20-21 Dissertation Completion Fellowship (Spring 2021)

Dissertation Completion Fellowships are designed to help outstanding students complete the doctoral degree by providing a one-year stipend of $20,000 along with waivers of tuition, service fee, health service fee, AFMFA fee, library/IT fee.  In addition, the fellow will receive partial payment of the graduate student health insurance fee per semester as well as basic dental and vision coverage.

The intent of the fellowship is to help students complete their dissertations.  Accordingly, awardees are discouraged from holding multiple waiver-generating appointments.

The criteria used in making the awards include the significance of the research, as reflected in the nominee’s proposal and the letters of support, the student's productivity and efficient progress toward the degree as shown in the academic record, and the likelihood that the student will defend and deposit the dissertation by August 2021.

ELIGIBILITY

• Open only to currently enrolled doctoral students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Eligible students will be nominated by their department or program.
• Nominees must be enrolled in a program leading to the PhD, DMA, EdD, or JSD and should have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the dissertation. Only those students who have passed the preliminary examination by the nomination deadline and who will defend and deposit their dissertations by August 2021 are eligible for nomination.  There are no exceptions to these requirements.
• Students who have already received a dissertation completion fellowship from another campus unit or an external sponsor are ineligible. 
• Registration is not required at the time of nomination but is required during the award period.

Eligible students must be nominated by their department or program. Only two nominations may be submitted from each degree-granting department or program.

See: https://apps.grad.illinois.edu/fellowship-finder/index.cfm?action=main.fellowship&fid=2807

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

1. Research Proposal. The Research Proposal must be written in an accessible, jargon-free manner appropriate for a multidisciplinary review panel. The research proposal is limited to three double-spaced pages, and it must be in Times New Roman, with 12-point font and one-inch margins. A separate one-page References Cited section is allowed (must be single-spaced, in Times New Roman, with 12-point font and one-inch margins).  No appendices or other supplemental sections are allowed. It should contain the following components: 
   1. Introduction/Problem Statement.  (In this section, the research question, hypothesis, or engineering goal must be stated explicitly.)
   2. Background and significance.
   3. Preliminary research.
   4. Methodology.
   5. Timeline.
   6. Expected outcomes. 
2. CV. The CV is limited to three pages, and it must have one-inch margins and at least 11-point font throughout.
3. Unofficial Transcript.
4. Two letters of reference. one from the student's adviser and one from the student's thesis director. If the student's adviser and thesis director are the same person, the second letter should come from another member of the student's dissertation committee.  Each letter is limited to two pages and must be in 12-point font with one-inch margins.

Materials should be submitted by Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 11:59PM to Michelle Wellens (mwellens@illinois.edu).

Note: Students, submit ONE PDF named "Last Name, First Name - Dissertation Completion S21."  Letters of recommendation should be sent directly to Michelle Wellens (mwellens@illinois.edu).