Jeffrey Dowgala

Early in my sophomore year at Drexel, I was slightly ahead with my coursework so I signed up for the BS/MS program. After completing some graduate courses and assisting with research, I decided to apply to PhD programs early in my senior year. My advisor recommended I also apply for the NSF Fellowship. The application process seems straight forward but required much more time than anticipated. The essays are short and require careful writing to describe who you are to the person reading them. This required many drafts for each essay to be written. Dedicating time to writing these essays also had to be managed with writing essays for graduate applications as well as taking three graduate courses and two undergraduate courses. Although the application process was a lot of work, it was well worth it in the end.