Key points
- Applicants should begin preparing information early to meet the application deadline.
- Detailed instructions are provided as a guide to preparing required information and submitting the online application.
Overview
Eligible applicants should allow ample time to prepare the required information and submit the online application according to the deadline.
How to prepare
Eligible applicants should follow these steps to prepare the required information prior to starting the application for the Traditional Track or the Analytics and Modeling Track.
- Update your resume or CV.
- Gather all information about your education; graduate training and skills; work and volunteer experience; publications, presentations, and grants; working papers; honors and awards.
- Write a personal statement.
- Identify three or more people to provide recommendations on your behalf.
- Obtain unofficial copies of transcripts for all earned and in-progress college degrees.
- If any of your degrees were obtained from an institution outside the U.S., you will also need a course-by-course credential evaluation.
Self-Assessment of Skills
Notate your experience and level of expertise in:
- computer software
- economic and public health data sets
- data science (wrangling, cleansing, modeling, analytics)
- data science methods (machine learning, NLP, deep learning)
- data design and development (big data, data modeling, info retrieval)
- programming languages and scripting (Python, R, C, C++)
Personal Statement
For your personal statement, answer the following:
- What influenced you to consider a career in public health service?
- Describe how this fellowship/track will help you achieve your goals.
- Describe your greatest professional challenge so far and how you overcame it.
- Describe your use of analytic methods. What methods would you like to learn more about?
- Why are you interested in this fellowship/track?
- What makes you a good candidate for this fellowship/track?
- Why do you want to join the CDC?
- How do you anticipate using the concepts and skills learned in this fellowship/track? Be as specific as possible.
- Describe your experience related to data management and analysis, including the use of statistical software packages such as Excel, SAS, STATA, R, or Epi Info. Please provide specific examples.
Recommendations
- A minimum of three recommendations are required. A maximum of five are allowed.
- Two of the recommendations must be from people who are non-CDC employees.
- You will provide their name, organization, title, phone, email, relationship to applicant
- Recommendations must be
- specific to the PE Fellowship Traditional Track or Analytics and Modeling Track application
- dated within six months of the application
- written in English
- Persons writing recommendations should typically be current or former supervisors, colleagues or professors/faculty members. Select individuals familiar with your achievements, aspirations, and personal qualities that distinguish you as a good candidate for the PE Fellowship Traditional Track or Analytics and Modeling Track.
- Please inform all recommenders to expect a system-generated email from the PE Fellowship program (PEF@cdc.gov) with instructions for submitting the recommendations.
- All recommendations are required to be submitted by the application deadline.
Transcripts
The application requires copies of unofficial transcripts for all earned undergraduate and graduate degrees or qualifying degrees in progress.
- All applicants with degrees obtained at a non-U.S. institutions must also provide documentation of an academic credentialing evaluation to ensure degree requirements are equivalent. This shows how the foreign degree equates to academic degrees issues in the United States. Additionally, degrees must be translated into English.
- For this requirement, an applicant must provide an academic credentialing evaluation for any degree from a non-US academic Institution before the July deadline.
- For more information about the academic credentialing evaluation process and to submit the applicant's degrees for evaluation, please visit The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services.
- All academic credentialing evaluations documents or unofficial transcripts are required to be submitted by the application deadline.
- Transcripts must state the applicant's degree of study, courses taken, earned grades, and graduation date if the degree has been conferred.
- Transcripts and other proof of degree completion will not be returned.
How to apply
Once you have prepared the above information, you are ready to start the online application. The link for the online application is only provided and active during open application periods.
The application will prompt you for:
- Citizenship status
- Self assessment of skills
- Education and licenses
- Work and volunteer experience
- Training and skills
- Publications, presentations, grants
- Awards and honors
- Personal statement
- Three letters of recommendations
- Unofficial college or university transcript
- Applicant survey
Please complete all sections of the application. When you are finished, select submit. You will receive an email notification stating that your application has been successfully submitted.
All supporting documents (e.g., recommendation forms; unofficial transcripts or evaluation of transcripts) must be submitted by the application deadline.
Contact
For questions about the application process for the Traditional Track or Analytics and Modeling Track, please send an email to PEF@cdc.gov.