2024-2025 Menschel Application

Application 2024-25

On this page: 

  • Application Materials
  • Application Instructions
  • Selection Process
  • Fellowship Overview
  • Eligibility Criteria

Application Materials

Find here the 2024-25 Menschel Fellowship Application.

In addition, send your Faculty Advisor the 2024-25 Faculty Letter of Support Form. (If your advisor is not an active Cooper faculty, they might not be able to access the above form. However, they can still potentially advise you. You should have them email the director of the program to get access to the form.)

Deadline for applications: March 25, 2024

Deadline for letters of support: March 27, 2024

Application Instructions 

1. Complete the full application form linked above.
2. In addition to biographical details about your team and details about your faculty advisor, you must upload four documents that accurately describe the work you intend to complete using the Fellowship monies. These four documents should all be submitted via the application form:  

  • A rationale for the project in creative inquiry that explains the intellectual, social, scientific, or cultural issues you intend to engage with. (~1200 words) 
  • A schedule for completing the project and presenting your work.
  • A detailed budget that accurately reflects the expenses you anticipate. The budget should be presented as a table with all the expenses clearly identified, and totals calculated.
  • A concept for how you envision presenting your project in the Spring Exhibition.

3. Your documents should be typed and uploaded in Word or PDF format. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Center for Writing for assistance in drafting their proposals. 
4. Secure a letter of support from a Faculty Advisor using the Letter of Support form. 

Selection Process 

  1. The Menschel Committee, which is composed of one faculty member from each of the three Schools and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, will review all applications.
  2. The committee may decide to invite a group of semi-finalists for a subsequent interview. If invited to interview, semifinalists may choose to supplement their proposals with a portfolio or other visual materials relevant to their proposal when they appear for their interviews. 
  3. Interviews would happen in early April, and final decisions will be announced by late April 2024.

Fellowship Overview

The Benjamin Menschel Fellowships will be awarded in the Spring of 2024 for use during the summer of 2024 and Fall 2024 semester. The fellowships will be made on the basis of merit to students who have attended The Cooper Union for at least one year, were enrolled for the 2023–2024 academic year, and will be enrolled in the 2024-25 academic year. 

For the 2024-25 cycle, students are strongly encouraged to apply in groups of two or more students, and ideally interdisciplinary groups across the three schools. You are invited to consider research topics that allow you to pursue your interests while remaining conscious of the various social, scientific and artistic challenges that we face as a society. 

Fellowships are intended to cover eligible expenses for materials used to complete the proposed project, up to a maximum of $3500 per project. Students who are awarded Fellowships must agree to exhibit their work publicly during the following academic year, typically in January or early February. Fellows are expected to reserve up to 25% of their fellowship for the exhibition expenses. 

Please note that the Fellowship does not support the purchase or rental of camera or lens hardware, computers including hardware upgrades, and software purchases. This is a non-exhaustive list and the final decision for award monies will be made by the Menschel Selection Committee. The Director of the Fellowship may work with the shortlisted Fellows to modify budgets as necessary.  

The intent of the award is to support independent projects that are not subject to evaluation for grades in courses. 

Conditions of Eligibility 

To be considered for a Benjamin Menschel Fellowship, a student must meet the following criteria. For group projects, all applicants must meet these criteria: 

  1. Be a full-time matriculating student at The Cooper Union with a minimum of two semesters remaining before graduation, excluding the present one; 
  2. Be in good academic standing; and 
  3. Provide a letter of support from a faculty member willing to evaluate the project proposed by the student and to attest to the student’s ability to complete the project. 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.