Dean’s Scholar Fellowship

The Dean’s Scholar competition is open to doctoral students who have passed the Graduate College-required Preliminary Examination and are well into their dissertation work, and also to MFA students who have passed second-semester review. ONE nomination per program and the nomination must be submitted by the program. (If your department has two separate programs, e.g., MIE, each program can nominate one individual for the Mechanical Engineering PhD program and one for the Industrial Engineering PhD program.) Additionally, doctoral programs with a five-year average annual enrollment over 100, i.e., 100 doctoral students–NOT master’s +  doctoral–may nominate TWO students. (Enrollment data can be found by visiting the “Faculty & Staff Resources” section of the Graduate College website (grad.uic.edu). Go to “Data Resources Tab” and then find the program.

The limit is to reduce the workload for members of the Awards Committee.

There is no citizenship restriction.

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 (August 16th) is ineligible.

• Enrollment Management Reports

We are increasing the stipend effective next academic year. Recipients of the Dean’s Scholar Fellowship will receive a fellowship stipend of $30,000 for a twelve-month academic year. (The appointment period will be August 16th-August 15th with monthly payments September 16th-August 16th.) The recipients also receive a 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.

The Graduate College discourages on-campus employment exceeding 50% FTE for fellows in GA- (assistantship) and HG- (grad hourly) class positions. Academic/research/faculty hourly positions are not permissible in conjunction with any fellowship. The Dean’s Scholar Fellowship is designed to allow the student to work full-time to complete their degree. Any distraction from that goal is considered incompatible with the spirit of the award. (We revised our policy for the 2020 competition.)

Students supported by these fellowships are required to complete at least 9 semester hours each semester unless expressly authorized by the Dean of the Graduate College to carry a reduced program. (This requirement was reduced from 12, effective Fall 2021.) Fellows are not required to register for the summer session by the Graduate College (unless defending); 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 their department regarding summer registration requirements.

The Graduate College has established certain fellowship policies regarding external funding, completion of the Preliminary Examination for renewal, top-off funds during the years not directly funded by the Graduate College, and deferments of fourth-year Graduate College funding.

• Graduate College Fellowship Policies

The stipend portion of the award may be taxable income; however, per guidelines set by the Internal Revenue Service (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. Taxation 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 for further information.

• Tax Benefits for Education
• UIC Financial Aid

To be considered for nomination, applicants/students should consult with their Director of Graduate Studies to ascertain the unit’s criteria/procedures for nomination.

The DS application process has been streamlined. There are six elements. The Director of Graduate Studies completes the:

(1) Transmittal form and writes the

(2) Nomination letter (on letterhead — strong letters are not perfunctory) and then includes the following documents (in order) secured by the student nominee:

(3) A statement of research plans of no more than 750 words describing the student’s dissertation or MFA project, the current status of the student’s project, and the expected date of completion (references and images will not count toward the word limit);

(4) Three letters of recommendation written within the last twelve months, one of which must be from the nominee’s principal advisor/mentor;

(5) A copy of the UIC transcript (An unofficial transcript from Student Self Service, if unedited and complete, is permissible. Alternatively, your program may provide complete printouts from Banner, the administrative student database);

(6) A list of professional accomplishments including awards, honors, publications, and presentations (3-page maximum)

Graduate programs are encouraged to set an earlier internal deadline to ensure time for any internal selection process and timely submission to the Graduate College.

• 2024 DS Transmittal Form

The Director of Graduate Studies assembles the application package: transmittal as cover page; nomination letter; statement of research plans; three LORs; UIC transcripts; and list of accomplishments — and saves the documents as one PDF using the following naming convention: DS_YearofCompetition_ProgramName_NomineeLastNameFirstInitial.pdf.   Do not use spaces in the pdf name.

Here is an example for Ada Limon’s nomination from English: DS_2024_ENGL_LimonA.pdf or DS_2024_Engl_LimonA.pdf.

The PDF file must be emailed to the Graduate College using the relevant secure Box folder. See links at bottom of page or copy and paste from here:

• Arts & Humanities: AH_subm.4pkhr8kcp0nosjr1@u.box.com
• Behavioral & Social Sciences: BSS_sub.nwuv6caazwsu808r@u.box.com
• Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences: EMPS_su.nbopf0ka3xn6vi54@u.box.com
• Life Sciences: LS_subm.ybanpekfmzzir7gk@u.box.com

1. Is the fellowship renewable? No.
2. Is there a departmental cost-sharing element like with the recruitment fellowships? No.
3. How/where do I submit? Students do not submit. Their department/program assembles the components and “nominate” or “send in” the file. See the email buttons at the bottom of this page. If your email client is not configured correctly, right-click for the email address.
4. Is there a naming convention for the single PDF? Yes. DS_2024_PgmAbbrev_LastnameF.pdf, e.g., DS_2024_Hist_BaudelaireC.pdf for Charlie Baudelaire, a fictional doctoral student in History.
5. How many nominees can our program put forward? A maximum of ONE student may be nominated by each program. A second nomination may be allowed from large programs; see “Eligibility.”

Further questions? Please contact Benn Williams, Fellowships and Awards Coordinator (bwilli7uic.edu)