Student Fellowship Frequently Asked Questions

Fellowships are awarded up to $15,000. Fellows may also receive grants to support travel to emerging markets during the summer and winter breaks in order to build professional relationships, conduct primary market research, test prototypes, or run pilot studies.

The scholarship amount awarded to each new Fellow is determined by several factors, including the number of new Fellows and the pool of funding available for that academic year.   

As funding is limited, we encourage applicants to explore external sources of funding. For more information on financial aid at MIT, please visit the Student Financial Services website.

The financial award can only be applied towards MIT educational expenses, such as tuition, stipend and/or medical insurance. Funds from the Legatum Center may be received to supplement, but not to duplicate, financial awards from other MIT departments or from other foundations, institutions, or organizations. The combined financial award from all sources may not exceed the maximum limitation as prescribed by MIT's cost-of-attendance budget.

There is not a set number of Fellowships awarded but we typically select between 20 and 25 Fellows.

The Legatum Center Fellowship follows the typical MIT academic year. It officially begins at the start of the fall semester and ends when the spring semester ends, with some flexibility for extension regarding use of travel funds.

No, they do not. Once accepted to an MIT degree program, international students work with the International Students Office at MIT to complete the necessary forms to come to the U.S.

In short:

• Either currently enrolled as a student at MIT or admitted to begin a degree program at MIT next academic year
• Will be enrolled as an MIT student for the duration of the one-year fellowship
• Committed to being an entrepreneurial leader in a developing country
• Please refer to the detailed selection criteria to help you determine whether you are a good fit for the Fellowship.

Yes, you must apply and be accepted to an MIT degree program to be considered for the Fellowship. You can find the application dates and application processes for the degree programs at:
Application Dates
Application Process

For a listing of the MIT departments, sections, and programs, please visit:
MIT Departments

No. Post-doctoral candidates are not eligible for the Fellowship.

Unfortunately, no. The Fellowship is only available to those students who are enrolled in a degree- granting program at MIT during the Fellowship year.

You are absolutely welcome to apply for the Fellowship again. We do not have a separate application process for those reapplying—you must complete a new application.

No. Your Fellowship application and MIT degree application are reviewed by completely different committees.

No, you cannot defer a Center Fellowship, but you are welcome to reapply for the Fellowship in future years.

Because everyone's situation is unique, we are unable to advise you in this matter. We can tell you that the Center has no preference between currently enrolled MIT students and incoming students.

We evaluate all Fellowship applications the same way, regardless of whether you’re a current student or an incoming student.

It’s best to apply for when you anticipate having ample time to commit to the Fellowship and to the development of your venture. For most PhD students, this is usually at some point after the third year of their program. You should have clear and open communication with your faculty advisor to ensure full support for the pursuit of your venture. There are also opportunities for Fellowship funding to be used to ‘buy back’ time for PhD students whose studies are currently fully funded by their lab, if doing enables the student to pursue, in earnest, their developing market venture in earnest.

Our Fellows are building and scaling ventures that impact and improve lives in developing world markets. This will be achieved directly through the business’s innovative technology or service as well as through increased economic prosperity, local job creation, and improved ecosystem conditions.

We have a preference for for-profit business models but are open to all venture concepts that have the potential for considerable scale, impact, and sustainability.

Our students’ innovation-driven ventures promote inclusive prosperity: They are directly creating thousands of jobs, indirectly creating thousands more (e.g. through franchising, empowering other businesses, etc.), and increasing the average income per person. They are also scaling innovations that increase quality of life, increase life expectancy, improve education, and boost productivity in the home, workplace, and region.

Broadly defined, the “developing world” includes nations with an underdeveloped industrial base and a low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. We use this term cautiously, not to judge the development status of any country but rather as a standard classification term to guide our scope. As a baseline, we work mostly with students who are launching ventures in low-income and middle-income countries.

IDE refers to businesses that are based on building competitive advantage through an innovative product, process, or business model. IDEs consciously pursue global markets and create exponential job growth. As a helpful comparison, a traditional small-to-medium enterprise (SME) does not tend to require any innovation to succeed, and targets local or regional markets. In contrast, because of their global aspirations and the urgency of both capital investment and competitive advantage, IDE entrepreneurs face great risk, but the potential payoff for the entrepreneurs (and the region) can also be much greater. Unlike SMEs, which typically grow in a linear fashion, IDEs tend to start out with negative cash flow but achieve exponential growth (in terms of revenue, jobs, and impact) if successful. We want our students maximize the impact potential of their idea. The IDE mindset allows students to do so by empowering them to have global aspirations and accelerate economic and social progress across the developing world.