Application deadline for 2013-14 is May 31, 2013. The application is now available. If you have not received your FEF ID, do not resubmit the Applicant Information Sheet. Instead, contact the FEF Secretary.

The Fadel Educational Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit educational foundation supporting education for Muslim U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The awards are distributed on a need/merit basis up to $3,500 a year for post-secondary education. Applications become available in February of each year. An initial short form, the Applicant Information Sheet, is required to indicate an intention to complete the application. Upon receipt of the Applicant Information Sheet, the foundation assigns the applicant an Applicant ID number which must be used in all correspondence and the remainder of the application.

Use the pages in the menu bar at the top to access any available application forms, instructions for award recipients and a Frequently Asked Questions document about all facets of the application and disbursement process.

Use these social networking services to have FEF news delivered to your PC or mobile phone:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/fadelfoundation
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fadel-Educational-Foundation/215634068457756
Yahoo! Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fadeleducationalfoundation/ (probably will reserve this exclusively for supporters of the foundation rather than updates for applicants)

We encourage all who deal with the foundation to submit a review at greatnonprofits.org.

The foundation also accepts donations.

Why don’t you want me to send material requiring a signature?

When you send to a PO Box a package require recipient signature, the Post Office places in the PO Box a small piece of paper which must be presented to a clerk who then retrieves the package. Because the foundation receives a lot of mail, it is easy to lose this small piece of paper by not noticing it in between the other envelopes in the box. Furthermore, it forces the secretary to stand in line during business hours to retrieve your package. Also, if nobody checks the PO Box for a period of time, the package may be returned to you. Finally, the Foundation accepts application materials by postmark date, not receipt date. So you’re just wasting your money sending things by Express Mail and Priority Mail and FedEx and Certified Mail, etc.

If you do need to send something through a delivery service, contact FEF first for instructions.

Application Processing Update

As of June 5, I’ve received parts of 89 applications. I believe 40 applications are already complete, and I’ve given them to the evaluation committee. In the tracking spreadsheet for New Applicants for 2013-14, I’ve indicated the completed applications by highlighting them in red.

If your application is highlighted in red but is not complete, let me know. Similarly, if a document which you’ve sent does not appear, let me know.

I don’t track in the spreadsheet anything more than the 1st recommendation letter I receive, the first 2 transcripts I receive, your FAFSA and the completed application form. It does not keep track of standardized test score reports.

Finally, be sure to check this document’s 2nd column for your award when the foundation announces on its web site that awards have been assigned.

Several applicants, despite my clear instructions not to send items which require a signature for receipt, have done so. If you’ve done so and your document does not appear in the spreadsheet, it could be lost at the Post Office. You will need to e-mail me the tracking information for your document.

I’m ABD. May I still receive a grant?

If you are ABD, you must have your advisor write a letter confirming that you are making progress towards completion of your dissertation. The letter should set a date for completion.

If you receive an award, and then later you request a renewal, your advisor must write a similar letter to support your renewal request. If the expected completion date changes, the advisor must explain why in writing.

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Is this person OK for my recommendation letter?

University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire has some good tips about recommendation letters.

I received this question:

I have only completed one semester of college work. My professors do not know me that well. Is it okay to get a recommendation from a high school teacher who [has] known me for the past 4 years?

Applicants have to figure out things for themselves. The review committee is not going to know who did not write your letter of recommendation. They will only look at the letter of recommendation the foundation receives.  So just get the best one you can get.

If the letter of recommendation only talks about things you did 10 years ago, then the reviewers will probably wonder what you’ve done the last 10 years. But one year is not a huge length of time.

Finally, if you think that a gap in time is a problem, send in two letters of recommendation. Send in both the stronger one from the more distant past and the weaker, more recent one.

Don’t go overboard with this. For traditional age students, i.e. 18-24, transcripts are a much more important indication of your academic ability than recommendation letters.

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I don’t have ___________? Is that OK?

Fill in this blank with any document we request in the application. The Secretary does not forward the application for review unless there is a complete application form, an official transcript, a FAFSA (or its equivalent) and a recommendation letter. If the document you are missing is something other than what I’ve mentioned, than your application still gets reviewed.  Depending on how impressive your other documents are, the missing document may not matter. If you are publishing in peer-reviewed journals, nobody’s going to care if you can’t find a copy of your SAT score. If you’re just out of high-school, than the copy of your SAT score report is more important.

So don’t ask the Secretary this question.

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May I Submit an Unofficial Transcript to Save Money?

New and renewal applicants are required to submit official transcripts.

Penn State University’s website has a description of official transcripts:

An official transcript is the University’s certified statement of your academic record. The official paper transcript is printed on security sensitive paper and contains the University seal and signature of the University Registrar. The official electronic transcript is a PDF secured by a digital certificate which is displayed at the top of the transcript along with a blue ribbon.

When ordering an official transcript from your institution, you can either have it sent directly to the foundation or you can take it in a sealed envelope and mail it to us in a larger envelope. We also accept authenticated, signed Adobe PDF documents. Some universities allow secure electronic transmission, so ask your registrar about that. We also accept documents from secure services like Interfolio.

Remember, as is clearly stated on the application:

For each institution which awarded you a degree, submit your most complete official transcript. Submit your latest official transcript which shows your current progress towards the educational goals you listed above. Only submit your high school transcript if you have not completed significant college work.

For 90% of applicants, you will only need to submit 1 or 2 official transcripts. If you are nearing the end of your PhD or professional school and you have 2 previous degrees, you probably need to be using a service like Interfolio as you apply for other grants and then jobs.

If one of your institutions is charging too much money for a transcript, then you should discuss with that institution a remedy such as those I’ve mentioned above. Or organize a student strike. Or something. But it’s not FEF’s responsibility.

FEF also requires official transcripts for award winners to get the 2nd half of their disbursement. If you don’t want to pay for an official transcript showing your grades in the Fall semester, have the Financial Aid office explain to you and the FEF Secretary how to verify that you passed your classes in the Fall semester without an official transcript being sent.

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May I Send Application Materials by E-Mail?

The foundation prefers to receive neatly-printed documents by mail. The easiest thing for the Secretary to handle is manilla mailing envelope with your sealed letter of recommendation, sealed transcript(s) and printed FAFSA and application form.

If official transcripts can be sent electronically, the foundation will accept those. Note, scanning an official transcript and e-mailing it to me is not an official transcript.

The only other document that can be sent electronically is the print-friendly FAFSA form like this sample.

Sometimes, people whom you’ve asked to write letters of recommendation will not want to mail them. Sometimes there are good reasons, such as you did not bother to ask them until the end of the semester and now they’re overseas, and sometimes they just don’t care enough about you to bother mailing something. So if somebody e-mails to the Secretary a letter of recommendation, the Secretary will print it out and add it to your folder, but it’s not going to have that nice blue ink of a signature.

Also, when the Secretary prints your application materials, the Secretary may use the back of paper which has previously been printed on. So it’s just not going to look as nice.

Finally, the only electronic document format you should send is Adobe PDF. Don’t take screen shots and paste them into MS Word documents. Search for the print-friendly version of whatever you’re reading on your screen and then print it to a PDF file (install PrimoPDF, for example).

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