Dissertation Fellowships
Award Information
The Graduate and Professional School offers Dissertation Fellowships to doctoral students in the dissertation phase of their degree program. Dissertation Fellowships are intended to support advanced doctoral students in the final analysis of their research topic and the final writing of the dissertation. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the Graduate and Professional School will offer 10 fellowships in the fall and 5 in the spring to students who will graduate by August 2025 and December 2025, respectively. This fellowship is NOT intended to finance data collection or the completion of doctoral coursework. Priority will be given to doctoral students whose primary financial support for 2024-2025 is NOT related to their research (e.g., GANT, GAL, GAT, Self-funded). Students who have funding related to their dissertation research or who anticipate graduating by December 2024 will be least likely to receive this fellowship.
In addition to meeting the stated criteria of eligibility, applicants for the Dissertation Fellowship award must be doctoral students currently enrolled in an eligible college/school or interdisciplinary program. Doctoral students enrolled in the following colleges/schools or interdisciplinary degree programs are eligible for the 2024-2025 Dissertation Fellowship award:
- Colleges/Schools
- Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Architecture
- Arts and Sciences
- The Bush School of Government and Public Service
- Education and Human Development
- Engineering
- Mays Business School
- Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
- Interdisciplinary Degree Programs
- Agribusiness and Managerial Economics
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
- Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences
- Neuroscience
- Toxicology
- Water Management and Hydrological Science
TUITION AND STIPENDS
The Dissertation Fellowship stipend is $2,000 per month from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2025, or graduation, depending on which occurs first. The fellowship also includes payment for tuition and required university and college fees for 1 credit hour per semester or the minimum number of required credit hours for the fellowship recipient. These minimum required hours may vary based on immigration status or federal loan deferral requirements. If a fellowship recipient must register for more than 1 credit hour for loan deferral or immigration, a request must be submitted to the Grad School for approval.
During the 12-month fellowship period, Dissertation Fellows are eligible to participate in Texas A&M University System insurance programs. The Graduate and Professional School will reimburse awardees participating in a Texas A&M University System TAMUS insurance program for 12 months of medical insurance at an amount equivalent to the cost of the employer contribution for the same premium category on the A&M Grad Plan. For fellows participating in a non-TAMUS insurance program, the Graduate and Professional School will reimburse the cost of medical insurance for the student only premium category.
U.S. citizens, permanent residents and international doctoral students are eligible to apply for this fellowship. Please note: Federal student loans require at least half-time enrollment to extend the grace period or defer student loan repayment. One hour of registration is not considered half time by the loan holder in most cases (even though the university may consider this half time). Thus, either the grace period may end or the repayment period may begin earlier than anticipated.
APPLICANT REQUIREMENTS
- Be admitted to candidacy by May 10, 2024. To be admitted to candidacy for a doctoral degree, a student must have:
- Completed all formal coursework on the degree plan with the exception of any remaining 681, 684, 690, and 691 credit hours.
- Demonstrated a 3.0 Graduate GPA and a Degree Plan GPA of at least 3.0, with no grade lower than C in any course on the degree plan.
- Passed the preliminary examination (written and oral portions).
- Submitted an approved dissertation proposal.
- Met the degree residency requirements (see Graduate Catalog).
The Dissertation Fellowship will not be authorized for any doctoral student who has not been admitted to candidacy by May 10, 2024.
- Reside in Bryan/College Station and conduct the work described in the Dissertation Fellowship application on campus at time of application and during the fellowship year (September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2025), except for Texas A&M doctoral students whose committee chair resides on the TAMU-Galveston campus or MD/PhD students whose committee chair resides on our partner Houston campus. In the latter cases, those students should be working on site at the respective location.
- Submit, in writing, intent to apply for the Dissertation Fellowship to departmental/program faculty and staff graduate advisors. The intent to apply notification is not included in the application, but it is a formality that must be completed before you apply.
RESTRICTIONS
Dissertation Fellows may not accept any additional funding (e.g., assistantships, fellowships, internships, employment, etc.) during the fellowship tenure of September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2025. However, departments may choose to supplement stipend funds to match those received by other graduate students in the department. For example, if the current departmental graduate assistantship monthly stipend rate is $2250, a department may supplement the additional monthly cost of $250 to match the rate of other graduate students in the department. Previous Dissertation Fellowship awardees are not eligible.
CRITERIA
Reviewers will consider the following:
Content and quality of the abstract (refer to Thesis & Dissertation Manual as needed).
Work plan for completing the remaining degree requirements within a 12-month time frame.
Academic performance and productivity while at Texas A&M University.
Potential impact of student’s research and scholarly work in discipline and/or society.
Financial need, especially for those students whose primary support is not related to their dissertation research.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The following information will be required:
- Number of scholarly works produced while a doctoral student at TAMU, including the following: published articles or reviews, book chapters, conference papers and conference poster or oral presentations. Scholarly works produced during previous degrees will not be considered.
- Sources of financial support during the previous two years and the current semester.
- Abstract. Provides a complete, succinct snapshot of the research. Abstracts should address purpose, method, results, and conclusions, ideally within 350 words. Abstracts that exceed two pages will not be accepted.
- One-page research impact statement (a statement speaking to the impact of the scholarly work in discipline and/or on the community, state, nation or global society written in non-technical, lay language).
- One-page work plan for completing the remaining degree requirements (including defense, final revisions of dissertation and approval by committee and the Graduate and Professional School) in the 12-month time frame. This should be detailed and realistic.
- Curriculum Vitae: be sure that full citations are provided for all publications, conference papers and conference presentations.
- Copy of degree evaluation confirming candidacy (click here for directions on how to run a degree evaluation).
- Faculty Advisor Response Form from the student’s committee chair (click here for form).
Applications that fail to adhere to all components of the application procedures (e.g., page limits) will not be considered.
The application submission site will be open from Friday, April 12, 2024, until 5:00 p.m. CDT on Friday, May 10, 2024. Awards will be announced by late-June 2024.
Each awarded student must submit a report at the end of each semester documenting successful completion of outlined milestones. In addition, associated faculty of awardees will be required to review Dissertation Fellowship applications in future rounds. The Graduate and Professional School will reach out to reviewers after each round deadline to assist with the review process.
Deadline dates
All application materials must be submitted online through the InfoReady submission portal by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Friday, May 10, 2024. There will be NO exceptions to this date or time.
Instruction for Submittal
The Dissertation Fellowship InfoReady application is now open. Apply below!