards are not as generous as the fellowship, but over the years they have enabled journalists from Asia and around the world to study in the BER program. Online application is here.

Deadline for fall 2009: BER provides rolling admission beginning with the first deadline of January 4. Applications filed through May 1 will be considered on a space-available basis. Please contact business.journalism@nyu.edu if you are considering filing your application after January 4.

Check the eligibility page thoroughly before applying. There are lots of clues in there about the kind of things the judges are looking for. The great thing about journalism is you can do great stories whatever publication you’re at—so if you feel your portfolio isn’t up to scratch, or doesn’t hit all the right points in terms of eligibility, you still have a few weeks to buff up your application with a devastating expose of a company, or the unexpected local fallout of  the Dubai Crisis.

Just don’t leave it too long!

I’m afraid applications have now closed for the fellowship, and finalists will be notified by March.

Those who don’t get selected, or didn’t get their application together in time, will have a chance to submit next year. This website will be up, and updated, in the interim, so please continue to keep an eye out. Those of you who feel you don’t match the criteria now have plenty of time to fill in the gaps. Remember: initiative, ingenuity and a readiness to fill in the gaps of experience and knowledge are all highly regarded qualities, not just for this fellowship, but for journalism in general.

Some of you have asked about what the fellowship covers, and what it doesn’t.

The fellowship will cover costs of two of the three semesters; those who have received the fellowship have found the resources themselves to cover the last semester, and none have regretted it.

But I should add that please don’t not apply because you’re worried about whether and how you might cover the last semester. In some cases we’ve only selected one winner, in which case all three semesters are covered.

If in doubt, apply anyway!

Some of you have asked whether you need to get a place at NYU’s BER programme first before applying for the WSJ Fellowship.

The answer is no; those notified that they are among the finalists, by March 2009, must then apply for the program.

Check out more on the eligibility page.

Some of you have asked whether your applications will be rejected if you work for a rival to Dow Jones. The answer: definitely not.

Some of you have asked whether you need a GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) before applying for the fellowship. While we’re looking for candidates with good English, it’s not necessary to have a GRE before applying. But you will need one to apply for NYU if you win a fellowship. There’s usually time to do that.

Details of test centers can be found here.