Reallocating Competition and College-Allotted Awards

Eligibility: University Fellowships may only be reallocated to students who were nominated in the University Fellowship competition. College-Allotted Fellowships (CAFs) may be re-awarded to any student who meets the eligibility requirements for the University Fellowship. Graduate Enrichment Fellowship offers that have been declined do not count for reallocation purposes. 

Graduate programs may re-award CAFs and reallocate University Fellowship awards that have been declined by the recipients. Reallocations are calculated by headcount for University Fellowships and by award years for College-Allotted Fellowships. This distinction recognizes that College-Allotted Fellowships are counted by award years and is designed to encourage programs to take strategic risks in making offers with their college-allotted awards. College-Allotted Fellowships that are declined can be reallocated any time after the declination or by the deadline (business day following April 15).

A program may reallocate one fellowship for every three declinations of a University Fellowship. This ratio of three-to-one ensures that the number of funded fellowships is in line with annual budget realities. Alternatively, one or two declinations may be used to fund one semester or two semesters, respectively, of a one-year fellowship, and the program may assume responsibility for the remainder amount of the year. Any reallocations of one or two semesters will be awarded during the student’s first semester(s) of study, or immediately following an initial award year should the reallocation be in addition to a competition or College-Allotted Fellowship.

Re-awarding of declined College-Allotted Fellowships or new CAF allocations may be submitted at any time from the opening of the system to the business day following April 15 deadline. If a CAF is declined through the GradAwards system, the CAF year can be re-awarded as per the original guidelines for the use of CAFs. If a reallocated CAF is declined before business day following April 15 deadline, it may be reallocated again.

Reallocation of University Fellowships is based on declinations entered into the GradAwards system. UF reallocations can be submitted as early as when three declinations are received and after the date when the confidential list of awardees is made available. To assist in recruitment, reallocated letters of offer can be made available as soon as each reallocation is approved. Each UF can only be reallocated once, regardless of whether a UF reallocation is declined. Declined UF reallocations cannot count towards the number of UF declinations necessary to fund another reallocation.

Students who are offered a College-Allotted or reallocated fellowship after April 15^th and before the business day following April 15 submission deadline will have until April 30^th 11:59 p.m., ET to accept their offer.