Wall Street Journal Asia Fellowship at NYU

If you’re not sure what to expect from the Fellowship, or whether it’s right for you, check out some of our testimonials from previous Fellows.

Eva Woo, for example, found that she was able to tell the story of the 2008 financial upheaval in China better because of what she learned on the course:

Luckily I am equipped to tell that story and be a part of that story with what was taught at the BER program: The inverted yield curve I first learned at the macro class two years ago predicted the recession long before anyone had a sense of it. The Foundation of Finance class taught me some of the perfect models behind the current bubble, one of the biggest in financial history.

Shefali Anand, meanwhile, felt it was a long shot to apply, but, found it was one well worth taking:

I should note that winning the WSJ fellowship doesn’t automatically result in a job at the Journal. But the exposure and knowledge that I got while at NYU would have propelled my career no matter where I ended up working. That long shot for applying to the WSJ Asia fellowship was well worth taking.

Jason Leow had already been working in China for six years as a reporter but since doing the NYU program has a much better feel for the nuances of the business story:

My job scope now includes banking and finance, a beat I’m able to handle because I had business journalism training at NYU. 

Serena Ng also found the program added depth to her reporting:

The BER program equipped me with the skills I needed and taught me the fundamentals of corporate finance, accounting and economics. I also picked up some valuable investigative-reporting techniques.

Sui-Lee Wee has also derived confidence from the program:

Now, I know how to scour through a financial statement, I understand the major economic forces that shape this country and the world and I can write big-picture pieces about the current financial crisis.

Read the full testimonials here.

Shefali Anand, the first recipient of the "Wall Street Journal Journalism in Asia Fellowship", has just launched her own column in the Wall Street Journal Online’s Indian subsection. Shefali Anand is a staff reporter with the Wall Street Journal in New Delhi, writing about personal finance for an Indian audience. Prior to that, she was based in the Journal’s New York bureau, where she covered America’s $11 trillion-mutual fund industry and contributed to personal finance and stock market coverage. Previously, she worked with The Indian Express newspaper in Mumbai, as a business reporter and sub-editor.

Here’s a snippet from her column, “Maximum Money”:

Do you hate losing money?

I’m not just talking about a time when you might have lost your wallet. Rather, I’m referring to the times when you overpaid for something, or worse, were forced to buy something that you didn’t need.

Perhaps that doesn’t happen when you’re buying toothpaste or a television because you are careful on how and what you spend. But the fact is, in many simple financial products that we own, such as life insurance or mutual funds or credit cards, we are rarely informed of all the costs involved. Many of these products are not even suited to each one of us. With incomplete information, the result is that we often end up losing money without realizing it.

We’ve changed the procedure for sending in applications; they should now go direct to NYU. Details here.

If you’ve already submitted to the old address, contact us and we’ll make sure your application gets passed on.

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!

Thanks to all of you who have written in with questions. Here’s one question that is worth adding an answer to for others in a similar situation:

Question:

Can a fellow have a family member accompany them during the period of study? For example, a child or spouse?

Answer:

An international student may bring along a family member as a dependent on an F-2 or J-2 visa. Please see this link to the website for NYU’s Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS).

This OISS link provides information about entering the U.S. on an F-1 or J-1 student visa.

Just one note: Please check the site thoroughly before emailing any questions. We’ve tried to anticipate most likely questions so check all the links, or use the search box on the left, before firing off an email. And a reminder that if you do apply, it has to be done the old fashioned way: by mail.

The WSJ NYU Fellowship for 2010-11 is now open for applications.

The fellowship is a program funded by The Wall Street Journal, in association with New York University, for one or two promising journalists from Asia to enroll in the three-semester masters program in business and economic reporting at the NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Please explore the site and contact us if you have further questions. The deadline for applications is January 22 Feb 8.

Alumnus Jody Xu reports on the less-than-stellar welcome President Obama received ahead of his China trip: 

Despite the message intended by President Obama from his spending the longest time in China on his first trip to Asia next week, the Chinese people are nonplussed.

One person asked in People Forum, an online chat room of the Peoples Daily: “Mr. President, don’t you think this is a bad time to visit given your recent approval to increase tax on Chinese tires and the escalating trade war against us?”

China’s leading English-language weekly, Global Times, found in an online poll that, out of 8,100 respondents, 86% said they either “do not anticipate” or “do not care much” about the coming visit of the U.S. President.

Obama Loses His Star Power–in China – Deal Journal – WSJ

Alumnus Shefali Anand on the Galleon insider trading case:

NEW DELHI — The tipster who investigators say touched off one of the largest insider-trading cases in recent years is the aunt of a friend of a former Moody’s Investors Service analyst who allegedly passed information to her, according to the analyst.

Prosecutors allege that an analyst at Moody’s gave Roomy Khan — identified by people familiar with the matter as the tipster — confidential information in 2007, before the announcement of Blackstone Group’s $26 billion takeover of Hilton Hotels. Ms. Khan and ..

Filing Says Tipster Got Info From Ex-Moody’s Analyst – WSJ.com

We’re pleased to report that finalists for the fellowship have been selected. Emails will be going out soon to everyone who applied. The winner will be announced in the next few days.

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.