Scoring Criteria for UFP Competition

University fellowships are used to recruit new, incoming graduate students to Ohio State. For programs participating in the University Fellowship competition, the following criteria must be used by a program in assessing nominees for University Fellowships. Academic productivity, as defined below, should be a heavily weighted criterion; however, programs should also consider the nominee’s experiences and characteristics as this information will assist with identifying the nominee’s potential contributions to the University and the Graduate School as a fellow.

Academic Productivity (heavily weighted):

• Cumulative/major undergraduate and graduate GPA (if relevant); reputation/difficulty of the undergraduate program/institution
• Publications, scholarly works, abstracts, performances and creative exhibitions, research laboratory outputs such as posters, presentations, etc.
• Previous track record of academic achievement including but not limited to high school graduation awards, college major, college and university awards and honors, and major accolades (e.g., National Merit Scholarship; AP scholar, NSF pre-doctoral award, Fulbright).

Experiences

• Quantity and quality of scholarly activities, including but not limited to shadowing, communications, volunteer efforts, performances, research activities, and internships.
• Extracurricular and non-academic experiences (e.g., community service, other major activities, leadership experiences, travel/experience abroad, outreach activities, teaching or other work experience).

Characteristics

• Qualities and attributes that are associated with success in graduate school (e.g., work-ethic, overcoming hardship, discipline, focus, grit, resilience, readiness, achievement orientation, motivation, organization, maturity).

Multi-year fellowships

To determine the recipients of multi-year DDUF and DUF awards, the review committee additionally considers the overall strength of program support for the candidate and the track record of the program in providing intervening years of support (as presented in the justification statement). These elements and the final score from the review committee are used to advise the Graduate School to determine multi-year awards.