Access to Excellence Fellowship
The 2025 recruitment competition is open. The retention round is suspended due to budgetary contraints.
Programs are encouraged to nominate an eligible individual for the both the Access and the University Fellowship, if eligible.
New for the 2025 competition:
*Stipend levels have been raised to $33,000
*The Graduate College will no longer offer summer "top-offs" for the recruitment fellowship
*The retention round is suspended.
*To encourage our strong students to stay at UIC for their graduate studies, for the Spring 2025 competition, we would like half of the fellows to be UIC students/alumni.
*Each graduate program is limited to TWO nominations regardless of program size.
Spring 2024 recipients
Overview Heading link
The goal of the Access to Excellence Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago is to increase the number of students in graduate education who enter careers as researchers and college faculty.
Details Heading link
Eligibility
Applicants must be (a) US citizens or, per the Illinois RISE Act, (b) undocumented (DACA) residents of the State of Illinois.
Normally, there are two rounds of competition; however, the retention round has been been suspended for budgetary reasons. The first is for recruitment. It is primarily for graduate students new to UIC. Students previously admitted to the UIC Graduate College may be eligible for recruitment competitions IF it can be demonstrated that the nominee is completing a terminal master’s degree in Spring-Summer 2025 and transitioning to a PhD program. Thus, for example, a student completing a terminal MA, MAT, MFA, or MPH and accepted into the program’s own PhD program could be nominated for this fellowship. (The list of eligible degrees is not exhaustive.) This change takes effect for the Spring 2024 competition and demonstrates a desire to recruit top students. In their nominating letter, the Director of Graduate Studies should detail the recruitment plan/rationale for a master’s-to-doctorate nomination. (Programs with questions about this eligibility change should contact Lunaire Ford.)
To encourage our strong students to stay at UIC for their graduate studies, for the Spring 2025 competition, we would like to half of the fellows to be UIC students/alumni.
Retention applicants must be currently enrolled as a degree-seeking student in the doctoral or terminal master’s program at UIC that is nominating them. Continuing terminal master’s and doctoral students who are advanced in their academic studies may be nominated for the retention award; “advanced” is defined as beyond the first semester for master’s students and successful completion of the preliminary examination(s) for doctoral students by the application deadline.
For this competition, UIC’s terminal master’s programs are: Architecture (MArch; MS); Architecture in Health Design (MS); Art (MFA); Biomedical Visualization (MS); City Design (MCD); Civic Analytics (MS); Design Criticism (MA); Graphic and Industrial Design (MDes); Environmental & Urban Geography (MA); French and Francophone Studies (MA); Health Professions Education (MPHE); Latin American & Latino Studies (MA); Museum and Exhibition Studies (MA); Occupational Therapy (MS); Spanish (MAT). Students in professional programs and/or programs not under the auspices of the Graduate College are ineligible. (For possible errors, contact Benn Williams.)
Regardless of FTE, an individual with an Academic Professional (AP or BA), a Civil Service (CS), or an Extra Help (HP) position at the time of appointment is ineligible. Recipients of the recruitment fellowship as well as of the PIF are ineligible for the retention round.
Selection Criteria
Selection criteria for all Access Fellowships (AFs) will be based on academic achievement and promise.
Applicants must be nominated by their departments.
PIF
Outstanding student applicants for University and Access recruitment fellowships will be considered for the Pipeline to an Inclusive Faculty (PIF) Program.
Terms - Recruitment
The first AF competition is for recruitment. The recruitment AF is a two-year package for master’s students and a four-year package for doctoral students.
Both master’s and PhD students who receive the Access for Excellence Fellowships will be awarded $33,000 in the first year of the fellowship, or $2,750 per month in the first year of the fellowship. PhD recipients are eligible for an additional year of support when they begin their dissertation research (after completing their preliminary examination, but not before their fourth year or after their fifth year of study), providing they meet the following criteria: (1) The student must be making good progress in the program; (2) The student must have received a minimum of two years of support from their department. The Graduate College must be informed by April 1 of the year before the renewal year that students have passed their preliminary examination and plan to renew–and are not past the student’s fifth year.
In the second year (for a master’s recipient) and the second and third years (for a doctoral recipient), the student’s academic program must provide, minimally, a nine-month, 50% FTE appointment as fellow, teaching assistant, and/or research assistant. Academic/research/faculty hourly positions are not permissible in conjunction with any fellowship. Stipends must be equivalent to those provided to other students in the same department. If the nominating graduate program has a mechanism to financially support students during year one, the Access Fellowship could be deferred one year.
During the years of the fellowship fully funded by the Graduate College, recipients may accept part-time employment. The Graduate College discourages on-campus employment in GA- (assistantship) and HG- (grad hourly) class positions exceeding 50% FTE for fellows. (Academic/research/faculty hourly positions are not permissible in conjunction with any fellowship.) Recipients may not hold the Access Fellowships simultaneously with the Dean’s Scholar or University Fellowship, nor any external award where it is prohibited by that external funding agency. Other awards may be held simultaneously; however, they must be approved by the Graduate College. It is the student’s responsibility to know and understand the regulations of the Access Fellowship and those of any other award (see Policies below).
Access Fellowship recipients also receive a full tuition and partial fee waiver from the Graduate College. The waiver covers all tuition (including differential, if any) service fee, health service fee, academic facilities maintenance fund assessment, library and information technology assessment, and part of the cost of coverage for Fall and Spring Semester towards CampusCare, if applicable. All other fees are the responsibility of the student.
