Fellow Eligibility & Requirements

Eligibility

Degree and experience requirements

Applicants must hold a PhD (or equivalent) with all requirements completed before the start of the fellowship. In addition, candidates must have at least 1 year of documented, full-time work or volunteer experience in the same field as their qualifying degree.

All applicants with degrees obtained at non-US institutions may be asked to provide documentation of an academic credentialing evaluation to ensure degree requirements are equivalent on request. This demonstrates how the foreign degree equates to academic degrees issued in the United States. Additionally, degrees must be translated into English.

Eligible degrees include the following:

Traditional Track

• Economics
• Agricultural economics
• Health services research
• Public health
• Other related quantitative field
  

Analytics and Modeling Track

• Epidemiology
• Infectious disease modeling
• Disease ecology
• Applied mathematics
• Operations research or industrial engineering
• Biological science
• Data science
• Evolutionary or analytic biology
• Other related quantitative field
  

Non-citizen eligibility

Please note the program's ability to accept fellows who are not United States citizens or US Permanent Residents is subject to federal laws, regulations, and applicable federal rulemaking. We will post any resulting updates to eligibility here as they occur.

Applicants must verify that they are not a citizen of a country designated as a state sponsor of terrorism per this US Department of State website: State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Applicants must be in one of the following groups to be considered for the program.

• US citizens
• US Permanent Residents
• Non-United States citizens or US Permanent Residents eligible for one of the following visas/work authorizations:
  • OPT STEM extension covering the entire two years of the fellowship (for current F1 visa-holders)
  • TN visa authorized under the current United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) for eligible citizens of Canada and Mexico
  • J1 cultural exchange visa (or J2 visa as spouse of J1-holder)
  • H1B visa
  • Other applicable visa that authorizes work in the US

Non-US citizen candidates who advance in the selection process will be contacted to discuss their visa and work authorization.

Relocation

Most assignments take place at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. However, certain assignments can occur in other states or public health agencies. Relocation to the city of the physical workplace is required. Relocation costs are the responsibility of the fellow.