Fellowship Finder

University of Illinois Graduate College - Illinois Distinguished Fellowships, Round 1

Deadline: Anticipated 1/2024 ( Previous deadline 1/11/2023 )

Nominations are due at 5:00 p.m. on the deadline day. 

The Graduate College's Illinois Distinguished Fellowship program is intended to help the University of Illinois recruit exceptional applicants into its doctoral programs. Only students of the highest caliber who represent extraordinary recruitment opportunities will receive these fellowships.  Approximately 20 awards will be made given sufficient funding, and each award provides three years of support.

Eligibility:

• Illinois Distinguished Fellowships are intended as campus recruitment fellowships, and they are intended only for students being offered admission into a doctoral program.  To that end, only those students who are seeking first-time graduate-level admission to UIUC are eligible, i.e., currently-enrolled and previously-enrolled UIUC graduate students are not eligible. 
• Students of any nationality or citizenship are eligible.  
• Only those students intending to enter during the 2023-24 academic year are eligible.  However, for students intending to enter in Spring 2024, their fellowship will not begin until Fall 2024.  
• Students in approved cost-recovery or self-supporting programs are not eligible for nomination. The list of such programs can be found here. 
• Full-time UIUC employees are not eligible.

Award Amount: The fellowship provides three years of support and includes the following: 

• $25,000 stipend per 12-month academic year.
•  Waiver of full tuition, service fee, AFMFA fee, library/IT fee, and health service fee. 
• Basic dental and vision coverage.
• Partial payment of the graduate student health insurance fee. 

Terms:

• The award offers flexibility in that fellows can defer two years of the fellowship funding during the five-year period that begins with the 2023-24 academic year and ends with the 2027-28 academic year. All active years will have an August 16 start date.
• Fellows are required to be registered during the terms in which they receive the award (and this includes being registered for at least four weeks during the summer).  
• Concurrent assistantship support of up to 50% or supplemental fellowship support is permissible. Employment (through an assistantship or through other on-campus or off-campus sources) of 51% or higher is not permissible.

Evaluation Criteria:  The Fellowship Board will conduct a holistic assessment of the nominee's academic record, achievements, and promise of scholarly success.  Evaluation criteria include undergraduate grade-point average, quality of undergraduate preparation, letters of recommendation, and the nominee's personal statement. If the department requires and uses the GRE in its evaluation of candidates, the Fellowship Board will do likewise and take the applicant’s GRE scores into account.  Otherwise, the Board will not take GRE scores into account.  Slate allows departments to check whether or not they want the Fellowship Board to take the applicant’s GRE scores into account.  Performance in graduate work is also evaluated for those nominees who have taken graduate courses.  Critical to the evaluation is also the department’s Nomination Statement, through which the nominating official (either the Director of Graduate Study or the Executive Officer) explains why the department considers the applicant worthy of an Illinois Distinguished Fellowship. 

The Fellowship Board will also take into consideration the level of financial support the department is offering to the student, as specified in the department’s admissions letter to the student.  The Board will view the level of financial support offered as an indicator of the department’s interest in and level of commitment to the student.   

The Fellowship Board will also take disciplinary distribution into account, i.e., the Board aims to distribute fellowships fairly and equitably to departments across campus. 

NOMINATION PROCEDURE:

A department may nominate up to three students per round for the IDF.  All nominations must be submitted through Slate.  Please find instructions for starting a nomination through Slate in the Slate Fellowship Nomination Quick Guide.  

In Slate, departments should explain the rationale for the ranking (if more than one nomination is submitted), and explain in the "Nomination Statement" section why the nominee is extraordinary and should be considered for the fellowship. 

Nominating officials (either the DGS or Head) should pay particular attention to the guidelines found in Slate regarding the Ranking Statement and the Nomination Statement.  For additional guidance on preparing those two statements, watch the 10 Minute Tips video entitled “Preparing Effective Nomination Statements for Graduate College Grants & Fellowships.”

In preparing the Nomination Statement, the nominating official should keep in mind that the Fellowship Board is multidisciplinary and consists of representatives from the sciences, humanities, engineering, social sciences, fine arts, and professional programs. Board members will rely on the Nomination Statement to explain what counts for intellectual merit and academic achievement within the discipline, and they will use the statement as a key resource in their attempt to compare the department’s nominee with other nominees from across campus. It is therefore best to explain, in detail, why the department wishes to recruit this student, and it is best to use concrete, quantified measures whenever possible to characterize the nominee’s accomplishments. If there are any oddities or weaknesses in the applicant’s record, it’s best to address those directly.

In Slate, departments will also need to insert text copied from the letter offering admission to the nominee (see paragraph under "Evaluation Criteria" above regarding role of the admissions letter).

All other materials -- the nominee’s Personal Statement, transcripts, GRE scores (if applicable), and letters of recommendation -- will be assembled automatically by Slate. 

Confirmation of Nomination: Slate will send email confirmations for all nominations that have been successfully submitted.  Departments not receiving confirmation can assume that their nominations have not been submitted and should contact Ken Vickery directly at vickeryk@Illinois.edu or 217-333-3464. 

Rounds: Students not offered a fellowship in Round 1 may be renominated for Round 2.  However, those nominations must be officially resubmitted through Slate for Round 2, i.e., Slate does not automatically roll over Round 1 nominations into Round 2.  In other words, if a nomination was unsuccessful in Round 1, and if the department wishes to renominate that student for Round 2 (it is not mandatory that students unsuccessful in Round 1 be renominated for Round 2), the department must officially submit that nomination for Round 2 through Slate.

For further information contact the Graduate College Fellowship Office at 217-333-0036 or gradfellowships@uiuc.edu

Deadline in the Graduate College for Round 1: January 11, 2023.

Deadline in the Graduate College for Round 2: February 17, 2023.

 

 

Categories: Annual stipend of at least $10,000; Social Sciences; Sciences/Engineering/Math; Professional Programs; Fine Arts; Humanities; US Citizens, Nationals, or Permanent Residents; International Students; Fellowship/Grant; University of Illinois Students

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