G1.7 Educational Allowance Top-Offs for External Fellowships
Updated: August 23rd, 2011
Graduate Division offers financial assistance to doctoral students whose external fellowship does not provide sufficient educational allowance to cover the fees and health insurance assessed by the University. The conditions for this assistance and the process by which it is provided are outlined here.
1. External fellowships that are administered through Graduate Division (i.e., Graduate Division is responsible for disbursement of funds to the student and for financial reporting.):
Graduate Division automatically ‘tops off’ the educational allowance provided by the external fellowship in order to pay in-states fees and health insurance (Graduate Division generally pays non-resident tuition only for the first year, and does not pay professional degree fees). Examples of such external fellowships include NSF, Javits, DDRA Fulbright, and HHMI International.
2. External fellowships that are administered by outside agencies:
Graduate Division will ‘top off’ the educational allowance for fees provided by an external fellowship to pay in-state fees and health insurance (but not non-resident tuition or PDF), provided that
- (a) the fellowship pays directly to the student a stipend of at least $16,000 annually,
- (b) the student receives no other funding, and
- (c) the student submits a written request for a fee subsidy and provides the official notification letter with the terms of funding and confirmation of tenure for the current year.
Examples of such fellowships include DOE, DHS, and NDSEG.
Graduate Division will automatically process a fee subsidy award for the DOE and NDSEG programs. New NDSEG Fellows will receive an award to cover the health insurance balance. New DOE Fellows will receive an award to cover the difference between the fee allowance amount and the CARS assessment amount. However, Graduate Division will not cover the NRST or PDST fees. Continuing Fellows will be required to submit a copy of their renewal award letter.
3. Training grants:
Graduate Division encourages faculty to compete for external grants that include training components for doctoral students. At the time of proposal writing, faculty may contact the Graduate Dean’s Office to obtain a letter of support, with the possibility of a meaningful financial matching contribution from Graduate Division if the proposal is funded.
Graduate Division also provides departments with more than $20M in annual block allocations for support of graduate students; faculty should work with department chairs to request access to these monies. Graduate Division expects that top-off needs for training grant education allowance shortfalls would have a high priority for being funded from the department’s block allocation.
See All Topics in the Category: G. Financial Assistance, Guide to Graduate Policy
