When people get a doctorate degree, it’s usually referred to as a terminal degree. It refers to the highest level of education or the completion of a course of study in a particular field. However, obtaining a degree does not imply that research or studies are completed, and many degrees, particularly colleges that offer postdoctoral fellowships, are available to continue research.
A postdoctoral fellowship can be found in a wide range of fields, and is most commonly found in departments such as the natural sciences and social sciences; however, there are some fellowships available in the humanities as well. It’s usually a salaried position, but not quite as much as a professorship. People who want to work as a professor at a specific college may complete a postdoctoral fellowship in the hopes of being offered a tenured teaching position afterward. Other times, a student may be drawn to a promising area of research that he or she would struggle to pursue without some financial assistance.
While some fellowships are primarily focused on research, other students want to do or make something. For example, a student may have devised a method for incorporating media into classroom studies and wishes to test it out. Some fellowships are tailored to students who want to teach specific classes or participate in think tanks that bring together faculty from various departments.
There are a lot of postdoctoral fellowship positions available, and applicants must have completed and been awarded a doctorate at the very least. Depending on the school, there may be additional requirements. Some postdoctoral programs at the University of California (UC) are only open to students who have earned a doctorate from one of their schools, for example. Fellowships aren’t the same as getting into a graduate program at a university. A department may only give out one or two awards per year, at most. Fellowships can also vary in length. Some can last four to five years, while others are only for a few years.
Asking graduate teachers or advisors for recommendations is probably the best way to start looking for a postdoctoral fellowship. Online searching is also a viable option, as it can quickly yield a large number of results. To limit the number of results returned, try searching only in areas of interest; otherwise, you may not be able to sift through all of the available postdoc fellowships. If conducting research in another country makes more sense or sounds appealing, people can also look for fellowships on a global scale.