2025 MAD Design Fellowship

Closed on Jan 14, 2025

Information Session

This info session covers eligibility, application requirements, selection criteria, and funding details for the 2025 cohort. Open to current MIT Master’s and PhD students.

Applications

Applications for the 2025 Design Fellowship are now closed.

To be eligible, applicants must be in residence at MIT during the academic year and currently enrolled. Applicants must be nominated through a letter of support provided by an MIT faculty member with PI status*, with each faculty member limited to only one nomination. If we receive more than one nomination from a faculty member, we will ask that they select only one student for Fellowship consideration. Thus, it is important that the applicants and faculty members discuss the nomination. The expectation is that the nominator will be the applicant’s research or academic advisor.

*Senior Lecturers, Principal Lecturers, and Lecturers may also act as nominators.

Please carefully read the information below before applying.


BENEFITS
Two semesters of full regular tuition (Fall and Spring), as well as 9 months of stipend support. Fellows will also receive health insurance, beginning September 1.


We also welcome applications for one semester of support, which includes regular tuition for Fall or Spring semester, stipend support for 4.5 months, and health insurance for the semester.

Fellows will receive a scholarly allowance to support need for materials, fieldwork, conference travel, or other allied support.


DEADLINE
Applications for the 2025-26 academic year are now closed. The deadline was Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 12pm ET. The student candidate’s application and nomination letter from an MIT faculty member must be received by the deadline.

SUBMISSION
There are two different links: one for students and one for their nominating faculty. Please make sure to use the correct links.

There are two parts to a complete application:

  • Part 1 should be submitted by the student candidate through this link.
  • Part 2 must be submitted by the nominating MIT faculty member through this link.


PART 1
STUDENT CANDIDATE

  1. Once you have all the required documents for your application ready, complete the MAD 2025 Design Fellowship application form (supported by MAD's MITdesignX Accelerator App platform). The portal allows you to start and save an application, which can be completed at a later date.
  2. Attach a one-page PDF Curriculum Vitae, showing your current degree program.
  3. Attach a two-page (maximum 10 MB) PDF statement of interest addressing the questions below:
    A — What is your area of study at MIT (research questions, methods, impact on users or society, or on design research)? If relevant, you can include previous design experiences or expertise, financial need, and areas of professional interest. One page in length.
    B — How does your graduate program include design? What are you designing, for whom, and why? What are your long-term aspirations as a designer or design-focused researcher? One page in length.


The statement must be written with a multidisciplinary audience in mind, and non-specialists should be able to clearly understand the work and its design aspects. You may include images as part of your two-page statement, or a link to a portfolio with images. Please do not include attachments.

PART 2
FACULTY MEMBER NOMINATION
Submit a signed letter of nomination detailing the student’s qualifications and capabilities, and indicating why you believe the student should be awarded a Design Fellowship. This can include the potential financial impact of the Fellowship on the student, as well as the financial need for the faculty member’s research group. The letter should be two pages or less and submitted via this form. Each MIT faculty member may nominate only one student, who is that faculty member’s academic or research advisee.

SELECTION PROCESS
Morningside Academy for Design Fellows are selected by a faculty committee representing all five MIT Schools and the Schwarzman College of Computing. 2025-26 MAD Design Fellows will be announced in April 2025.

Criteria for selection include:

  • Creativity and breadth of experience,
  • clarity of project goals,
  • overall academic quality,
  • diversity of perspectives on design,
  • potential impact of the fellowship on the student, including financial aspects.


CONTACT
If you have questions that are not answered here, please contact [email protected].