Students supported by these fellowships are required to register for 9 or more hours each semester unless expressly authorized by the Dean of the Graduate College to carry a reduced course load. Fellows are not required to register for the summer session by the Graduate College; however, individual departments may require summer registration. Effective Fall 2021, fellows who register in the summer must enroll in 3-5 hours to be eligible for a summer tuition waiver. Fellows should check with the department regarding its summer registration policy.
Students may not receive more than two years of Access Fellowship funding from the Graduate College, i.e., one cannot win both the recruitment award and later the retention award.
Fellowships, Student Loans, and Taxation
The stipend portion of the award may be taxable income; however, per guidelines set by the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), the University is not responsible for withholding or reporting income taxes on fellowship payments.
Fellows do not receive a Form W-2 on their fellowship income nor does the University report the fellowship payment as taxable income to either the state or federal government. However, the University is required to report fellowships to the IRS for informational purposes only on Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement. Taxability of the fellowship payment is a matter between the Fellow and the IRS.
More information on taxation of fellowships can be found in IRS Publication 970: Tax Benefits for Education (PDF), or by calling 1-800-829-3676.
Students who are obtaining federal loans from Financial Aid: Obtaining a fellowship WILL significantly affect your financial aid eligibility. Check with the Office of Student Financial Aid on eligibility requirements and for further information.
Nomination procedures
The Application for Graduate Appointment is no longer required. Follow the requirements for the correct competition.
New in 2025: Programs are limited to TWO nominations regardless of program size.
To be considered for nomination, applicants/students need to submit the following documents to the nominating department/program’s Director of Graduate Studies well in advance of the deadlines. Carefully follow the maximum word limits, where noted.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
| Recruitment Nominations | Retention Nominations [SUSPENDED] |
|---|---|
| Transmittal and Statement of Financial Support Form | Transmittal and Statement of Financial Support Form |
| DGS Nomination Letter (if applicable, explain why candidate would be outstanding for the Pipeline to an Inclusive Faculty Program) | DGS Nomination Letter |
| Personal Statement (document used for admission to your program; if PIF eligible AND if not addressed in the personal statement, attach applicant’s career goals (1p.)) | Statement of Research Plan (max. 300 words) |
| Student Statement on Alignment with Goals of the Fellowship (max. 300 words). The essay expands on their research plan by describing (a) the contributions they intend to make to their academic field, and (b) the broader society. In addition, students are required to expand on the personal and professional reasons for choosing their current path of study. Students may articulate any personal and professional commitment to give back to historically underrepresented communities in the U.S. upon completion of their studies. | Student Statement on Alignment with Goals of the Fellowship (max. 300 words). The essay expands on their research plan by describing (a) the contributions they intend to make to their academic field, and (b) the broader society. In addition, students are required to expand on the personal and professional reasons for choosing their current path of study. Students may articulate any personal and professional commitment to give back to historically underrepresented communities in the U.S. upon completion of their studies. |
| Three Letters of Recommendation (LORs used for admission into your graduate program) | Three Letters of Recommendation |
| CV (maximum 3 pages) | CV (maximum 3 pages) |
| Transcripts of Post-secondary Degrees (copies of official) | UIC Transcript (from Banner or copy of official) |
| (Intentionally left blank - requirement removed.) | Copy of the successful Preliminary Examination Report or a legible screenshot of Banner screen SHATCMT showing successful completion of the prelim (if applicable). |
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Click the link below for the Transmittal and Statement of Financial Support Form
selection procedure
Winners are selected by a Graduate College awards committee, which is composed of elected and appointed faculty from across UIC’s disciplinary colleges.
Submission Instructions
The Director of Graduate Studies reviews the application package that was electronically submitted to the program by the student. The DGS completes the Transmittal Form (fillable PDF), adding it as the cover page. Save the forms/documents listed above as one single PDF per nominee using the following naming convention: AF_AwardType_YearofCompetition_DepartmentName_NomineeLastNameFirstInitial.pdf
Do not use spaces in the pdf name.
Here is an example of Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable’s recruitment application from History: AF_Recruitment_2025_Hist_PointeDuSableJ.pdf.
The PDF file must be emailed to the Graduate College using the relevant secure Box folder.
Recruitment competition:
- Arts & Humanities and Behavioral & Social Sciences: AF_Recr.6x5ltgzw1ae1qk0k@u.box.com
- Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences & Life and Health Sciences: AF_Recr.jilg698qsjllfy6q@u.box.com
Retention competition:
- Arts & Humanities and Behavioral & Social Sciences: AF_Rete.btewpwvnbpm44nyf@u.box.com
- Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences & Life and Health Sciences: AF_Rete.f0b34b6g3oly2ewe@u.box.com
*NOTE: The department/program has to review all student requests prior to submitting the documents to the Graduate College by the deadline.
frequently asked questions
Currently unavailable. Please address questions to Benn Williams, Fellowships and Awards Coordinator, bwilli7@uic.edu.
deadlines
Recruitment Fellowships: 4 p.m. (CST) on February 3, 2025. Round one winners will be announced by March 1.
Deadlines Heading link
Recruitment Fellowship Deadline: 4 pm CT on February 3, 2025