$400 Application Scholarship
Graduate College incentivizes students to apply for external funding
We recently piloted a small scholarship for students applying for the NSF GRFP. We saw a large number of applications -- coincidence or correlation? Last year, expanded the pool of eligible fellowships. For AY 2026-27, we are adding two more fellowships AND doubling the amount of the scholarship!
This year, we extending the incentive to nine competitions. (One incentive per student per AY.) Graduate students applying for the following opportunities can earn $400 by submitting to Benn Williams (bwilli7@uic.edu) their UIN and confirmation email/screenshot of their successfully submitted application for:
- NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Graduate Fellowship (July 16) - new
- Fulbright US Student Program* (Sept. 9 campus deadline; October 6 national deadline)
- NAE/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship (October 8)
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship (October 28)
- NSDEG Fellowship Program (October 30) - new
- Charlotte Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships (November 1)
- DOE Science Graduate Student Research (November deadline not published as of 8/3/26))
- NSF GRFP (deadlines not published as of 8/3/26))
- Boren Fellowship* (January campus and national deadlines)
*=Requires a campus deadline/advising by Mr. Williams
All have been advertised (with links and descriptions) multiple times in the Friday funding email. Not yet a recipient, contact Mr. Williams with "Please add to Friday funding emails" in the subject line. If you'd like to recommend an opportunity for next year's list, email Mr. Williams. We anticipate adding a NASA opportunity for the 2026-27 academic year.