Fellowship Selection and Activation

Selection of students to receive either the graduate recruitment or the Presidential fellowships is made by committees of graduate faculty appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School for that purpose. The committee establishes detailed procedures and guidelines for a comprehensive review of nominations. In case of declination of a fellowship by a nominated student, the criteria for reallocation of Graduate School recruitment fellowships are provided in the Graduate School Fellowship Guidelines.

Tenure. Graduate recruitment fellows are normally appointed for up to one academic year—autumn semester through summer term. Presidential Fellowships are awarded for a maximum of 12 consecutive months (two semesters and summer term). All graduate fellowship appointments are considered to be for 100 percent (full-time) effort toward the graduate student’s completion of degree requirements. Monthly stipend payment will terminate at the end of the semester or term in which graduation occurs, at the end of the month when all degree requirements are met and all documentation is submitted to the Graduate School for students meeting the end of semester or term deadline, or when students accept employment or another appointment. 

Dissertation Year of Multi-Year Fellowships. Activation of the dissertation year of multi-year fellowships must conform to the following process: 

A request for the activation of the dissertation year portion of a DDUF, DUF, DGE, DDGE, or Osmer Fellowship is made with the strong expectation that the fellow will complete all degree requirements and graduate within the dissertation year. The dissertation year must be activated by the student’s sixth year of graduate study. The graduate program is under no obligation to provide funding to the student after the dissertation year if the student does not complete their dissertation and graduate at the end of the dissertation year, or if the student has received a total of six years of support. 

Requests to activate the dissertation year portion must be made by the fellow’s Graduate Studies Committee Chair to the Graduate School. The request must provide assurance that the fellow 1) has met the minimum cGPA of 3.6 for DDUF and DUF fellows or a minimum cGPA of 3.2 for DGE and DDGE fellows or a minimum cGPA of 3.1 for Osmer fellows; 2) has successfully completed the candidacy examination and is within the five-year time period; 3) completed all doctoral course work. It is expected that enrollments will be limited to research and departmental seminars; however, fellows may register for other degree-related course work with advisor approval. The dissertation year fellowship may not be used to support any course work taken for another degree program; and 4) has received continuous departmental support during the intervening years between the first and dissertation fellowship years.