Review of National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship

This report reviews the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship program, which has provided over 3,000 awards to U.S. citizens for the pursuit of graduate degrees in science, engineering, or other fields of study designated as priority interests to DoD. IDA reviewed the NDSEG program and provided an assessment of how the awardees have contributed to the research interests of DoD. The results for the NDSEG Fellows obtaining their PhD indicated that they are very likely to graduate, over 80 percent. The NDSEG Fellow graduation rates compare favorably with the national 10-year completion rates of 55 percent for mathematics and physical sciences and 64 percent for engineering. The time to graduate tends to be at least as good for NDSEG Fellows as for those who receive the NSF-GFRP fellowship. When we could identify a work history of Fellows, we found that the overwhelming majority (95 ) worked in their field, and the majority of Fellows contribute to the scientific mission of the U.S. Government. Likelihood of graduation and place of employment appear to vary across the fields of study for Fellows, but because of the small sample size per subgroup, it is difficult to draw statistically significant conclusions.