Notification of Fellowship Winners

The confidential fellowship award list for each graduate program will be made available in the GradAwards system following review.

Graduate School award letters will be made available in GradAwards for review by graduate programs to ensure accuracy following the award decision. Notification to Fellowship Services after the letters are first made available can request the award letter be sent to nominees. CAFs may be awarded at this time, and they will then be added to the first award letter. All letters will be sent on the official awards notification date. The Graduate School sends the official fellowship award letters to fellowship awardees by email. Students enter their official decision to accept or decline their award through the GradAwards system.  Programs are not permitted to enter an official decision on behalf of the awardee.  Only the awardee may enter an official decision via the GradAwards Nomination System.  For the 2022-2023 cycle, the Graduate School will accept a direct email acceptance or declination from the student (e.g. the student directly emails grad-schoolfellowships@osu.edu indicating their official decision).  Forwarded acceptances or declinations sent to the program will not be accepted.  The awardee must accept or decline in GradAwards or email Fellowship Services directly to enter an official decision.

The offer letter will be emailed to the students as soon as possible and no later than one week after letters are made available to the programs. In cases where the student is awarded a College-Allotted Fellowship or a reallocated fellowship after the initial award send letter date, a new letter listing all fellowships awarded may be sent immediately by the program, or automatically by the Graduate School within days of the award being made. Students who receive an additional award after entering an official decision of ‘Accept’ in the Graduate School Nomination System will not need to accept their new award.  The previously entered acceptance of the original offer will automatically be applied to the new award and offer.   Students who have not yet accepted their award in GradAwards will need to enter their official decision to accept or decline into the GradAwards system.

Please note that declinations of a fellowship are final and cannot be reversed.  Awardees can enter their official decision to accept or decline a fellowship award up to the April 15^th 11:59 p.m., ET deadline. Programs that wish to award a College-Allotted or reallocated fellowship to a student who has declined a fellowship before the April 15^th deadline can do so in the nomination system. Any nominee that does not accept the Graduate School offer by April 15^th will forfeit that offer but could accept a reallocation or CAF offer made after April 15th. The program should inform the student that they will not receive the declined offer, only the later offer should they choose to accept it.

To avoid confusion on the part of awardees, graduate programs are strongly encouraged to reference and attach a copy of the Graduate School letter in their own offer letter to the student. Graduate programs must inform awardees at the time of the fellowship offer of their willingness to provide (or not provide) additional financial years of support, supplemental stipend and the conditions, if any, that need to be met for continued support. 

Programs should not notify students of any award until the award is entered into the GradAwards system and has “AWARDED” status.  Any other status in GradAwards (e.g. nominated or pending) does not indicate that the student has been awarded.

Fellowship Services does not notify students of unsuccessful nominations and will defer students to confirm with programs regarding their funding status (e.g. departmental awards or fellowships, CAFs, GTA/GRA support).  Each graduate program is responsible for notifying its unsuccessful nominees.

Ohio State follows the Council of Graduate Schools’ (CGS) April 15 award resolution agreement. The Council of Graduate Schools resolution states that fellowship recipients have complete freedom of choice in accepting their awards until April 15, with the last award accepted on or before that date being the one to which the student is obligated.

Graduate programs may make offers in advance of this date but cannot state or imply that these offers are contingent on acceptance prior to April 15. Contact the Fellowship Office for statements acceptable to the Council of Graduate Schools.

Acceptances received by the Council of Graduate Schools deadline (April 15 at 11:59pm Eastern Time) will be honored, even if April 15 falls on a Saturday or Sunday.  Fellowship Services may not process these acceptances until the following business day (e.g. the following Monday if April 15 falls over a weekend).